SUFFOLK: A live cat, a dead dog, sex toys, a live hand grenade and a little girl’s homework have all ended up in recycling centres across the county in recent years, it can be revealed today,

And now the county has appealed to people to be more careful about what they take to recycling containers at the household waste sites.

Meanwhile borough bosses are keen that the blue bins should not get contaminated by non-recycleable waste.

Everything placed in recycling bins is sorted at a “materials recycling facility” – the main one for this area is at Great Blakenham.

Staff at one of Suffolk’s recycling centres were shocked when they found the body of a large dog – which had been savagely killed – among material that was due to be reused.

On another occasion a cat was found to have used up one of his or her nine lives by getting into a recycling skip.

A council spokesman said: “Thankfully it was not injured and we passed it on to an animal refuge.”

Something else “live” that ended up in a recycling skip was a grenade which forced the closure of the Portman Walk centre in Ipswich earlier this year.

And the mum of Katie Hotchkiss, who lives near Eye, caused a major search after she accidentally took her daughter’s homework to the Brome recycling centre.

Katie noticed the loss shortly after her mum had been to the centre – and after a search with staff was able to retrieve the precious work.

Lisa Chambers, Suffolk County Council cabinet member and portfolio holder for waste, said: “When people mistakenly put the wrong things in our recycling containers, the contamination can cause us real problems.

“Staff at household waste recycling centres work hard to spot potential contamination but if they don’t, genuine recycling can end up having to go to landfill at a cost to tax payers.

“One of the biggest problems is plastic carrier bags being put in the wrong skip.

“They can be recycled at every site but they need to be separated out and put in the right container.

“Household waste sites in Suffolk already recycle more than 70 per cent of the waste they receive and we are working to increase that.

“I’d urge everyone to think carefully about what they put into recycling containers.”

n Have you lost something precious in a recycling skip? Write to Your Letters, Evening Star, 30 Lower Brook Street, Ipswich, IP4 1AN, or e-mail eveningstarletters@eveningstar.co.uk.