Slough Borough Council ranked second worst for recycling in South East of England

More than 350 tonnes of reusable goods have been incinerated in Slough this year due to people recycling the wrong items.

Rejected recycling is costing Slough Borough Council (SBC) £73,000 a year with greasy pizza boxes, waste food and dirty nappies all regular causes of contamination.

Figures released by InSinkErator revealed that SBC ranked 342nd out of 352 local authorities across the country for recycling rates in 2017/18.

Research also found that only 23.9 per cent of household waste was sent for recycling, the second worst figure in the South East of England.

Cllr Rob Anderson (Lab, Britwell and Northborough) said: “Slough Borough Council has an aim to send zero waste to landfill and we are pleased that we have sent virtually nothing to landfill in recent years by converting most of our waste into energy.

“We are aware that recycling rates are not as good as they could be in Slough and we want them to improve significantly.

“We have a particular problem with recycling being contaminated by objects that cannot be recycled.”

In the first three months of this year, 380 tonnes of recycling had to be taken to the Lakeside Energy from Waste plant in Colnbrook to be burnt along with general waste.

The council is now embarking on a campaign to try and reduce this figure.

Households and people who use public bins are being asked to only recycle glass, cans, plastic bottles, clean cardboard, newspapers and magazines.