Redcar councillor says end of bin tag trial 'disappointing'
The scheme, which began in Normanby and was extended into Redcar and Brotton, saw blue bins checked for the likes of food waste, nappies and takeaway boxes ahead of collections.If the wrong items were found, bins were not emptied and were tagged with an explanation as to why, before a follow-up visit was scheduled with the offending household told what items needed to be removed.Just one wrong item can contaminate an entire load, costing thousands of pounds to rectify, the council told the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS).
'Real progress'
Samples are taken from loads when they arrive at a facility to be recycled and if contaminants are found they have to be separated out.If this proves impossible, waste has to be disposed of by some other method, for example incineration or landfill.Brown said bin tagging was never meant to be a long-term policy.He said officers had wanted to implement it as "business as usual", but his administration disagreed and ended it instead.
Joy, who is also part of the Guisborough Eco Group which works with the council to improve recycling rates, said the pilot showed "real progress".She said: "Decisions like this are too important to be waved through without proper democratic scrutiny. "The bin tagging pilot showed real progress - contamination in recycling bins fell from 48.8% in December 2023 to just 26.9% which means that we get better recycling rates. "This proves that with the right approach people will change their behaviour but behaviour change takes time, effort and consistency."
Brown said if contamination "horrifically flares up again" and some [households] have not changed behaviours, then another trial would be implemented. Last year, the council said 40% of recycling sent to the facility it uses in South Bank was contaminated, which increased costs by as much as £100 per tonne.It said only 33% of household waste in Redcar and Cleveland was being recycled, with the borough one of the worst performing in the country.While rates have inched up in the past few years, this is still down on a recent peak of 40.3% in 2019/20.The council's climate and scrutiny committee will discuss the decision at its next meeting.
Follow BBC Tees on X, Facebook, Nextdoor and Instagram.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Guardian
2 hours ago
- The Guardian
Sudoku 7,009 hard
Click here to access the print version. Fill the grid so that every row, every column and every 3x3 box contains the numbers 1 to 9. To see the completed puzzle, buy the next issue of the Guardian (for puzzles published Monday to Thursday). Solutions to Friday and Saturday puzzles are given in either Saturday's or Monday's edition.
The Independent
2 hours ago
- The Independent
Kayaking brothers rescue swimmers from ‘boisterous' dolphin at UK coastal hotspot
Two brothers have described rescuing two women from the sea after a dolphin repeatedly forced them underwater in separate incidents in Dorset Rhys and Gareth Paterson were kayaking in Lyme Bay on Thursday when they saw the animal leap onto a swimmer's back about 200 metres from shore. 'She was kind of gasping for air,' Rhys said. 'She was terrified.' At first, the pair thought the bottlenose dolphin, known locally as Reggie, was playing. 'We thought he was doing what he normally does – just a bit of fun,' Rhys said. But after hearing the woman scream, they paddled over and saw the dolphin pushing her head below the surface. They brought her back to land before returning to the water, where they saw the same dolphin troubling another woman who was clinging to a yellow buoy and 'looking panicked'. Rhys urged swimmers to get out of the water if they spot the animal. He said: 'It is a wild animal, as exciting as it is. I think it's up to everyone now to start respecting its space a little bit more. If we weren't there that day I think something bad could have potentially happened.' The Marine Management Organisation is 'increasingly concerned' about the lone dolphin, and has reminded swimmers that dolphins, whales and porpoises are protected by law and warned people to keep at least 100 metres away from them. Reggie has been a regular visitor to Lyme Bay since first appearing earlier this year. While his presence has thrilled tourists, marine experts have cautioned that repeated human contact can make dolphins lose their natural wariness and behave aggressively. Charity Marine Connection said the animal was 'playful' rather than hostile, but still dangerous. Co-founder Liz Sandeman told the BBC: 'The more people that enter the water, the more he'll become playful and boisterous. I've seen dolphins doing this before towards swimmers, where they'll dunk them under the water.' She added: 'I think if they move even a quarter of the mile down the coast, that would help. He's not adult yet, so over the coming months he will get bigger, he will become more powerful.'
Times
4 hours ago
- Times
My husband's rude behaviour has driven our daughter away
As part of our new parenting section, we are selecting some of the best content from our archive. This piece was originally published in October 2023 Q. I am in my mid-sixties, my husband is older and we have two daughters. The eldest is married, the youngest is with a partner who has a nine-year-old son. Earlier this year at a family get-together, my husband insulted the boy about his appearance. I was shocked and the boy's father told my husband not to speak to his son like that. The boy was upset and my daughter confronted my husband. He said it was a joke, that he was being ironic. What boy would understand irony to that extent? My husband said that he was called names at school and nobody got upset. This was wholeheartedly rejected as an excuse. Eventually he apologised.
