Your essential recycling guide Improve your recycling

Rejected waste and recycling

Recycling helps the fight against climate change

Recycling is rejected by authorities if it is ‘contaminated’ and can’t be recycled. This occurs when the wrong type of material is put in the recycling box, or when recycling items are of poor quality – for example, if newspapers are soiled by liquids, fibres might not be good enough quality to recycle.

A small minority of people put incorrect items such as food waste and dirty nappies in their recycling bins – even dead cats have been found. 

If these items are tipped into a co-mingled recycling collection lorry they can contaminate the entire recycling load, meaning that many other people’s recycling efforts go to waste.

Recycling rejection rates

Many councils have recycling and waste education officers who will visit people who use their recycling bins incorrectly. 

In theory, persistent offenders can be prosecuted under the Environmental Protection Act, but this is difficult to enforce.

Recycling rejection rates vary hugely, depending on where you live. In 2007-2008, two thirds of councils rejected less than 1% of items collected for recycling but some rejected more than 10%.

As councils are paid to recycle and taxed for waste they send to landfill, residents need to work together to reduce the amount of waste going to landfill to keep council tax bills down. Residents can do their bit by keeping up their recycling efforts and improving the quality of their recycling.

Improve your recycling

Our video guide

Find out how to improve your recycling by watching our video guide featuring Phillip Ward, from Recycle Now.

Get to know your local recycling scheme guidelines

Know your local recycling scheme

Only put something in your recycling box if you know that your council accepts it – everything else will be rejected, and this costs money. If you're not sure, ask your council or use the postcode checker at Recycle Now's website.

Wash and squash recycling materials

Give items a quick rinse – dirty recycling makes collection unhygienic and could attract vermin. To save water, rinse items in old washing-up water.

Where possible, flatten and squash cardboard boxes, plastic bottles and drinks cans.

Lids and labels

Most recycling plants can cope with a small percentage of ‘mixed’ materials, such as labels left on food cans and plastic windows left on envelopes. Many can cope with lids left on bottles, too. But if your council asks you to remove them, follow their advice.

Become an electrical recycling expert

Recycle Now estimates that if every home recycled one small electrical item, more than 24,500 tonnes of unwanted products could be turned into new goods. If you're not sure what to do with your old iron, DVD player, microwave or blender, consult our online recycling tool, which shows you how to recycle electrical products.

Think of alternatives to recycling

If your council doesn't recycle a certain item, you might be able to recycle it at your local supermarket or recycling centre. Visit Recycle Now to find your nearest site. You can also find out what happens to your rubbish in our online guide.