TOUGH new measures are to be introduced to control the rise in contaminated household recycling.

Councillors have agreed a “four strikes and you’re out” policy for Hambleton householders that continue to place the wrong items in their recycling bins.

Portfolio holder for waste services Cllr Stephen Watson said: “The vast majority of our householders have embraced our schemes and make a massive contribution to the amount we send for recycling

“However this new policy will allow us to take action against the small number of householders that continue to place the wrong items in their recycling bins.

“Their irresponsible actions contaminate the whole load and that costs the authority money.

“We introduced our recycling scheme not only to improve performance but to maximise the amount of income we can generate from it – but losing income has a knock-on effect on other services which we are striving to maintain.”

The contract to dispose of the recycling materials allows for a 10 per cent contamination rate but with that running at up to 16 per cent some weeks the contractor then charges to sort and dispose of the contamination - costing the council £47,000 a year.

“We have issued lots of information on what can and cannot be recycled through our kerbside schemes but some householders are determined to ignore it,” added Cllr Watson

“The main contaminants are glass in the blue lidded bins, plastic bags and wet cardboard, but we also get sacks of items that cannot be sorted, metal, rubble, clothing and dirty nappies.

“Agreeing to this action was not an easy decision but we need to crackdown on this problem.”

Amendments to the wast collection and recycling policy will mean:

• First contamination – the bin will not be emptied and a leaflet explaining why will be left.

• Second contamination – the bin will not be emptied and a letter issued.

• Third contamination – the bin will not be emptied and warning letter issued to say service will be removed unless it ceases.

• Fourth contamination – the bin will not be emptied and service will be suspended for three months.

After that period service will be reintroduced with recycling taken in clear sacks - and monitored. If contamination continues the service will be withdrawn completely.

For more information on the new recycling measures log on to hambleton.gov.uk.