East Riding residents urged not to put bullets in recycling after site incident

Residents in the East Riding are being urged not to take live ammunition to recycling sites – after a bullet was accidentally fired at a site.

The bullet was set off by machinery sorting through waste sent from the Carnaby household waste recycling site last Wednesday (27 October) – but thankfully no one was hurt.

After the incident, which just caused a loud bang, staff carefully sifted through the remaining waste and found a second live bullet.

The incident happened at a metal recycling plant in Hull, which was sorting through waste taken there from the Carnaby household waste recycling site, in Moor Lane, Carnaby, near Bridlington.

It was later discovered that a resident had put the bullets into a container for small domestic appliances at the Carnaby site.

Now, East Riding of Yorkshire Council is urging residents never to take live bullets or any ammunition to recycling centres – but to take them to their local police station to be disposed of properly.

Paul Tripp, head of streetscene services at the council, said: “This was a potentially dangerous situation and someone at the recycling site could have been seriously hurt.

“The person who had these bullets maybe hadn’t realised they were live and thought they were doing the right thing by recycling them.

“But these are dangerous items and they need to be disposed of safely and carefully by taking them to a police station.

“So we are urging residents to please, never take live ammunition to a recycling site or put it in their wheelie bins at home.”

The council has also reissued its plea to residents not to place batteries in their wheelie bins, after a battery started a fire in the back of a bin lorry in Bridlington on Wednesday (3 November).

Thankfully the fire was put out by the crew. This was the second incident of a battery left in bins for collection and sparking a bin lorry fire in Bridlington in two years.

Batteries have also been blamed for causing other fires at recycling sites in the area after they were struck by sorting machinery.

Paul Tripp said: “Residents must understand that batteries can start fires. The best way to recycle them is to take them along to household waste recycling sites, or to local shops and supermarkets, where they’ll find special battery recycling containers.”