Top recyclers in the borough
Published
Tuesday 23 September, 2025
Updated
Wednesday 24 September, 2025
Swale Borough Council have revealed the borough’s top recyclers based on their bin collection day.
People whose collections take place on a Wednesday have the lowest rates of contamination within Swale.
However, Friday - which has the highest contamination rates - is sitting at 50 rejected loads since April this year.
This recycling week, organised by Recycle Now, the council are asking residents to use their bins correctly and to work together to improve Swale’s recycling rates.
There are many items that can be recycled at home, but it is important not to put the incorrect waste in your blue bin, because contamination can cause an entire load to be discarded - costing the taxpayer thousands of pounds.
It’s estimated that each load of recycling that gets rejected due to contamination costs a staggering £2,000 extra - as it costs much more to burn the waste.
If your recycling is contaminated, it won't be emptied and will be “locked out”, with information explaining why it hasn’t been collected being attached to your bin.
Your waste will only be collected at your next scheduled collection if the contamination has been removed.
The top 4 contaminants in Swale’s recycling are:
- Food
- Textiles (clothes and bedding etc)
- Sanitary waste (dirty nappies etc - we know you don’t want your dirty nappies hanging around… but please don’t put them in the recycling, please place them in your green wheelie bin)
- Black bags (even if full of recycling these contaminate recycling loads – please put recycling loose into your blue bin, but if you want to place it in a bag use clear ones only)
Food waste is by far the most common, and problematic, contaminator and often leads to entire vehicle loads being discarded.
But there is no need to put food waste in your blue bin, when you can get a free food waste caddy from the council which gets collected each week.
Swale Borough Council recently ran a successful sticker campaign to promote the free caddies, and now want to see the level of recycling go up across the borough too.
From April 2026 food waste services become compulsory across the nation, so the council are promoting the service in preparation for this change.
Cllr Dolley Wooster, chair of the council’s Environment and Climate Change Committee, said:
“As a borough we are seeing unacceptable levels of contamination in our recycling, and we all need to work together to sort this out.
“Using your bins correctly means plenty of space for your waste before the next collection, and if you are in doubt, then place it in the green refuse bin.
“With a free food waste caddy, you can keep your green bin cleaner and get it collected each week.
“Putting food waste into your recycling means more cost to the taxpayer and less recycling in Swale.
“If you put contamination in your bin the council won’t collect it, collecting it can end up ruining an entire load of recycling that other residents have taken time to do, which could have been made into new things for us to use.
“So, how does your collection day stack up to the rest? Why not check in with your neighbour to see how they are recycling and use Swale’s online tool to see what can or can’t go in your blue bin.
“Together we can make a real difference, sending less to the incinerator - saving us and you money - and benefiting the planet by reusing valuable resources.”
Collection days based on rejected recycling loads, between April to July 2025:
- Friday – 50 rejected loads
- Monday - 40 rejected loads
- Thursday – 34 rejected loads
- Tuesday – 32 rejected loads
- Wednesdays – 25 rejected loads
