Co-mingled bins are the "lazy way" to recycle

The fall-out from the BBC show Real Story continues, with the Community Recycling Network (CRN) UK slamming private sector waste companies and suggesting that co-mingled wheelie bins are the “lazy way” to recycle.

Last weeks programme showed compacted mixed recyclables arriving in Indonesia with their final destination and fate unclear.

The CRN UK believes this stems from private sector waste companies pursuing profit with little regard for the environment when they should know better.

CRN UK coordinator Andy Moore said: “The tonnage figures must have sounded huge to the viewers, but this activity is only undertaken by a few miscreants in pursuit of a quick profit. Progress by the UK in real diversion of the domestic waste stream into recycling and away from landfill is both real and steady.”

The organisation said that it hopes the Environment Agency prosecutes those involved and that the failure to stamp it out has created a system that makes co-mingled collections of recyclables appear the most cost-effective.

Moore added: “The householder separating the materials into the box themselves is the most efficient way to do it. Co-mingled collection in a wheelie bin followed by compaction in the truck is the lazy way, and we believe that in the long run it will prove more expensive, both in financial and environmental terms.”

The network stated that 99%+ of discarded material reaches the reprocessor, while community-based environmental organisation’s can guarantee that waste is being recycled.

Householders are also able to ask for full audit trails to find out where their recyclables are going.