Brigg Blog is awaiting an answer from North Lincolnshire Council about recycling.
We are trying to establish whether it causes contamination problems if plastic bags containing cans are left in recycling bins like this one on Old Courts Road.
Having gone to the trouble of taking drink and food cans to the recycling site on Old Courts Road, some people are failing to remove them from plastic carrier bags and even cardboard boxes when tipping in the contents.
Does it cause problems for the recycling process, further down the line, if plastic is present in the collection bins?
Helpfully, at the Old Courts Road household recycling site, one of the bin lids is usually left unlocked so visiting recyclers can tip the contents of their bags and boxes into the top without having to feed the cans through the holes, one by one, which is a laborious and perhaps off-putting process if a full sack is to hand.
Near to the recycling site are various black litter bins within the Old Courts Road car park in which plastic carriers/dustbin bags can be placed after can recycling has taken place.
One recent weekend we lifted the lid of the unlocked recycler to make a deposit of our own but observed a number of can-packed plastic bags inside - plus an entire pack of unconsumed cider cans still inside the wrapper. Perhaps the Magners was well past its sell-by date.
We've seen plastic bags inside this bin on a number of other occasions in recent months.
Looking ahead, Brigg Blog wonders whether the council might look at providing households with wheelie bins for cans and glass bottles, to replace the current small recycling boxes.
Judging by the number of cans people continue to take to various recycling sites across the Brigg area, many households (keen to recycle) are finding that the kerbside recycling boxes, emptied fortnightly, are failing to meet their needs.
As a result, some people bag up surplus cans and then drive, or walk, to recycling centres like the one on Old Courts Road or the Tesco store car park, off Barnard Avenue.
Sadly, though, there are others who, having filled their kerbside box, just tip the surplus into general waste wheelie bins, resulting in a good deal of metal (and glass) which could be re-used ending up in landfill sites. That's not something the council, or the community, wants to see happening!
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| Recycling bins on the Old Courts Road car park in Brigg - the one on the left having its lid left unlocked so deposits can be made en masse. Below - one of the nearby litter bins in which people can put their dustbin sacks after tipping cans into the recycling bin. |
