Third of recyclable rubbish in Dorset not put in correct bin
The authority say items like food waste should be placed in caddy bins, and not sent to landfill
Although Dorset is one of the best areas in the country for recycling – residents are still putting almost a third in the wrong bins.
Analysis by Dorset Council shows that, typically, 32% of what goes in the black bin for landfill could have been put in one of the other bins for kerbside recycling.
Among the items wrongly going into the black bins is food waste – which should be put into the small, brown, caddy bins issued to every household.
Gemma Clinton, head of commercial waste and waste strategy, said that with just over 59 per cent of waste recycled Dorset is the number one unitary council for what it diverts from landfill.
She is hopeful that the recent start of taking tetra pack cartons and aluminium foil in kerbside boxes, with films and flexible plastics to follow, will help the council towards its 65 per cent recycling rate by 2035.
Cllr Sherry Jespersen told the committee, which was looking at the Dorset Council waste strategy, that bin collections are one of the key things which residents judged the council on.
"It’s been such a success story, really good news with effective management and continued improvement," she said.
But others warned that the recycling rates could soon dip unless something was done to improve household recycling centres where people take their own items to, especially at Dorchester which has been recognised as being inadequate for the town’s population and with no solution, or finance, in sight for a replacement. In winter St George’s Road, which leads to the tip, frequently floods.
Tory group leader Cllr Andrew Parry told the meeting that the council should also be wary of changes to collection rounds which, inevitably let to criticism if dates were missed. He said there was nothing quite like it for 'lighting up' his email inbox or social media.
Cllr Simon Gibson warned of another potential problem, in areas close to county borders, where Dorset residents us household recycling centres at Somerley, Christchurch and in the Bournemouth and Poole areas.
"Unless we can answer questions about our own infrastructure and capacity a lot of our work will be undermined," he warned…"we should have a universal service, it should not be patchy," he said.