����ý

Local councils are calling for the government to make recycling labels clearer on packaging to help avoid recycling mistakes.

That's after a new study organised by local councils revealed that households in England dumped 5.6 million tonnes of packaging waste last year, with 70,000 tonnes mistakenly put in food waste.

The report also found that when recyclable waste goes in the wrong bins, it costs councils more to treat it, and also creates more emissions.

Now local councillors and politicians are having a big meeting to talk about how these problems could be solved.

The report was organised by the Local Government Association (LGA), County Councils Network (CCN) and District Councils Network (DCN).

These groups are made up of local councils in England.

Councils are groups of people who help manage the way an area is run, and are in charge of things like schools, bin collections and building play parks.

They say managing this amount of waste is expensive for councils, and causing them problems as well as more emissions.

Adam Hug, environment spokesperson for the LGA, said the government's focus should be "on reducing unnecessary waste" to help tackle the problem.

The group have asked government ministers to make sure that clearer labels were being used on packaging.

They hope this will help people to throw away their rubbish and recycling correctly.

What is extended producer responsibility?

Councils have worked hard to increase rates of recycling, says the DCN environment spokesperson Andy Graham.

"However, councils can only do so much," he said, blaming a rise in online shopping for increased amounts of packaging.

A plan has been suggested to councils that the people who make packaging - packaging producers - should pay for part of the cost of recycling or removing rubbish.

This scheme is called extended producer responsibility, or EPR.

But the councillors fear this will not be enough, and that they will have to pay even more to sort out recycling.

What has the government said?

A spokesperson for the government department in charge of the environment said: "This government will end our throwaway society and stop the avalanche of rubbish that is filling our streets."

The Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) spokesperson added that they do plan to start the EPR scheme to encourage businesses to reduce how much plastic they use in their packaging.

They also promised to introduce a system to encourage shoppers to return old packaging items.

They added they were "committed to cutting waste" and encouraging people to "re-use, reduce and recycle more resources".