THE city council has apologised after waste collected by volunteers from the beach during Pride was not recycled.

Several bin bags full of tin cans were taken by mistake to an “energy recovery facility” in Newhaven rather than the Veolia recycling plant at Hollingdean.

Rachel Chasseaud, assistant director for City Environment, said: “We can only hold our hands up and say this was a human error which should never have happened.

“We apologise to every person who volunteered their valuable time to collect the cans from the beach.

“These hard-working people did the right thing, unfortunately we didn’t.”

The mistake arose following confusion among some Cityclean staff, the council’s rubbish disposal service, at the Hollingdean depot.

Ms Chasseaud said: “There is no excuse for something like this happening, but it has taught us a very valuable lesson to ensure it doesn’t happen again.”

It was thought initially that all the recycling collected by volunteers from the beach had ended up at the energy recovery facility, but it proved just to be tin cans.

During the Pride weekend 67 tonnes of rubbish was collected and disposed of correctly by Cityclean.

More than 1,000 people were drafted to clear large amounts of bottles, cans, glass and disposable barbecues. The beach was also littered with laughing gas canisters and balloons.