Pendle News Room

“And we’re stepping up our efforts to make sure the right things go in the right bins,” he announced.

Thanks to funding from Lancashire County Council, Pendle Council has been able to temporarily appoint a Recycling Contamination Officer.

Their job is to help tackle the problem of people putting the wrong things in their recycling bins.

If people don’t put the things we can collect in their recycling bins, sometimes whole wagonloads have to be rejected at Lancashire County Council’s recycling facilities.

In 2019/20, a staggering 323 tonnes of paper and card from Pendle's blue bins had to be sent to landfill at a cost to council taxpayers of around £43,000.

Pendle’s brown bins are for cans, glass and plastics. 

But Lancashire County Council has found that around a quarter of what we collect from brown bins can’t be recycled.

That’s why Pendle people are being urged to check their recycling and refuse calendar to make sure they recycle it right - or to visit our website www.pendle.gov.uk/recycling

Waste and Recycling Co-ordinator Carole Taylor said: 
“One of the biggest problems we have is people putting plastic bags into their recycling bins!

“To get the message across, our crews are now putting stickers on recycling bins which have the wrong things in,” she explained.  

“If things which can’t be recycled are in the recycling bin they get a letter asking them to take out the things we can’t recycle so that we can empty the bin next time,” she stated.

“If this continues to happen then we may have to take their recycling bins away!

“We can only collect certain things for recycling in the brown and blue bins, and therefore not everything that has a recycling symbol on it can be recycled in our bins” explained Carole.

Local people are also being asked to check their recycling and refuse calendars or visit Pendle Council’s website www.pendle.gov.uk/bankholbins so they don’t miss out on getting their bins emptied over the festive season.

“Our crews will be getting a well-earned break on Christmas Day Friday 25 December and New Year’s Day Friday 1 January,” stated Councillor Iqbal.

People living in parts of Colne and Nelson whose normal collection day is a Friday, will have their bins emptied six days earlier - on Saturday 19 December. 

And on Friday 1 January their collection will be moved to the following day - Saturday 2 January.

Pendle’s bin crews are working the bank holiday Monday, 28 December.

So people living in Earby, Salterforth, parts of Barnoldswick, Reedley and parts of Brierfield who have their bins emptied on a Monday will have their collections as normal.

Carole added:
“Please make sure you put your bins out by 7.30am on the day of collection. 

“But if fancy a lie-in, you can put your bin out after 6pm the night before.

Carole said:

“Don’t forget clean mince pie foil containers and plastic food trays can go into your brown bin.  

“And large plastic biscuit and chocolate tubs which people buy at this time of year can now be recycled in your brown bin, too – once they are empty!”

“Make recycling more for Pendle your resolution for 2021!”  Added Councillor Iqbal.

Information on how to recycle real Christmas trees at nearby recycling centres can be found on Pendle Council’s website www.pendle.gov.uk/bankholbins

And gardeners on the Council’s garden waste scheme are being reminded that there are no collections in December, January and February.