Dorset Council partners with environmental charity in new campaign to stop people trying to recycle disposable nappies

National survey reveals that more than one million UK nappy users are putting them in their recycling bin.

Dorset Council has joined forces with environmental charity Keep Britain Tidy and other local authorities across the country to launch a new campaign aimed at stopping the millions of disposable nappies that are contaminating recycling.

The campaign comes after a new survey revealed that seven per cent of nappy users – parents, grandparents and carers – wrongly put their disposable nappies in with their recycling, which equates to more than one million people.

Each year there are around 3,300 births recorded in Dorset and, at an estimated 2,200 nappies per baby per year, this means there are about seven million used disposable nappies entering the Dorset household waste stream every year.

Recycling bins containing materials which cannot be recycled at the kerbside cannot be collected for fear of contaminating the whole lorry load.  Instead they are collected as rubbish and sent for treatment, at a greater expense to the council and the taxpayer.

The national survey, carried out by YouGov, also revealed that younger people aged 18-24 were more likely to put them in their recycling bin (15%) and more than one in ten Londoners who used disposable nappies (11%) tried to recycle them.

Now, Dorset Council is trying to reach nappy users with a new campaign that has been tested with them and offers a clear message that disposable nappies should never go in their recycling. They also hope more people will choose to start using reusable nappies, which are far better for the environment and save money for both parents and the Council.

The campaign is fronted by ‘Ted’ and will be appearing on billboards around the country and on social media to drive the message home. In Dorset, the campaign will mainly be supported by social media posts and newsprint advertising specifically targeted at families.

Cllr Jill Haynes, Dorset Council’s Portfolio Holder for Customer and Community Services said “We are very pleased to have the opportunity to work in partnership with Keep Britain Tidy and eight other councils to raise awareness of the problem of nappy contamination in the recycling system.  We aim to educate nappy users that disposable nappies should never be put in the recycling bin and encourage them to change their behaviour”.

Keep Britain Tidy’s Chief Executive Allison Ogden-Newton OBE said: “We are delighted to be partnering with Dorset Council to tackle this issue. Recycling contamination, including disposable nappies, costs local authorities hundreds of thousands of pounds a year and stops many tonnes of waste from being recycled.

“The message to everyone who uses disposable nappies is clear – nappies never go in your recycling.”

Keep Britain Tidy is also calling on nappy manufacturers to label their products as non-recyclable to help avoid confusion.

Allison added: “We know from our research that there is confusion among the public about recycling – our survey has found that a third of nappy users admit to being confused – so we call on all manufacturers of disposable nappies to use eye-catching labeling that clearly communicates their product cannot be recycled.

“Our campaign features a new symbol that we would like to see carried on every pack of nappies so that there is clear and consistent advice to the public, many of whom are trying to do the right thing with what they perceive, incorrectly and tragically, is a recyclable product.”