Bracknell's Recycling Blunder Costs £900k!

Residents putting the wrong rubbish in recycling bins has cost Bracknell Forest Council more than £900,000 in three years, new figures show.

Processing contaminated recycling reached £319,223 in 2025/26, up from £304,613 the year before and £276,917 in 2023/24, taking the three-year total to £900,753.

The council says contamination creates costs at several stages of the recycling process, including sorting out unwanted materials, transporting them and disposing of waste which cannot be recycled.

Around 2,060 tonnes of recycling attributed to Bracknell Forest was rejected in 2025/26, compared with 2,062 tonnes the previous year and 1,884 tonnes in 2023/24.

However, the council said these figures do not represent solely the amount of rubbish residents incorrectly put in recycling bins. The tonnage also includes material lost during the sorting process at the recycling facility used by Bracknell Forest, Reading and Wokingham councils.

Despite rising processing costs, the number of contamination notices issued by waste crews has fallen: 15,735 in 2025/26, down from 17,852 and 22,929 in earlier years.

Councillor Ryan Frost, cabinet member for the environment and climate change, said:

"The quality of our recycling is just as important as how much we collect.

"When the wrong items end up in recycling bins, they affect the quality of materials and mean our teams and machinery spend time handling and processing items that should never have been there in the first place.

"The cost of contamination includes not only contamination charges, but also the haulage and disposal costs for materials that cannot be recycled and must be sent to energy from waste."

Cllr Frost urged residents to put the correct items in recycling and general waste bins and not to put recycling in bags, which can prevent materials being properly sorted.

He added: "Small changes like these can make a real difference to the quality of recycling, reduce unnecessary costs and help more materials get recycled successfully."

Katie French, Local Democracy Reporter