The co-founder of an environmentally friendly shop in Marlow has revealed that not everything that goes into the recycling bin gets recycled.

Robert Kemp, who co-founded FourState with Patrick Brown on Spittal Street, revealed to the Bucks Free Press that if a piece of recycling has been contaminated, it could ruin the whole process which could lead to landfill.

However, he urged people to continue recycling.

Mr Kemp said: “The thing with recycling is that not everything in the recycle bin actually gets recycled and a lot of people don’t know this, so reusing something, like a bottle, is usually the best route.

“When items get recycled, they go into container consignments but if they are contaminated with food or if the wrong packaging were to sneak through, it could ruin the whole container and that will go to landfill.

“It’s a serious problem.

“Also, waste has been shipped to different parts of the world for a long time and even though the tide is slowly turning, typically some of it is going straight to landfill.”

FourState has been in Marlow for around six weeks with all their products being manufactured in an eco-friendly way to help the environment.

The company find eco-friendly products that work as well as their alternative and after a customer has bought an item, the profits will go to helping the environment.

The four states are made up of air, humanity, land and water so a customer could use their points (they receive their points after purchasing a product) to see a tree get planted or help pull plastic out of the ocean.

The arrival of FourState in Marlow has coincidently happened at the same time when fellow green shop, Seed1, opened in the High Street.

But Mr Kemp revealed that he won’t look at Seed1 as a rival.

When asked about Seed1, he said: “We’re all about education and getting the word out as much as possible so anyone who does that are great in my eyes.

“I also think there is a real synergy because we don’t stock the same ranges, as Seed1 do a lot of food and we do a lot of clothing, so I think there is plenty of room for two environmentally friendly shops in Marlow.”

He then added: “The vision of FourState is that we are trying to get out there as much as possible as we would love to have more shops and more people getting involved.

“We hold workshops and hold classes in the store where we discuss about the environment, and we do a lot of talks with children both in the shop and at their schools as they are the future.”

For more information about FourState, visit www.fourstate.co.uk.