How winter makes recycling harder with 40% jump in contamination

Jonathan Scott at Kemsley papermill, Kent, with bales of mixed paper waste ready to be recycled. Photograph: Andy Hall/The Observer

Plastic bottles are reviled for polluting the oceans, leaching chemicals into drinks and being a source of microplastics in the human body.

They even cause problems with recycling. When plastic bottles are mixed with cardboard in recycling bins, in the wet winter months the sodden cardboard wraps around the plastic bottles and trays, causing havoc at recycling plants.