More than 80% of households are contaminating their recycling by making well-intentioned mistakes over which packaging they include, new research has shown.
The figures, released by Wrap today to mark the start of National Recycling Week, show more than a third of UK households mistakenly think drinking glasses can be recycled.
Foil pouches, toothpaste tubes and plastic film lids were also all being deposited despite not being collected by local councils, by more than a quarter of households.
Evidence from more than 3,000 people across the UK captured by Recycle Now found 84% of well-intentioned households were putting one or more ‘contaminator’ items in the recycling, when they can’t be recycled from home.
However, as well as mistakenly trying to recycle prohibited items, Recycle Now’s insights found that 80% of UK households were missing out on recycling everyday items.
Glass perfume and aftershave bottles were the most missed item, with over half (52%) of UK households not putting these in the recycling bin.
Other items that are often missed include foil (27%), aerosols (22%) and plastic food trays.
Wrap has launched a new Recycling Tracker in a bid to help end confusion by allowing people to go online and find out what items are collected in their postcodes.
“Recycling doesn’t have to be confusing, which is why, this Recycle Week, we’re asking people to type their postcode into our Recycling Locator, to find out what to recycle where they live,” said Wrap recycling expert Helen Bird.
“We save 18 million tonnes of CO2 every year by recycling – the same environmental impact as taking 12 million cars off the road.
“Contaminants affect the quality of the recycling, its value and in extreme cases mean that the recycling has to be disposed of rather than recycled.”
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