2,000 tonnes of recycling rejected in Sunderland after being put in the wrong bins, figures show

Almost 2,000 tonnes of waste from Sunderland households was rejected by recycling centres last year after being placed in the wrong bins, new figures show.

Figures from the Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs show an estimated 1,986 tonnes of waste in the area could not be reused in the year to April 2022 – down from 2,854 tonnes the year before but up on the 1,232 tonnes in 2014-15, when local records of rejects began.

The year's rejects in Sunderland accounted for 5.3% of the 37,132 tonnes of household waste sent for recycling.

For England as a whole, 6.4% of rubbish sent to be recycled in 2021-22 was rejected.

2,000 tonnes of Sunderland waste being rejected at recycling centres.

The figures show 35,146 tonnes of household waste from the city were recycled – 29.3% of all rubbish – which was up from a recycling rate of 28.1% in 2020-21.

Local government chiefs say households and councils have worked hard to increase the amount of waste being recycled, but are being held back by manufacturers using unrecyclable packaging.

An LGA spokesperson said households have made a "real shift" to ensure they are recycling as much as possible while councils work hard to share information on what can be recycled.

They said: “However, manufacturers of plastic packaging products are still continuing to create and sell packaging that cannot be recycled and will be put in the recycling bin by people in good faith.

"The burden then falls on councils to not only collect it and dispose of it, but to pay the extra cost of disposing of it."

They said this means councils are trying to achieve net zero with “one hand tied behind their back".

A Defra spokesperson said, “There was an increase in rejected material reported by local authorities in the wake of the pandemic but we have since set a suite of targets to reduce different types of waste, including plastic, glass, metal, paper and food by 2028 through our Environmental Improvement Plan."

The plan aims to ban the supply of single-use plastics later this year, make some businesses pay to recycle their own packaging, and introduce a deposit return scheme for plastic and metal drinks containers.