Dustbin Men

[jason1980]

Hi, our street have a recycling scheme that consists of placing recycling rubbish into clear recycling bags provided by the council. Should a non recyclable item be placed inside the bin men slap a sticker on it and don't collect it. Because the bags are clear they can see if theres a non recyclable item inside. BUT my problem is this. When they collect the normal rubbish in black sacks, the bin men actually rip open the sacks, look around your rubbish and if they see an item that could have been recycled they slap a sticker on it and dont collect the bag of rubbish. Is it right that bin men can rip open black sacks on your doorstep and look around inside them. If i was to do it to the neighbours they'd get the police involved.

[Lonnie]

Where I live, we have the same problem with the recycle bags, only they don't put a sticker on it, but as for the black bags, our Dustbin men just take them, whatevers inside. The amount of time it must take, for yours to go through that lot, they either must be puttingin a lot of overtime, or not completing their rounds, I'd say its the overtime.

[Buenchico]

Under EU law (the Landfill Directive), councils who fail to achieve certain levels of recycling will face severe financial penalties. It's for this reason that binmen are instructed to ensure that recyclable materials are not included with waste destined for landfill sites.

Many councils are now considering following the lead set by Barnet Council, which has introduced fines of up to �1000 for householders who do not separate recyclable items from landfill waste:
http://www.edie.net/news/news_story.asp?id=9362

Chris

[jason1980]

Hi Buenchico, thanks for that information.
I don't mind them looking through it if they have to, but the black sacks they rummaged through was left split open, spilling onto our driveway when the bag contained broken glass and two weeks worth of dog poo picked up from the garden. Its not as if they split the bags and put the bag inside another bag - they just leave the split bag on your doorstep