Formby councillors back recycling campaign
Formby Labour councillors and activists have joined the Recycle Right campaign to encourage more recycling in the borough.
Ravenmeols Councillors Nina Killen and Catie Page, along with activist Carol Richards, who was Labour's candidate in the local elections in May, backed the council's new push to raise recycling rates.
Brown bins replaced green boxes for kerbside recycling in Sefton in 2016 but there is still confusion as to what can be placed in them.
Paper products must be clean. Look out for stains such as grease, food, paint, dirt, etc. or any plastics or coatings. If the paper contains any of these it cannot be recycled.
Shredded paper cannot be recycled due to fibre size.
Black plastic cannot be recycled in the brown bin
Plastic bottles are recyclable as long as they are not black plastic. When recycling leave the labels on, empty and rinse them, keep tops on, don't squish the bottles and check the bottles for instructions if they contained chemicals.
Plastic tubs and trays eg yogurt pots or plastic meat trays cannot be recycled in the brown bin.
Glass items should be empty and rinsed out. Keep lids on bottles if possible
Cartons (eg juice) are generally made from a mixture of paperboard, plastic and aluminium. These cannot be placed in your brown bin
Aluminum foil trays cannot be placed in the brown bin
Do not put plastic bags or plastic packaging in your brown bin
Cllr Killen said: "I think we all want to do the right thing with regards recycling, but it is still confusing what can be placed in the brown bin. If the wrong items are placed in the bin it can contaminate the whole load. I was surprised to learn that any wet or stained paper cannot be recycled and shouldn't go in the brown bin."
"Recycling is obviously good for the environment and saves the council money so any improvement in recycling rates is a positive thing."
Sefton Council recently revealed that the expected increase in recycling that was predicted with the introduction of brown bins has not materialised. Recycled materials made up 38% of collected waste in 2017/18 compared to 40% in 16/17.
Sefton still leads the way in the Liverpool City Region, as all Merseyside councils have seen a decrease on recycling rates. It is thought this has been influenced by a lack of focus from Government on the issue since the Brexit vote.
The Merseyside Recycling and Waste Authority (MRWA) Recycle Right campaign aims to re-engage communities in recycling and its benefits.
As well as brown bins, the council collects food waste, but this has reduced from approximately 2,700 tonnes in 2016 per annum to around 1,250 tonnes in the last financial year, despite the availability of free compostable caddy liners and a free additional food waste storage bin if requested.
The Green (garden) waste service has continued its upward growth with 19,900 tonnes in the financial year 2017 / 2018.
The total of household waste collected in 2017/2018 increased over 12 months by approximately 900 tonnes.
In 2017/18 the service collected just over 65,000 tonnes of household waste which was not sent for recycling or re-use or composting in total. The main explanation for this increase is the growth in house building which in the last year amount to over 1,000 additional properties to be serviced / collected by the refuse crews.
Sefton refuse collection service undertakes 99.98% of all collections on time, the best performing service across the Merseyside region.
PIC (left to right): Labour activist Carol Richards, Cllr Nina Killen, Cllr Catie Page encouraging residents to Recycle Right
