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Public Relations

If you are a journalist wanting to contact North Norfolk District Council for information or comment, please call Nick Manthorpe, Media Officer, on 01263 516059 or Peter Battrick, Communications Manager, on 01263 516344. You can also email media@north-norfolk.gov.uk

The team also produces the quarterly Outlook magazine for North Norfolk residents, as well as meeting the council's in-house design and branding business needs.

Advice on the doorstep to cut recycling contamination

26 January 2010

Homes in four North Norfolk communities will get face-to-face advice starting next month [February], to help combat a rise in the contamination of recyclable rubbish.

On 13 February, North Norfolk District Council begins a three-week doorstep advice exercise covering 13,000 households in the places with the District’s highest contamination rates: Fakenham, Mundesley, North Walsham and Stalham.

While North Norfolk residents recycle 46 per cent of their household waste, one of the highest rates in the country, the rate of contamination of household recyclables has risen steadily over the last three years. In a spot sample of one tonne taken in September, 13 per cent was contamination (the 2008/09 average was 9.5 per cent).

In 2008/09, NNDC spent more than £88,000 disposing of 1250 tonnes of contaminants — things that can’t be recycled at the Materials Recycling Facility at Costessey, near Norwich, used by Norfolk’s councils. Much of this ‘contamination’ is simply plastic that the MRF can’t process, like packaging and food trays.

After being collected at the kerbside, these items are taken to the MRF and then at further cost they have to be sorted from the correct recyclable items and be taken away for disposal.

Advisers working for NNDC will be calling at people’s homes during daytime hours, and at evenings and weekends in the target communities. The doorstep advice campaign is designed to improve recycling rates by increasing people’s understanding of NNDC’s waste collection service, and specifically how to reduce contamination. It can also help existing recyclers to recycle even more.

The doorstep advice campaign is designed to improve recycling rates by increasing people’s understanding of NNDC’s waste collection service, and specifically how to reduce contamination. It can also help existing recyclers to recycle even more.

NNDC can only recycle the following items:

  • paper (newspaper, writing paper, phone books, etc)
  • cardboard (boxes, cereal packets, etc)
  • plastic bottles (drinks, bleach, shampoo etc) without their lids
  • aluminium drinks cans (like soft drink or beer cans)
  • steel food cans (for baked beans, tinned fruit and vegetables)
  • aerosol cans (like deodorant and air freshener cans).


ENDS