Record amounts of waste from Portsmouth households wrongly placed in recycling bins

The Local Government Association said households and councils have worked hard to increase the amount of waste recycled, but are held back by manufacturers using unrecyclable packaging.

Rejected waste material can be turned away from recycling due to contamination by water, dirt, or chemical treatments such as preservatives or paint.

Figures from the Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs show an estimated 3,600 tonnes of household waste were rejected from being recycled after being placed in the wrong bin in the year to April 2022 – the highest level on record.

It is up from 3,120 tonnes the year before and up from 1,188 tonnes in 2014-15 when local records of rejects began.

Across England, 6.4% of rubbish sent to be recycled in 2021-22 was rejected.

Last year's rejects in Portsmouth accounted for 15.4% of the 23,312 tonnes of household waste sent for recycling.

Across Hampshire - including Havant, Gosport and Fareham, but not Portsmouth or Southampton - an estimated 39,611 tonnes of household waste were rejected, again the highest level on record.

It is up from 33,871 tonnes the year before and up from 12,964 tonnes in 2014-15.

Last year's rejects in Hampshire accounted for 14.6% of the 270,705 tonnes of household waste sent for recycling.

An LGA spokesperson said households have made a ‘real shift’ to ensure they are recycling as much as possible while councils work hard to share information on what can be recycled.

They said: ‘However, the manufacturers of plastic packaging products are still continuing to create and sell packaging that cannot be recycled and will be put in the recycling bin by people in good faith.

‘The burden then falls on councils to not only collect it and dispose of it, but to pay the extra cost of disposing of it.’

They added councils are trying to achieve net zero with ‘one hand tied behind their back’ as manufacturers continue to produce plastic that cannot be disposed of sustainably.

The national increase in rejected material reported across England is also likely due to China's ban on all solid waste imports and effects of the Covid-19 pandemic.

The figures show 44.1% of household waste in England was recycled in 2021-22 – up slightly from 43.8% the year before.

In Portsmouth, 19,712 tonnes of household waste were recycled – 27.1% of all rubbish. It was up from a recycling rate of 24.7% in 2020-21.

A Defra spokesperson said it wants to recycle and reuse more waste, and support households to do so.

They said: ‘There was an increase in rejected material reported by local authorities in the wake of the pandemic but we have since set a suite of targets to reduce different types of waste, including plastic, glass, metal, paper and food by 2028 through our landmark Environmental Improvement Plan.’

The plan aims to ban the supply of single-use plastics later this year, make some businesses pay to recycle their own packaging by 2024, and introduce a deposit return scheme for plastic and metal drinks containers in 2025.