THE Covid pandemic will mean that this year’s Recycle Week, which begins today, will not see Bradford Council’s recycling team out and about encouraging people to keep up the good work by putting their waste in the right bin.

This is due to the fact that the team is supporting community testing for Covid-19.

However, people can get involved by using #RecycleWeek on social media and posting content using the Recycle Week ‘Together – We Recycle’ theme.

Although people in the Bradford district have been great in continuing to recycle during lockdown, the pandemic has brought up new challenges. The amount of domestic waste has increased dramatically because more people are spending more time at home.

Extra 500 tonnes of waste collected in Bradford per week during pandemic

The recycle team want to focus this year on trying to help people reduce the amount of contamination in recycling bins which will make this increase in waste easier to deal with properly.

Staff have been finding all sorts of things which should not be in recycling bins including plastic bags and nappies.

Plastic bags are made from a different type of material than other plastics and cannot be recycled. So if you diligently separate your bottles, cans, yoghurt pots, cardboard and paper etc, then put them in a plastic bag before putting them in the bin, your recycling bin is contaminated.

Contaminated bins contaminate the whole wagonload of recycling which means that it has to go to landfill or incineration, which hits the Council Tax payers’ pocket but is also bad for the environment.

Councillor Sarah Ferriby, Bradford Council’s Executive Member for Healthy People and Places, said: “More people than ever are keen to recycle and our district’s commitment to recycling has continued even during this most challenging year.

“Recycling involves a partnership between our residents and the Council so the theme, ‘Together We Recycle’, is particularly appropriate. We can only achieve our recycling targets with your help.

“We are seeing an all round rise in domestic waste, making it even more important to be careful about what we put in our recycling bin. It’s so frustrating to see wagonloads of otherwise perfectly recyclable material all going to landfill or incineration because the wrong material has been put in the bin.”

If you need more information about what should and what shouldn’t go in your recycling bin, please go online to: www.bradford.gov.uk or telephone 01274 431000.

For more information about Recycle Week 2020 please go online to www.wrap.org.uk.