People are being urged to not crush down materials when putting them in the recycling bin.
It comes after a survey found only 34% of Irish people 'strongly agree' they understand how to correctly recycle.
New Repak research said 41% believe minor recycling errors don't affect the overall process, revealing a "significant misunderstanding" of the impact individual actions can have on the effectiveness of recycling.
Half (52%) say they always separate their recycling into the correct bins at home, and only 28% say they always separate their recycling when out and about.
On The Hard Shoulder this evening, VOICE coordinator Colin O'Brien explained why we should wash packaging such as chicken trays.
"Generally speaking with plastic you want it clean, dry and loose," he said.
"If it's splattered with the liquid from a chicken it's going to contaminate the load in your recycling bin.
"So where you might have perfectly good, clean recyclable materials in there once the chicken gets on to it it kind of ruins it".
Recycling bins, 3-10-10. Image: DonSmith / AlamyMr O'Brien said people can recycle tin foil and clingfilm as long as it's clean.
"Tinfoil is very, very recyclable but if it's covered with lots of chicken juice or whatever else it's not going to be recycled," he said.
"Ideally if you had tinfoil, lots of it and was clean, roll it up into a big ball... and that stands a much better chance of being collected for recycling".
Mr O'Brien said people shouldn't be 'crushing down' their recycling.
"Years ago I used to be thinking I was doing a great job crushing everything down in the bin," he said.
"But actually I was just making a mess of things because [if] everything is crushed, all the different materials are together [then] they're not going to be seperated [and] they won't be probably recycled.
"If you crush it down it's really not sub-optimal".
Asked why recycling bins are different colours, Mr O'Brien said: "That's the question I cannot answer - I think that's one of the six secrets of Fatima".
Ireland is currently forecast to miss its 2025 European Union target of recycling 50% of all plastic packaging.
