Recycling – Let’s Sort It!

Analysis of waste composition in January 2022 has shown that over a third of items put in the rubbish skips at the Wiltshire household recycling centres were recyclable. Many of these items had been disposed of in unsorted black bags. These unsorted bags contained materials that could have been separated for recycling on site, or at home through the kerbside recycling collection service.

All waste placed in the general waste skips at the Household Recycling Centres is currently disposed of to landfill as it is mixed with bulky items and therefore unsuitable for energy recovery. As well as suppressing our recycling rate, disposing of waste to landfill costs the council £125.77 per tonne and is a cost that could be easily avoided.

Wiltshire Council want to encourage residents to sort their waste and separate recyclable items at home rather than bringing mixed black bags of waste to the recycling centres. This will ensure that site users have the best experience when visiting the site and will make their visit more efficient.

From Monday 25th September residents bringing bags or containers of mixed waste for the general waste skip will be asked if their bags contain recyclable waste. If they do contain recyclable waste, residents will be invited to visit a sorting area where they can remove the recyclable items from their bags. Site operatives will be on hand to help residents identify recyclable items so that they can be placed in the smaller recycling bins labelled by material type at the sorting area.