Recycling Roundup 27th May

Recycling Roundup 27^th May

A fly-tipper has been ordered to do 120 hours work and pay over £1,000 court costs after failing to pay a £600 penalty for dumping rubbish.

A member of the public spotted the man dumping rubbish from a transit van near a recycling centre and school grounds in Nottingham.

Instead of putting the rubbish into recycling containers, the man left it on the ground or put items in the wrong containers, contaminating the recycling.

A council spokesperson said that the man did not have a licence and should not have been disposing of the waste.

Council officers tracked the man down and issued him with two fixed penalty notices of £300 each, which he failed to pay. He then went on to dump more waste on private land, including a bath!

Police in South East London interviewed a builder about bones that were found at a rubbish tip, only for it to transpire that they belonged to a doctor’s training skeleton! The builder was clearing a former medical surgery that was being turned into flats and went to dispose of a bin bag which he didn’t know contained a jawbone, teeth and leg bone. The parts were then found by staff at Greenwich Recycling Centre who spotted them and called the police, fearing that it was foul play.

The builder was then hauled in front of detectives. He said he had disposed of loads of bags and boxes without looking inside, then he got a call asking him to come to the police station. Officers quizzed him about the human bones, until he explained that the building he was clearing was a former surgery. Officers called the doctor they belonged to and he confirmed he’d used them throughout his medical training.

Residents across Lancashire are going to see a huge change in the amount of plastic they can recycle by the end of the year. Only certain types of plastic bottles are currently permitted in recycling bins, but the introduction of a county-wide expanded recycling scheme will mean that pots, tubs, and trays can be recycled too.

The changes are being brought in after a report called for a reduction in single-use plastics across Lancashire. One of the council’s waste recovery plants is currently being adapted so it can accept more types of plastic.

A council spokesperson said that preparing for, and introducing the scheme will take time, but said it will keep plastics out of general waste bins and landfill sites.

The council are set to start a big information campaign on social media and on their website to inform residents about how the changes will work, and acknowledged that residents had voiced their frustration at not always being able to recycle as much as they’d want.

Council recycling centres have also started to accept plastic toys and garden furniture again after they had to stop last year, when recycling companies stopped purchasing them from local authorities after complaining there was too much contamination.

Aside from the new recycling scheme, the council are going to look at how they can reduce the use of single-use plastic items in their operations.