Contaminated

It was a Victor Meldrew moment. At first I didn't believe I was seeing the yellow action tag attached to my green recycling bin. It couldn't be, as I'm careful about recycling items. I know about glass bottles, pizza cartons and other items. I check for recycling symbols and am not one of those who thinks I'm doing someone else's job on the cheap. But sure enough there was the yellow tag and my green bin was "contaminated".

I was away and missed the last collection a fortnight ago. That means the bin is full with a month's worth of packaging of some sort. The action involves going through the bin checking contents against a list of non-recyclable items and removing them. I can take those elsewhere for disposal and leave my bin out again in two weeks. What would Victor have done? Dump it in the black bin? Give off?

Now I'm improving with age so I want to learn the lesson from this. So I probably wil do some resorting over the days ahead. When I do that I'll be checking what it says on the packaging against my council's list of non-recyclables. And here's my suggestion for improvement. If a checklist is going to be tagged to a bin because a collector spotted something then help us to help you by ticking it so we know what the offending item is. Instead of a long list of exclusions why not simply say unless your item has a symbol don't recycle it? And tell the manufacturers! I've already identified one item that's in my bin, on the list and doesn't have a symbol. I'll be looking out for that in future.

If it is also the case that some items carry recycle symbols but cannot as yet be processed in our area then let us know which numbers can go in now and work as quickly as possible to extend the range.

Respecting the environment is everyone's business. Contamination? Not in my back yard.