A councillor is urging local people to sharpen their recycling skills by making use of their blue bins.
Tony Hassan says the festive season highlighted a number of incidents of contamination as bins were used incorrectly.
Derry City and Strabane recorded the lowest recycling rate in Northern Ireland for 2015 / 2016.
Just over a quarter of the waste lifted in the region was suitable for dry recycling with a further 8% sent for composting.
Councillor Hassan said:
“I understand that over the Christmas and New Year period many households have maybe two or three times the amount of rubbish which they need to get rid of. I know of a number of incidents of contamination of bins that has happened in the greater Shantallow area in the past week.
"I would appeal to residents not to contaminate blue bins by using black bin bags, bin liners, plastic bags or carrier bags or throwing other harmful items in the bins. Blue bins should only contain recyclable items. Non-recyclable items contaminate the lorry load resulting in it ending up as landfill. This means greater cost to the council.
"Using the Blue bins will help us to increase the amount of household waste recycled from the Derry City and Strabane District Council area, lessen disposal costs, enable us to continue to mitigate harmful greenhouse gas emissions and allows us to provide a more appropriate service and better value for local residents."
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