Norfolk waste experts have urged people to carry on recycling despite reports claiming that household rubbish is being sent abroad illegally.The county council's head of environment and waste moved to reassure people that the authority monitored merchants to make sure they knew where goods were going.

Norfolk waste experts have urged people to carry on recycling despite reports claiming that household rubbish is being sent abroad illegally.

The county council's head of environment and waste moved to reassure people that the authority monitored merchants to make sure they knew where goods were going.

Mark Allen said: “Prices for recycled materials are beginning to rise again, and, while they are not back to where they were in the heyday, they are much better than they were at the end of last year. All the materials collected for recycling in Norfolk are recycled, and all the merchants that are used by the county council are monitored, as best we can, to see where the materials are going.”

His message came after a week in which the Environment Agency said 90 containers of waste had been sent back to Felixstowe after being found to contain household rubbish includ-ing old underwear, nappies and meat, and when figures showed the world had already gone into “ecological debt”, having used up more resources and produced more waste already this year than the planet could cope with.

Nicola Peake, managing director of environmental services at contrac-tors May Gurney, said: “Many people will have read about stockpiles of goods and more going to landfill at the end of last year, and that has really shaken their faith, but May Gurney is clear that it still makes sense to recycle - and the higher the quality of the materials, the better.”