My local council has sent me a letter recently. It has this paragraph:

[pagey]

My local council has sent me a letter recently. It has this paragraph:

"FIXED FINES FOR REPEAT OFFENDERS

Assisted by new legislation, we will be able to issue fixed penalty fines against residents who use their blue-lidded bin as a general waste bin. The city council will shortly be taking a tougher line against repeat offenders. Residents who continually fail to recycle also face the possibility of being issued with a fixed penalty fine."

What do you think? Fair? Or just another fine that we need to look out for. What will we be fined on next?

[buildersmate]

Isn't it reasonable that we all do our bit to help to recycle then?

[WendyS]

I think we all need to recycle as much as possible, but some of these local authorities are becoming so petty minded that I'd be tempted to save all my old envelopes, remove my own address and stick labels on them addressed to the official who signed the recent letter to you and let put them in the blue lidded bin. I think it's known in naval circles as "getting your own back" and maybe they mght get the message. Am not sure what you rblue lidded bin is fpr, but in our area we have green boxes for tins and glass and brown boxes for paper recycling and they all have brown lids.

[Postdog]

I don't think it is unreasonable. If you want to chuck recyclable stuff out with other rubbish, then OK, nothing anyone can do about it, but if you want to chuck ordinary rubbish out with stuff that is supposed to be recycled, all you are doing is making unnecessary work for them.

[pagey]

I absolutely agree that we should recycle and I would never put normal waste in a recycling bin (in fact I don't even have a blue bin as we are part of a block of flats that has a private rubbish collection anyway!). My point was more that organisations are issuing fines left right and centre these days.

[jason1980]

Hi i mentioned something like this before.

I think we should all recycle, BUT sometimes it is impossible to put every single item in the bin. In our area the bin men rip open your black sacks and if they see a recyclable item inside it, they leave the whole opened black sack on your doorstep.

In my black sack was broken glass, dog poo picked up from the garden and ONE dog food tin. The whole bin got left behind cos of the tin, with broken glass on my doorstep. In our area recycling goes out in clear bags, and I put out 10 - 14 bags each fortnight, so its not as if I don't recycle and I put out more than most.

I personally think that some bin men will now act like traffic wardens and we could all be dealing now with bin men who think they have to uphold the law...

I should imagine they will soon have badges, notepads & bun warrants.

What law is there in place to say that the bin man has the right to open and look through all my rubbish? The recycling is in clear bags and you can see right through them if a non recyclable item is inside, but I don't think they have a right to look through all your bins. What about things like used condoms!!

[minimonkey]

there are laws the council can use to fine you mainly the EPA. As for looking through your rubbish....as soon as you put the rubbish out for collection it is technical the Council's rubbish and not yours.

I am not suggesting you are lying but I can guarantee that the binmen do not rip open every bag as it would take them a long time to complete their collections if they did this....it is more likely that the broken glass ripped the bag which alerted them to it and they can refuse to take it if there is unwrapped broken glass in it on h and s grounds - many injuries are caused by glass in bin bags slashing the collectors.

As for recycling and fines - they have brought this in in Barnet and the Council essentially won...i.e. they got everyone to recycle on the basis that they would fine them if they didn't....controversial but i reckon its the way forward

[jason1980]

Hi Minimonkey,

Since mentioning this to my local council refuse collection section, they have stopped ripping open the bags, and as sad as this sounds I now wait on the doorstep outside to watch, because if they find a recycling item should they do it again, I will take the item and give them the bag back.

In our area, the black bags are all put into large grey bins that simply get hooked on to the bag of the truck and emptied mechanically meaning the binmen dont have to touch any sacks at all.

My point was that I had a whole black sack left because of a dogfood tin, only 1 tin too. I put out 14 - 15 recycling clear sacks every fortnight so its not as if I dont recycle and there still people in this street who dont put out any recycling at all !! Not even so much as one bag - so where is all there recyclables??

Any sorry to go on - my gripe is over