CONFUSED Ipswich residents have been told some of their recyclable waste is no longer recyclable.Ipswich Borough Council recently refused to empty blue bins on Bramford Road because some of the materials in them can clog up the sorting machinery.

CONFUSED Ipswich residents have been told some of their recyclable waste is no longer recyclable.

Ipswich Borough Council recently refused to empty blue bins on Bramford Road because some of the materials in them can clog up the sorting machinery.

Instead the council put stickers on the full bins and left them to be emptied on the next collection in two weeks time.

Items such as plastic bags, plastic film and shredded paper, which people were allowed to put in their blue bins when the scheme began in November 2003, are no longer accepted.

The change came after the council switched its recycling from Kent to a depot in Great Blakeham which could not process them.

Gavin Walker, 25, of Bramford Road, said: "As far as I know plastic bags are recyclable so why can't they go in the recycling bin?"

He added: "I've had enough. I don't need to have all this rubbish outside my house for a month.

"I offered to take the rubbish down to the council building but was told I would be prosecuted for fly-tipping."

Hazel Beales, a carer from Bramford Road, said: "I thought the blue bins were a brilliant idea at first but we are all busy and I don't have time to sort out all the little bits of plastic.

"The council should be encouraging us to recycle but instead they are being petty."

Over five thousand blue bins were delivered to residents in the Rushmere, Whitehouse, California and Bramford Road areas of Ipswich in November 2003.

They are part of a three-bin pilot scheme where black bins are for non-recyclable waste, brown bins are for garden waste and blue bins are for most dry recyclable waste.

Council officer Barbara Moss-Taylor said the council had sent out leaflets in January telling people of the change.

She said: "Some householders are putting items in that we have requested they don't.

"They are recyclable but clog up the sorting machinery and are of little recyclable value."

She also cited an independent study conducted in April this year that showed 80 per cent of householders were satisfied with the council waste collection service.

However, the study of 2551 people with blue bins in Ipswich found 16 pc of those questioned think the scheme is impractical.

The Green Party co-ordinator for Suffolk John Matthissen said: "It is very important that we achieve decent high levels of recycling.

"There needs to be a certain amount of give and take at the collection. The council could do better."