New bin stickers are being introduced to let householders in Lichfield and Burntwood know that black bin bags should not be put in their recycling.

The warnings come after Lichfield District Council confirmed it would crackdown on contaminated blue bins.

The local authority has revealed that five truck-loads of recycling were recently turned away from a sorting plant due to recycling having black bin liners in. 

Cllr David Leytham, Cabinet member for operational services, leisure and waste, said rejected loads needed to be sent to landfill, which is a more costly alternative.I

“To reduce the chance of recycling being rejected by our sorting plant, we need to make sure our residents know what can and can’t go in blue bins,” he said. “This is why we’re putting stickers on blue bin lids, so everyone is aware that we won’t empty the bin if it contains recycling in black bin bags.

“Our preference is for recycling to be loose in your blue bin. However, if you want to bag it, please use a clear bag or simply empty the bag of recycling into your blue bin and then reuse the plastic bag.”

Founder of Lichfield Live and editor of the site.

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Steve
5 years ago

Walking round Lichfield this week. I have been surprised how many bins have been rejected.

What do the council think will happen to this waste now? Some are leaving their rejected bins out on the street. There is a good chance of these bins getting blown over and the waste ending up on the streets.

For people who have had their bins rejected, they are creating another two weeks of recycling. Most of this is likely to end in the black bin and will end up in landfill.

The government are now looking at food waste having to go in a separate bin. That will create further issues. The landfill volumes will increase.

Recycling and reducing landfill is great. Sadly, it has been outsourced to money making corporations, only interested in profits and not green issues.

John Griffin
5 years ago

The Council could have a proper recycling system, but they chose to have a cheap one run by companies that want us to do the job fir them. Would happily separate items into boxes continental style, but that would mean the Council having to spend on worthwhile projects instead of lining their mates pockets.