RECYCLING SCHEME

Page 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6
 

Linda Sims went to a site to recycle her newspapers, some cardboard and some old shoes. She put the cardboard and shoes in the correct containers but when she tried to do the same with the newspapers, she found a padlock on the lid of the bin. Rather than take the papers home again, she left them on the ground for collection, making sure the two carrier bags couldn't fall over. However, every detail of her visit to the site near her home in Waltham Cross, Hertfordshire, was recorded, including her car registration number. Council officials decided that she was "littering not recycling" and demanded her details from the DVLA. Two days later, she received a £50 fixed-penalty notice through the post.

It warned that failure to pay within 14 days could lead to prosecution and a fine of up to £2,500. A Broxbourne council spokesman said, "While Mrs Sims's concerns are fully appreciated by the council, it has statutory duties placed on it on waste disposal and fly-tipping." The DVLA said local authorities have the right to apply for personal information about a driver if they 'have a purpose associated with the investigation of an offence'. She was easy to trace you see, because she is a law-abiding citizen and her car is insured, taxed and has an MoT certificate. (Source: Mail on Sunday, Dec/06)

The Government Minister who lectures millions of householders about the importance of recycling their waste is flouting the policy at his own home. Environment Minister Ben Bradshaw has blatantly broken his own rules by putting recyclable waste in with his general rubbish. He recently claimed it was 'rather irresponsible' to ignore Government advice on waste disposal. His recycling campaign has led many councils to introduce a raft of complicated regulations that leave people facing fines and a criminal record if they do not comply. Hammersmith and Fulham Council said it would not punish Mr Bradshaw for breaking its sorting rules. A spokesman said, "The council uses £75 fixed penalties to enforce recycling that is both put out for collection on the wrong day and contaminated, it has to be both, not just one or the other." (Source: Mail on Sunday, Oct/06)

Magistrates have fined Michael Reeves £200 after finding him guilty of putting paper in a recycling sack for bottles and cans only, breaking council rules. The court was told the letter, which was addressed to him, "contaminated" the other items put out for recycling. Mr Reeves was served with a warning notice when he put his bins out a day early because he was going on holiday. Then, a green recycling bag was found outside his ground floor flat in the Mount Pleasant area of the city containing both paper and bottles and cans.

Mr Reeves denied putting the letter in the bag and the court heard there were no eye witnesses or camera footage of him doing so but magistrates found him guilty and fined him £100 and ordered him to pay £100 costs. Swansea Council enforcement officer Martin Lemon said, "There is a recycling scheme available in which paper can put into a green recycling sack and glass bottles and tins can be put into a separate sack."

He said if the items were mixed in the same bag then it would be sent to landfill instead as the council's recycling collection team refused to pick it up. He added, "The fly-tipping team have responsibility for collecting waste that has been incorrectly disposed of. The teams are trained to search through any offending waste that they have found to look for evidence of its origins. My colleague informed me that he had opened a green recycling sack and that he found a piece of junk mail with Mr Reeve's name and address." (Source: BBC News, Oct/06)

Fed up with rubbish not being collected because of baffling rules that dictate what they can and cannot recycle, the residents of Davy Avenue, Scunthorpe, decided to confront their binmen. But as the bin lorry turned into the street, their demonstration mushroomed. One resident said, "We wanted a silent protest, but more frustrated people from neighbouring streets arrived with black bin bags full of rubbish and threw them in the back of the truck. Then the lorry pulled away, leaving behind the waste from our street."

The incident reflects the growing frustration of millions of householders as council recycling schemes become ever more confusing and draconian. Examples of recycling madness include:

North Lincolnshire council asking residents to cut the sticky strip from envelopes and remove the plastic 'windows'. It says that these 'contaminate the recycling process'.

Ipswich council workers leaving behind a bin full of recyclable waste because it contained a single supermarket bag.

Confusing rules for recycling plain cardboard and printed cardboard in St Edmundsbury, Suffolk. The plain sort can either go in the brown bin for composting or the blue bin for dry recyclables. But printed cardboard can go only in the blue bin.

Reading Borough Council refusing to take glass in case it gets broken in the back of the collection lorry.

People in Lichfield, Staffordshire, who leave the 'wrong rubbish' in a recycling bin risk having the entire contents left behind or simply buried in a landfill site, ruining their recycling efforts.

North Lincolnshire Council responded to the Davy Avenue protest by calling the police. A spokesman claimed that refuse workers had been intimidated, and threatened to take legal action against residents for fly-tipping. But this is the same council that cut the collections of normal rubbish from weekly to fortnightly to meet the costs of its recycling scheme. Since then residents have complained about rubbish piling up in their gardens, attracting flies and rats. The situation has been made worse by the council's refusal to empty overflowing bins because the lids can't be closed. (Source: Mail on Sunday, Aug/06)

Donna Challice appeared in court accused of putting non-recyclable rubbish in bins provided by her local council which were only meant to be used for waste such as cardboard, paper and plastic. She faced a maximum £6,000 fine if found guilty. Ms Challice is said to have put the rubbish, including leftover takeaway meals, cigarette ends, bicycle parts and the contents of a vacuum cleaner, in the green bin outside her home in Exeter, Devon.

The hearing, at at Cullompton Magistrates Court in Exeter, heard that each householder in the scheme was sent a leaflet explaining what could be put into the green bins. But during a series of inspections, Ms Challice’s two green wheelie bins were found to have the wrong sort of rubbish inside. Peter Delaney, a council recycling education and enforcement officer, said he found one recycling bin, which was only supposed to contain clean, dry items, in a "disgusting state" with yogurt, teabags and the remains of a pot noodle.

The court heard there was no video evidence or surveillance of the bins to determine if other people had been putting rubblish in them. Richard Banwell, prosecuting, said the council had a statutory recycling target to meet set by government, which in turn was part of the UK’s effort to comply with European guidelines. He said it was important that the rubbish was correctly sorted because one contaminated bin could effect the entire load in a lorry. (Source: Times Online, Jul/06)