COMMUNITY clean ups and litter picks are inadvertently harming recycling rates in Bradford, a meeting has heard.

A new report shows that Bradford is drastically failing to meet its target for recycling waste.

Bradford Council had set a goal of recycling 40 per cent of waste produced in the district. But the most recent figures show the amount being recycled is currently just 28.3 per cent.

This is well down from the 36 per cent being recycled the previous year, and far below the Yorkshire average of 37.5 per cent.

The issue was discussed at a recent meeting of Bradford Council’s Corporate Scrutiny Committee, where members were told that the figures were being hit by unintended side effects from well intentioned community groups.

The committee was given an update on the District Plan – which sets out a series of targets for Bradford. Recycling rates is one of several targets that have been missed.

A report to members says there were numerous reasons for this – including that 45 per cent of recycling collected from homes was “contaminated” with non-recyclable waste.

But the most eye-opening claim in the report was that organised litter picks and community clean ups were hitting recycling rates. While this good work cleaned up local areas, the fact that recyclable waste was not separated from general waste meant all the litter collected had to go to landfill.

The report said: “Neighbourhood clean-ups have unfortunately caused an adverse effect on the recycling rate. More waste is collected as ‘litter-picks’ which reduces the recycling rate. This should have been classed as fly-tipped material.”

Another issue was businesses using public street bins to dump their commercial waste rather than their own trade waste bins.

Councillor Brendan Stubbs (Lib Dem, Eccleshill) said it was disappointing to see the rates dropping. He said: “I don’t see how we can get this above 40 per cent. The awareness of recycling is massive, how are we going backwards?”

Officers said work was being done to engage with residents in areas where recycling rates were particularly low.

Bradford Council Leader Susan Hinchcliffe said: “As much as we support them, a lot of the community clean ups haven’t helped us with our recycling rates.”

She said there was also an issue with businesses using public litter bins to dispose of their waste, rather than their own waste bins.

Cllr Hincliffe added: “I reported a business this week that was using a bin outside its premises rather than its own bin. That is an issue our waste team is focusing on.”