A county council has told residents to throw recyclable materials in with general waste, leaving locals feeling “let down”.
Suffolk County Council told visitors at its Ipswich centres on Foxhall Road and Portman’s Walk, to chuck their recycling in general waste skips, despite the authority’s pledge to be carbon-neutral by 2030.
Locals had previously been instructed to chuck their recycling in skips designated for plastic and wood.
The council, who had previously declared a “climate emergency” active five years ago, said: “We can reassure users that on the very rare occasions recycling material goes into non-recyclable waste, this is not sent to landfill.”
Terry Goldsmith, 74, noticed the skips he usually used were sealed off when he went to dump his recycling at Portsmouth’s Walk centre.
He was dismayed to discover he could not sort his waste into its proper skip, stating that he felt “let down and like you are wasting your time”.
Speaking to the BBC, Goldsmith said: “Everyone is going on about recycling to make sure future generations have a world to live in, but then we are just chucking it all away in landfill or burning it.
“Years ago the waste centre was going to move to a bigger and better place but that didn’t materialise. If it was bigger they could have more skips. It’s far too small.”
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Another resident, Katrina Hudson, 46, voiced the same concerns when she visited Foxhall Recycling Centre.
Upon seeing the sealed-off skips, she said she thought the move was “crazy” and it made her “a bit mad”.
“We live in nature, it doesn’t live in us, and I think we need to look after the planet we are living on. If we are going to chuck it into landfill we are going to kill the planet,” she added.
Suffolk County Council has since apologised. A spokesman said: “We’re sorry that Terry and Katrina’s experiences didn’t meet their expectations, and we are investigating what happened when they visited.
“However, our 11 recycling centres are operating successfully, with over 6,000 tonnes of material going through them in May alone, about 70 per cent of which was recycling, wood, and compost.
Locals had previously been instructed to chuck their recycling in skips designated for plastic and wood
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“We have had over 900,000 visits to our centres in the last year, with a recent survey showing that 97 per cent of people were satisfied or very satisfied with the overall service.”
The authority said that occasionally when recycling material is sent into general waste, it does not end up as landfill.
“If it cannot be reused, it goes to our Energy from Waste facility in Great Blakenham, where it will be used as fuel to generate electricity.”
Suffolk County Council maintained that they are committed to net zero, stating that one of their main aims is to act in an environmentally friendly way.
The spokesperson continued: “Regarding recycling in particular, we continue to invest to make it easier and safer for residents across Suffolk.
“The Foxhall Road site in Ipswich recently underwent a significant redesign and improvement, we are shortly opening a brand new recycling in Haverhill, and have recently proposed plans replace the Portman Walk centre with a new purpose-designed site on Hadleigh Road in Ipswich.”
