Attempt to contain burnt material and rubbish (6)
I believe the answer is:
trashy
'burnt material and rubbish' is the definition.
I can't tell whether this defines the answer.
'attempt to contain' is the wordplay.
'attempt' becomes 'shy' (to have a shy at something is to attempt it).
'to' means one lot of letters go next to another (I've seen this in other clues).
'contain' becomes 'tra' (I can't explain this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'shy' put after 'tra' is 'TRASHY'.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for trashy that I've seen before include "Cheap, shoddy" , "Of poor quality" , "Cheap - garish" , "Poorly made" , "Of no value or quality" .)