"Mummy can I recycle this yoghurt pot?", "No sorry it’s not on the list!" Encouragingly it seems that every TV and radio programme, newspaper and magazine article is talking about recycling and climate change. Also schools are teaching the benefits of recycling to help save the planet, however when children come home and try to put these ideas into practice they often find they cannot for reasons that parents are often at a loss to explain.

Households receive lists from local authorities that are not only restrictive but often confusing. An example of this are lists that say you cannot put margarine tubs, yoghurt pots and bottle lids in with your other plastics to be recycled. This suggests that they cannot be recycled – NOT TRUE. A similar story often exists with paper and card, which prevents households from putting Yellow Pages, wrapping paper or envelopes with windows, in with their recycling.

Greencycle believes that a broad input material specification is essential to make it as easy as possible for the householders to decide if something can be recycled. Greencycle has agreed a lower grade specification for multiple types of plastic into the re-processors, rather than restricting to say PET type 1 and HDPE type 2, which always confuse the householder. Where possible Greencycle likes to work on the principle that "if it looks like plastic, it is plastic". Likewise, for paper and card, which Greencycle collects co-mingled. This solves the householder's dilemma of whether a greetings card is paper or card. We are able to do this because we price contracts based on lower quality gate incomes but made-up for on increased volumes. This way it changes the way people think. Rather than an approach of just recycling certain items, they can now start to think that practically all dry rubbish generated inside the house can be recycled.