Millions of paper cups used by central government civil servants have had to be burnt, not recycled, because they were ‘too contaminated’ to re-use.

Two years ago central government carried out research to identify the most ‘sustainable’ paper cups which, according to the plan, would be recycled after use into toilet paper and paper towels.

But recycling firm Renewi has told television programme De Monitor that more than 90% of the cups were mixed with other waste and that 85 million of them have been burnt instead.

‘If there are nuts, apple cores and tins mixed up with them, they we can’t do anything with them and we have made this clear,’ spokesman Willem Sterkenburg told the current affairs programme. ‘Perhaps we should have made this clearer.’

Central government officials are investigating how to improve the recycling rate.