One-in-three admit littering at recycling banks

ALMOST one-in-three people admit to littering or dumping at bring banks, a survey has revealed.

However, research by recycling body Repak also shows that more people are recycling some of their waste - 51% compared to 40% last year.

There is growing concern that some of the country’s 2,000 bring banks are adding to already serious litter problems.

Other findings of the survey, conducted by Milward Brown IMD among 1,200 adults nationally, are:

* 60% of people believe littering at bring banks is a problem (up from 51% in 2004).

* An increase from 17% to 27% of adults who claim to recycle 40%-60% of their waste.

* Non-recyclers drops from 14% to 6%.

The survey shows 64% of all adults believe those littering at bring banks should be prosecuted.

Up to 30% of all adults admitted leaving their recyclables on the ground at bring banks.

Repak chief executive Andrew Hetherington said the number of people who created litter at bring banks was unacceptably high.

“People need to understand that if you leave material at a bring bank, regardless of whether it is full or not, that you are officially ‘dumping’ and a litter bug,” he said.

He said litter bugs were jeopardising the expansion of bring banks. Also, they were adding to the difficulties of collection as staff have to segregate the dumped materials.

Changing attitudes to recycling and the increased demand on recycling facilities is starting to put strain on the recycling infrastructure, with 63% of adults believing bring banks are not emptied often enough.

Also, almost half claim they are running out of space in their recycling bins after two weeks.

Recycling of materials across all packaging types reported an increase, with glass topping the list at 82% (up from 62%), followed by plastic bottles and paper, both on 72% and aluminium cans on 70%.