Please follow the golden rules for recycling and compostables.

If you see members of staff looking into your bins, please be aware this is being done to see where things are going wrong with the collections.

If a bin is found to contain a material that should not be in there,then it could be rejected by the recycling or composting facility,which could result in the whole load being sent to landfill, so it’s very important to get it right.

Here are some important points to remember:

Black sacks and bin liners cannot be accepted in the recyclables or compostables bin. The recycling and composting facilities cannot be sure of what they contain, so they will be rejected.

Do not place recyclables in plastic carrier bags. Carrier bags can be accepted in the recyclables bin, but only loose and not with other recyclables inside them. The recycling facility is unable to sort materials that are placed in a bag. Only use compostable liners or single sheets of newspaper to wrap food in your compostables bin.

Wrong items or ‘Contaminants’ can result in the recycling plant having to be shut down for periods of time so the machinery can be cleaned. For example, food in a recycling bin, could spoil or contaminate newspaper in the
same bin meaning it can’t be recycled.

We may leave your bin uncollected if there is anything in it which should not be in there. A sticker will be left on your bin informing you, and your bin will not be collected until the next collection and the item(s) will need to have been removed.

Even if there is only a small amount of contamination in your bin, when this is multiplied by the number of households on a round, it leads to significant levels of contamination in one vehicle load.

Litter bins

Look out for some new bins in the District which have separate compartments for recycling and non recycling.

These will be installed in shopping parades and car parks over the next few months. Please check carefully before putting your waste materials into the two compartments so that the correct items go into the correct bins.
For more information visit http://www.rochford.gov.uk/recycle