Council plans crackdown as a 'collossal' 70% of blue bins found to be contaminated

Boston Borough Council is to crackdown on contamination of recycling bins after around 70% of blue bins were contaminated with incorrect waste.

Pizza boxes, nappies, crisp packets, plastic film, food packaging, face masks, and even car parts were among the items that had to be sifted out after the most recent blue bin collection round.

And residents are now being warned, that from the next collection on June 7, bins found to be contaminated will not be collected by crews.

It comes as it was revealed that the new high-quality paper and card waste purple bins has so far proven to be very successful, with 94% of households participating and less than 2% of waste being contaminated, with operations manager Matt Fisher saying that was a huge success.

However, the council remains very concerned about the level of contamination in blue bins, and has warned that it plans to act on it.

Councillor Yvonne Stevens, portfolio holder for operations for the council, said the time had come to stop being a ‘nanny council’ and urged residents to take responsibility for their waste.

Mr Fisher said: “We still do have a very high level of contamination in our mixed dry recycling, our blue bins. It’s a real problem.

“Our first collection of mixed dry recycling in the new twin stream system around 70% of bins that we did take were contaminated, and that is a colossal amount of contamination.”

The information is out there, he said. The council has sent out leaflets and full information is available on the website, he said.

Announcing the decision to not collect contaminated blue bins from the next collection, Coun Stevens said: “It saddens me that 70 of our bins had some contamination. We all need to take responsibility for what we have put in our bins.

“Our residents were warned. They had a blue tag letting them know what was incorrect.

“From June 7, bins with contaminated waste in them will be rejected and not taken, which will cause a huge headache for residents if they don’t get it right.

“It’s a decision that’s been made because the time has come from us being like the nanny council that wipes people’s noses and puts their coats on. People have got to take responsibility for themselves and this is part of the way we are encouraging them.

“If they still continue to put the wrong things in from June 7, those bins will be rejected and it will be the residents responsibility to deal with it.”