The amount of household rubbish being rejected for recycling in England has increased by 84% over the past four years, government figures show. A BBC Freedom of Information request found councils were unable to recycle 338,000 tons of waste in 2014-15 – up from about 184,000 tons in 2011-12.
But Department for Environment data shows total recycled waste rose from 10.7m to 11m tons a year in the period.
Councils say they are working to stop people putting the wrong items in bins. The cost to local authorities of re-sorting so-called contaminated recycle bins is said to be the primary reason the vast majority of the waste is being rejected.
The Freedom of Information Request by BBC Breakfast found 97% of the rejected rubbish was incinerated or sent to landfill in 2013-14 – the most recent year for which such figures were available. Just over 173,000 tons of rejected waste was incinerated or sent to landfill in 2011-12, with the figure rising to 270,000 tons two years later.
There is a mandatory requirement on local authorities to provide information on recycling to the government. Statistics show about 45% of household waste is currently recycled. There is an EU target for the UK to recycle at least 50% by 2020.
The figures show 14.99% of recyclable waste was rejected in 2014-15 in Kirklees in West Yorkshire. The council was among the authorities with the highest contamination rate in England – the national average is 3%. The council said a substantial quantity of its recyclable waste had been taken to a different plant from usual “which has a low tolerance for contamination, and meant that an entire load of waste could be rejected” when only a small portion of the load should have been.
Elsewhere, about 14.4% of recyclable waste was rejected in 2014-15 in the borough of Greenwich in south-east London. A council spokesman said it took the contamination of recycling very seriously and pursued “a proactive approach on this issue through engaging with residents, businesses, managing agents and landlords”.
To read the full story, visit http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-37159581.