£50,000 cost a month of wrong type of rubbish

The problem has got so bad Hull Council is having to pay up to £100,000 for “external professional help” to get to grips with the problem.

Contamination of the bins meant for recycling plastic bottles, glass and cardboard with everything from food waste to nappies has been a long-standing problem. Despite a crackdown which saw 20,000 warning letters issued and bins removed from the worst offenders, 20 per cent are still contaminated.

It has meant the council failing to meet the terms of its waste disposal contract with Hartlepool-based J&B Bio Ltd, which has a maximum contamination rate of up to 15 per cent.

A report has revealed it is having to pay £50,000 a month over its normal waste disposal costs to cover additional processing and landfill charges. One councillor, who didn’t want to be named, suggested that the waste firm had got more “picky” since the bottom fell out of the scrap metal recycling market. But he also said while Hull had a high proportion of homes in multiple occupation, where just one person could contaminate a number of bins, there was also a cultural problem. “Perhaps in wealthier, leafy suburbs people have more concern for the environment than some people living in Hull,” he added.

Coun John Black said when there was contamination they were having to pay an extra £60 a tonne for it to be processed. He added: “We took the decision that to engage external experts, with a track record in encouraging consumers to recycle more and recycle correctly would be a good long term investment.”