Recycling centre has low contamination rate and unusual objects

While residents of the east of England on the whole have proved adept at selecting objects that can be recycled for collection, some bizarre things have arrived at a Norwich recycling centre.

A samurai sword, dead cats and dogs and a doctor’s stethoscope are among the unusual items which have ended up at the Norfolk Environmental Waste Services (News) recycling centre.

However, while the objects, which were noted as part of the centres firs audit, will raise eyebrows, they are not part of a general trend of dumping inappropriate items.

The audit revealed a contamination rate – the percentage of waste that should not be there – of 3.84 per cent.

But, with contamination raising the cost of recycling, bosses at the News centre are calling for people to think more before they dispose of items.

Steve Jenkins local authority contracts manager at News told local newspaper The Advertiser: "We need people to think and to be sensible about what they are doing. We get saucepans and cooking trays and we don’t want them - they all have to be hand picked and we’re not able to the job that we are supposed to do while we’re picking out items that are not supposed to be there.

"The higher the level of contamination the more it costs to recycle, resulting in higher costs to everyone."