Please can you supply electronic copies of the following information.

1. The methods of disposal for rejected household recycling used by your authority for the following years:
a) 2017/18: EfW (Energy from Waste) and RDF (Refuse Derived Fuel)
b) 2018/19: EfW (Energy from Waste) and RDF (Refuse Derived Fuel)
c) 2019/20: EfW (Energy from Waste) and SRF (Solid Recovered Fuel)
d) 2020/21: EfW (Energy from Waste) and SRF (Solid Recovered Fuel)

2. The annual cost to dispose of rejected household recycling within your authority for the following years:
a) 2017/18: £185,624
b) 2018/19: £243,753
c) 2019/20: £609,541 (Includes £379,973 Wet MDR & rejected Load Costs)
d) 2020/21: £690,056 (Includes £469,305 Wet MDR & rejected Load Costs)

3. The main reasons for household recycling being rejected. For example, items were contaminated or not suitable for recycling.
Mixed dry recycling (MDR) collected from the kerbside is processed via a Material Recovery Facility (MRF). The facility is designed to sort specific types of waste. (i.e. Plastic bottles, pots, tubs and trays, paper and cardboard, and metal tins, cans, aerosols and foil). Items that cannot be recycled under prevailing conditions (which are specified by third-party material reprocessors) are extracted and rejected. However large quantities of contamination can also make it difficult for the machines and pickers to identify target materials, so a small proportion of these may also be rejected as a result.

From Nov 2019 to March 2021 some loads were rejected on receipt at the transfer stations, as the MDR was wet.
The rejections of MDR due to high moisture content were the result of changes in the fibre market. Following the implementation of import restrictions in China, there was more demand for UK and European markets for paper and cardboard, and stricter quality requirements of third-party material reprocessors, on this product as a result. The high moisture content in Wokingham MDR was caused during periods of rainfall (seasonally) from which the open-top boxes, provided to residents for the collection of recyclables, could offer little or no protection. These have now been replaced with closable bags which has alleviated the problem.

4. Any guidance or instructions under which recycling centres determine the acceptance or rejection of items collected within your authority.
The contractor is able to reject loads of MDR where they contain more than 5% contamination, by weight or volume, or items of waste which would adversely impact processing.

As described in 3. above, loads can be fully or partially rejected if the load is very wet. However the contractor has worked together to minimise rejections. Where there was capacity at the MRF, wet loads were processed separately from dry loads, in order to enable non-fibre elements to be extracted for recycling. This enabled us to maximise the amount of material that was separated, as well as to ensure that the recyclability of the dry paper and cardboard was not compromised.

In addition, Individual items of waste may be rejected during the sorting process, as described above.