IT COMES as no surprise to me that half of British households recycle less than half of their waste and six out of ten people say they are “rubbish” at recycling.

Two separate surveys reveal the confusion surrounding how we dispose of our waste.

I’d love to stick more in my recycling bins, especially plastic goods, but where I live, the leaflet we receive from the council has as much in the ‘we don’t recycle’ section as the ‘what we can recycle’ bit. And to be honest, I don’t think many people actually read the dos and don’ts. Yoghurt cartons can’t be recycled, yet every week I walk along the road and see recycling bins bursting at the seams with them. The same goes for Tetra Pak cartons and take-away trays.

I don’t know how true it is but on a visit to a recycling plant I was told that if a bin contains just one item that isn’t meant to be there, the whole lot is spoiled and none of it is recycled. If it is true a heck of a lot of stuff put out for recycling must end up in landfill.

I’ve also been told that any envelope with a plastic window in it can’t be recycled, yet there’s nothing on our list to say this. And I read how black trays, used for microwavable meals and meat, can’t be recycled because machines in the sorting process are unable to detect them.

There are numbers on the bottom of recyclable products relating to the type of plastic, not all of which can be broken down and recycled. I am puzzled as to why any company uses plastic that cannot be broken down or recycled. And why do some councils recycle products that others don’t?

York Press:

Plastic peril: it should be much easier to recycle plastic bottles like these, says Helen Mead

For the householder, there are other barriers to recycling. Prince Charles, who often wades into the debate, put forward a suggestion that we put two bins in the bathroom to aid recycling. This is all well and good if people have bathrooms the size of Norfolk - as I am sure he does. But in the average family bathroom space is at a premium and many people struggle to accommodate one bin.

People living in flats, like my sister, have to separate their recycling into bags before lugging it some distance to neighbourhood bins.

However tricky it is to recycle, our growing waste problem needs addressing, particularly plastic.

It can take 400 years for a beer can holder to break down and even longer for some nappies and plastic bottles.

There is so much plastic in the world that it could form its own geological layer of the Earth, scientists have warned.

The story of the whale found dying off the coast of Norway with 30 plastic bags in its stomach, causing it digestion problems and leaving it malnourished, was heart-rending. Birds have been spotted feeding plastic to their young and plastic waste has even been found in the Arctic.

Encouraging household recycling and the small charge for plastic bags are steps in the right direction - but so much more should be done by the powers that be.

I was amazed to learn that Kenya - a developing country - recently introduced the world’s toughest law aimed at reducing plastic pollution. The nation joins more than 40 other countries that have banned, partly banned or taxed single use plastic bags, including China, France, Rwanda, and Italy.

It is not easy. I’m sitting with a plastic laptop on my knee and a plastic phone in my pocket. I have just opened a plastic DVD case and picked up a plastic remote control.

I don’t know the answer. But if we are intelligent enough to send space probes to orbit Saturn, surely someone does.