TONNES of rubbish left for recycling have had to be sent to landfill because it was contaminated.

In the last year 4,395 tonnes of recycling has been collected through the Hambleton's fortnightly kerbside service – but the authority says too much of it was still contaminated.

“We know the majority of residents do everything they can to ensure that what goes into their blue lidded bin is clean uncontaminated recycling,” said cabinet member Cllr Stephen Watson.

“However around 11 per cent of it cannot be recycled - in a recent check of 26 tonnes, three tonnes of it was contamination which we had to send to landfill.

“We have issued information through all the normal channels but realise there may be people we have missed. So now we are asking residents to let us know how they would like us to deliver this information.”

Residents are being asked for ideas on how to make the message clearer. Send them to recyclingInbox@hambleton.gov.uk, or facebook ‘Hambleton Recycling & Waste’ or Twitter ‘@RecycleHDC’ or call 01609-779977.