COMMENT: We all need to think about our consumption

Around 50,000 tonnes of recyclables are sorted in one area of the site, while 200,000 tonnes of non-recyclable waste goes to another area to be burned for energy recovery.

And therein lies the problem. Because, as we report today on pages 8 and 9, too much of the latter has been binned without any thought.

A recent analysis of black bin bag waste in Portsmouth showed that 16 per cent of it could be recycled. That means nearly one in every six items we throw away should have been put in the recycling bin instead.

It’s a shocking statistic and shows that there’s still a lot of work to be done to educate people about what can and cannot be recycled.

Meanwhile 15 per cent of what we put in our recycling bins can’t actually be recycled. At Veolia they see all sorts of such items, from dirty nappies to video players and from dead pets to tents.

So is it down to ignorance and confusion? Or are people just being lazy?

The other startling stat is that around 30 per cent of our waste is avoidable food waste. A trial in the city, which could become permanent in the future, is aiming to improve recycling as it converts leftovers into reusable biogas.

But surely the best solution is for us all to cut down on waste in the first place. That can be making different choices when out shopping to reduce the packaging we’re left to dispose of, being smarter with portions or reusing leftovers rather than throwing them away.

So we urge you to learn exactly what can be recycled these days, but also help the process by thinking about what you consume. Together, we can make a big difference.