People recycling cardboard boxes at Brighton and Hove’s tips will now have to fold them down and post them through a giant “letterbox” as part of a drive to cut down on contamination.
Veolia, which runs the Wilson Avenue and Old Shoreham Road household waste recycling sites, has introduced the measure after finding that people were throwing boxes full of non-cardboard waste such as plastic and wooden packaging into the paper recycling.
And after putting the letterboxes in, contamination has been slashed by 90%.
Allan Key General Manager for Veolia South Downs said: “Following a trial over several weeks at one of our larger sites, this innovation has proved a resounding success and has already reduced cardboard contamination by a whopping 90%.
“Contamination found in containers during the trial was virtually nil. Plus we found an additional benefit of not having to compact the material due to how the cardboard had been neatly flat-packed in the bin.”
Justin Foster Waste Team Manager for the Integrated Waste Management Services Contract (IWMSC) said: “This is a great development. We very were really impressed by the success of the trial.
“We are trying to reduce contamination of recycling because it causes delays and means that some items might not get recycled. We urge residents to continue to flatten their cardboard, be it for kerbside collection, or using the new letterbox at the household waste recycling sites.”
Cardboard left at the sites is then delivered to our Hollingdean Materials Recovery Facility where it is processed ready for turning into new cardboard.
