About 4,000 dirty nappies are wrongly dumped into recycling bins in Leicestershire every day - and the cost to the taxpayer is huge

An incredible 4,000 dirty nappies are wrongly dumped into recycling bins in Leicestershire every day.

The huge stack of nappies is part of 5,500 tonnes of soiled material that go to waste in the county each year.

And that costs taxpayers across Harborough as well as the rest of Leicestershire £500,000 to dispose of.

In a bid to put that right Reducing Waste Contamination has been set up by Leicestershire County Council.

The campaign is urging people to recycle properly by showcasing the catastrophic result of putting the wrong rubbish in the wrong bins.

The two-minute video gives a behind-the-scenes look at what happens to residents’ recycling.

The dramatic film focuses on the three main recycling culprits - filthy nappies, textiles and food waste.

The clip exposes the extent of contamination in Leicestershire and highlights the harmful by-products of disposing of rubbish incorrectly.

Up to 4,000 used nappies, a tonne of food waste and countless articles of clothing have to be extracted from piles of recyclables every month.

It’s dirty work and it often has to be done painstakingly by hand.

Cllr Blake Pain, the county council’s cabinet member for environment and transport, said: “Putting the wrong items in your recycling bin can contaminate good quality, recyclable material.

“Not only can this have a detrimental impact on our environment, it is time-consuming to manage and costly to the taxpayer.

“But by making sure we’re recycling right, by rinsing pots, tubs, jars, trays and bottles, placing dirty nappies in general waste bins and donating old clothes to local charity shops or clothing banks, we can work towards making Leicestershire a more environmentally-sustainable place to live."

The video graphically illustrating the full extent of the county council's battle against contamination can be seen at: https://youtu.be/sEezBC67hwo

An extended version of the film revealing Leicestershire’s recycling processes, from kerbside collection to sending on for reprocessing, can be viewed at www.lesswaste.org.uk

Recycling rubbish collected by Harborough District Council is sent to and sorted at Casepak, a Materials Recycling Facility in Leicester.