‘Utterly daft’ 27-point flowchart helps civil servants find correct bin for their rubbish
CIVIL servants are being instructed where to dispose of their rubbish with a complicated flow chart that’s been branded “utterly daft”.
Pen-pushers have drawn up a mystifying step-by-step guide which includes dozens of dos and don’ts — and even a bizarre “crumple test” for waste paper.
The Sun has seen the bewildering “Where Should I Throw my Rubbish” guide which has been drawn up by the Sustainability and Plastic Reduction Action Team — SPRAT, for short.
The chart, above, is on display in the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs but has been branded as “baffling” because it is so muddled.
The confusing diagram outlines a mass of different disposal combinations for waste which is categorised as either metal (including foil), paper, card, mixed (inseparable) plastic, wood, food waste, glass and “not sure”.
Employees face questions relating to each such as — for unwanted paper — “if you crumple it into a ball, does it stay crumpled?”.
READ MORE ON RECYCLING
If binning plastic, and it’s not a bag, workers are invited to try to spot if it carries any one of seven recycling symbols.
The SPRAT team caution these “can be small and engrained in the plastic”.
Other options for the Defra staff include checking if card to be thrown out is “very greasy” and if food waste “is a tea bag”.
If so, workers are invited to take time to check the brand’s website because “most teabags are not compostable!”
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The barrage of questions is to determine if rubbish goes into one of three bins — green, blue or red.
A Whitehall source told The Sun that Environment Secretary Steve Barclay thought the guide was “utterly daft”.
The source added: “He wants officials to focus on practical measures to make recycling simpler and easier across the department and not waste time on devising baffling flow charts and crumple tests.”
