Recycling Mistakes Cost Newcastle Council £586,000

Recycling Mistakes Cost Newcastle Council £586,000

Newcastle city council has an alleged £586,000 dent in its finances, all because people are putting the wrong rubbish in their recycling bins.

Alleged errors that have been made

Newcastle City Council is run by Labour, and it’s the opposition Liberal Democrats who blame the deficit on Labour. They say they have repeatedly asked the Party to do something about recycling for years, but not much has happened. Now they say errors have been made that will cost the council money and lead to cuts in frontline services.

The Lib Dems say that errors made by the council include removing the black glass caddies from many blue recycling wheelie bins, and mistakenly telling residents that they can mix glass with other materials. They say that glass damages paper mills, so it has to be recycled separately or the whole load of waste will be sent to landfill as contaminated recycling.

Newcastle council hit back

The council reinforced that they are committed to reducing the waste that is produced city wide, and that they are aware of what needs further work, and they have hit back at the opposition, who they say talk about the problems but offer no viable solutions. They stated that they are aware that contamination of recycling bins across the city is a problem, like in any UK city, and they are working hard to increase awareness about recycling and ensuring that residents use the right bin.

They add that last year, they collected and treated more than 142,000 tonnes of waste which is more waste per resident than many other UK cities, and their overall recycling rate is 42%.

What happens when you put the wrong rubbish in the bin?

An Exeter woman has just been acquitted after she was prosecuted by her local authority for putting the wrong items in her recycling bin.

The woman faced a £1000 fine after being accused of repeatedly flouting warnings about putting non-recyclable waste in her recycling bin. The local authority claimed that a recycling bin outside her home was filled with leftover takeaways, cigarette butts, and bike parts.

She denied that she was putting items in the bin and claimed that passers by dumped the rubbish in the bin while it was out on the street.

The woman was cleared after magistrates ruled that the local authority couldn’t prove that it was her that put the waste in the bin. The case cost taxpayers almost £6000 but the council defended its decision to prosecute her.

The council said that the ruling will make it impossible for local authorities to gain enough evidence to prosecute people in the future.

They allocate a green bin to every household across the city, along with information on what can and can’t be disposed of in the bin. Newspapers, magazines, drinks cans, steel food tins, aluminium foil, plastic bottles, clothing (in bags), cardboard, junk mail and envelopes can all be put into the green bins. Local authorities can prosecute people who fail to follow the rules under the Environmental Protection Act 1990.