Something rubbish is going on

Since the pandemic started, Derbyshire County Council has been finding that fewer people are pre-sorting the waste they bring to the council’s household waste recycling centres – which means some of it won’t get recycled.  

The county council is urging residents to separate their waste into its different types before they make a trip to a recycling centr, and when they get there to put it in the right containers. 

A short video has been produced showing staff finding lots of items that could easily be recycled but have been put in non-recyclable items skip. These have included plastic bottles, textiles, cardboard, toasters and even a pair of barely used skis!

Watch the video on pre-sorting rubbish and why it's so important.

Residents are being urged by Derbyshire County Council to separate their waste before taking it to their local Household Waste Recycling Centre - the local site being on the Manners Industrial Estate in Ilkeston - to make sure items which can be recycled are put to good use.

Staff at the council’s recycling centres have recently uncovered many examples of visitors putting bags of mixed waste in the non-recyclable items skip. These bags were found to contain items that could easily be recycled such as plastic bottles, textiles and cardboard. Figures show that the problem has been worse since the pandemic. In 2020-21 61% of all waste brought to the county council’s recycling centres was reused, recycled or composted, which means nearly 40% was ‘black bag’ waste sent to landfill or energy recovery. By comparison black bag waste in 2019-20 was only 28%.

Derbyshire County Council Cabinet Member for Infrastructure and Environment, Councillor Carolyn Renwick said: “Site staff do their best to extract what recyclable material they can from the general waste skip, but there is a higher chance of many recyclable items not being recycled if they haven’t been pre-sorted.

This costs the environment and council taxpayers dearly as valuable materials are sent to waste treatment or landfill instead of being put to good use. It’s a great help to us if visitors can pre-sort their household waste before making a trip to one of our recycling centres. This saves time once they are at the site, frees up staff to help unload their vehicle and direct them to the correct containers and ensures that we maximise the volume of material that is recycled.  

“If anyone is unsure about what can and can’t be recycled, site staff are on hand to advise. There’s also plenty of information on our website that will help”.

Items that can be reused or recycled include furniture, crockery, paint, electrical items, paper, garden waste, cardboard, plastic, textiles, reusable items for bric-a-brac, metal, wood, light bulbs and batteries. Due to the potential fire risk batteries should always be removed from electrical items and placed in the special containers to be found at all Derbyshire sites. Only non-recyclable waste should be left in black bags.

Disposal costs for all waste across the county currently cost Derbyshire council tax-payers around £42million per year. 

The household waste recycling centres are open daily from 8.30am to 6pm. Find out more: www.derbyshire.gov.uk/recycling