• ROBERT Robinson asked what happens to our recycling, (Can recycling be improved? December 3).

I was interested, too, so myself and my older children visited the Veolia recycling centre a couple of years ago.

Yes it was interesting and they kindly provided a minibus for those who wished it. Look on their website to see when Veolia will be running free visits again.

Basically as well as lots of sorting machinery and conveyer belts a lot of the recycling is also sorted by hand. That’s why the council asks residents to wash and dry their food recycling.

It would help us all in Camden if all the estate and park bins were green all over, with a very large recycling symbol for recycling bins and black for general rubbish and brown for compost – which they are not all. Also street litter bins could be better marked.

I often remove polystyrene packaging and take-away food boxes from the recycling and compost bins on our estate block; often from visitors, council workers, or tradespeople, who don’t even live here, as our recycling and compost bins are visible but our general rubbish bins are hidden, as under chutes.

I have been told the Veolia will not collect the recycling or compost bins if they are contaminated with the wrong rubbish.

I used to live in a different area of the country and the recycling rate was always over 50 per cent. Unlike the 30 per cent of Camden.

We did not have recycling bins but left clear bags with all our mixed recycling in, but not glass, and small brown compost caddies, on our door stop once a week.

We took our glass to sort ourselves at glass banks in various locations, and old electricals and batteries, and our black bin bags into large estate-style bins with lids, away from the footpaths. And it worked.

This was better than the obstruction and contamination from bins on the street we see in Camden, where other people dump their general litter too.

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