Home visits plan in Walsall bins campaign

Walsall families who fail to bin their rubbish correctly will be targeted with home visits in a new £27,000 campaign.

The move comes as hundreds of tons of contaminated recycling waste are being sent to landfill.

Walsall Council bosses say food waste and general rubbish has been clogging up recycling bins.

Extra disposal costs are amounting to thousands of pounds. The £27,720 communications campaign has now been launched and hotspot areas are being targeted to educate people ab-out what they can put into recycling bins.

Areas where the problem is considered rife include parts of Bentley, Darlaston, Willenhall, Bloxwich, Pleck and Blakenall. It is costing the council about £100 per ton to dispose of the contaminated rubbish.

Leaflets are to be distributed to properties, while a team of four staff will be sent to knock on doors at 2,500 homes. A total of 12,600 homes will be involved in the campaign.

Mark Holden, head of Streetpride at Walsall Council, said: "We are experiencing a serious problem with contamination in the kerbside recycling.

"The contamination levels are high enough to impact on the recycling rate. In May and June we rejected app-roximately 140 tons of materials, in some cases we are having to reject whole loads.

"As this campaign progresses we will monitor the quality of the loads as they are delivered to the Fryers Road transfer station."

Councillor Tom Ansell, transport and environment chief, said: "If we all work together we can put an end to contamination in kerbside recycling."

It comes after it emerged last month that a leaflet designed to clarify what people can and cannot put in their recycling bins puzzled residents who had to call their ward councillors or the council for clarification.

By Lisa O'Brien