A warning has been issued today about recycling Easter egg packaging.

Cotswold District Council is reminding residents that the large green recycling bank at the Rissington Road Car Park in Bourton-on-the-Water is for food and drink cartons only, such as those made by Tetra Pak.

Users have been depositing plastics, cardboard, paper and other recyclables in this bank and these have had to be removed manually, at considerable expense, before the cartons can be taken away for recycling.

CDC head of environmental services, Claire Locke said: "We are very grateful to residents for recycling their food and drink cartons at Rissington Road in the large bank and supporting our commitment to recycling.

"However, even though the other materials deposited are recyclable, there is no easy means of separating them out from the carton material.

"This causes problems for the contractor responsible for the bank, and also leads to extra clean-up work and cost for our cleansing service provider, Ubico Ltd.

"With this in mind, I would urge people to keep up the good work on recycling food and drink cartons, but please remember to use our kerbside recycling collection service for other recyclables (paper, cans, glass, cardboard, mixed plastics and food waste can all be recycled from home).

"Otherwise, the carton facility might have to be removed permanently because the other items deposited contaminate the recycling process.

"For the record, aside from the carton facility, there are also separate recycling banks at Rissington Road for paper, books, glass, textiles, and tapes and discs."

Picture: Recyclables that were deposited in the carton recycling bank