Household recycling is still causing confusion in Berwickshire, decades after the service was first introduced in the Scottish Borders. The result is that rubbish is ending up as waste when it could be recycled.

A survey last week by the environmental group Greener Duns found that almost 20% of householders are unsure about which everyday items can be put in their kerbside recycling bins. “We found that people know about recycling items such as paper, cardboard, tins and plastic bottles, but don’t know, for instance, that they can recycle plastic carrier bags or plastic film from food trays,” said Greener Duns chair, Eloner Crawford. “They often put these in the general waste, when they can, in fact, go in the recycling bin.”“A lot of people also said they didn’t know that retail outlets such as the Co-op provide collection points for recycling soft plastics like crisp packets, chocolate and biscuit wrappers and the lids from yoghurt pots. If you can scrunch up a thin plastic and it pings back up when you let it go, it’s a soft plastic and can be recycled. So many of these end up in general waste because people just don’t know,” Crawford added.Local Scottsh Borders Councillor Mark Rowley said, “As a council we are clearly not getting our message across about recycling.

”As well as researching recycling, the Greener Duns survey asked the public what environmental improvements they would most like to see in Berwickshire. These included:

More litter control, Traffic-free cycle routes, Town-centre bottle banks for Duns, An e-bike scheme,The Co-op to provide a recycling bin for crisp packets and bottle tops in schools, A repair shop in Duns More recycling of garden waste.