I HAVE just received a leaflet from Cheshire East extolling their achievements regarding recycling and also explaining that recyclable waste should be placed loose in the grey bin or the bin won’t be emptied.

So far, so good.

Previously the instructions for recycling shredded paper was to bag it. What happens now as there is no mention of shredded paper in the leaflet?

After waiting 14 minutes on Cheshire East’s helpline, I got the following answer: l We can no longer recycle shredded waste, it breaks the machine.

l Put shredded paper in household waste.

If the volume of shredded waste is low then it would not be an onerous tasks for the sorters to extract it and so bypass the delicate machine.

If, on the other hand, the volume is high then provision should be made for handling it. So, contrary to the stated aim, Cheshire East is actively encouraging people to discard recyclable paper.

No wonder it wasn’t included in the leaflet.

Cheshire East resident