Suffolk Waste Partnership (SWP) is launching ‘Glass – It’s Better in The Bank’, a 12-week campaign aimed at getting people to stop putting glass in their household recycling bins and to use a bottle bank instead.
Suffolk Waste Partnership comprises the county, district and borough councils working together to improve waste management services.
The SWP campaign runs until 31 May and will feature in adverts on buses, at supermarket billboards and on a van touring part of the county, plus on social media and on radio.
District and borough councils, which collect our rubbish, will be applying bin tags and stickers to recycling bins containing glass.
Crews will have a prompt in the cab to remind them to be on the look-out and recycling bins may not be emptied if they are found to contain glass.
There will be a dedicated web page about the campaign on the Suffolk Recycling webpage with a set of FAQs and an information leaflet to distribute at events.
Glass is not accepted in household recycling bins as the Materials Recycling Facility at Great Blakenham near Ipswich, where the bins are taken for sorting, is unable to separate glass from other materials.
Glass mistakenly placed in household recycling bins costs the SWP around £500,000 a year. It will not be recycled and can spoil other good recycling, especially card and paper.
Glass represents about half of all the wrong material in household recycling bins – other bad eggs include black rubbish sacks, food, nappies, textiles, and cartons – and rejection levels are currently running at around 20%.
