This Works – Contaminate Your Recycling Bin And You Don’t Have To Recycle

This policy, strange as it seems, does actually work. So, you’ve got your black bin and your green bin, regular rubbish and recycling. Yes, it’s a bore and a pain but, you know…so, if you contaminate the recycling material they’ll take away your recycling bin. That is, you don’t have to recycle any more!

Great, innit? We’ve just made recycling what it should be, voluntary, while still preserving the basic idea of public rubbish collection. The only thing is, I don’t think that the authorities see it that way.

[perfectpullquote align=”full” bordertop=”false” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””]Council seizes and impounds 1,300 bins as punishment for residents failing to recycle[/perfectpullquote]

That’s the thing, d’ye see? Is it actually a punishment?

[perfectpullquote align=”full” bordertop=”false” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””] A council has seized more than 1,300 bins from residents as punishment for falling foul of recycling rules after employing specialist “snoopers” to inspect people’s rubbish. Kirklees Council in West Yorkshire last month hired 12 full-time “advisers” to sift through recycling bins before council collections to ensure waste is segregated correctly. Anyone found contaminating recyclable items with rubbish such as food leftovers, nappies and garden waste has their bin tagged with a yellow warning sticker. Repeat offenders caught breaking the rules again have their green-coloured recycling bins confiscated under a “two strikes and you are out” policy. The council confirmed 1,341 bins belonging to residents in Huddersfield have been seized since the policy was introduced on April 1 and are now impounded in a council-run depot. Residents face a six-month wait before they can have their bins returned. It is not clear if people face a charge for having the bins impounded. [/perfectpullquote]

The authorities insist this is a punishment. But:

He said: “It’s so annoying. They have snooped through the bags in my bin. Someone has come up the driveway and just taken my green bin from the house.

“For the next six months I’m going to have to put my green waste in my black bin. How are they winning by doing that? It’s ridiculous.”

So, here’s how it would play out with me.

“Mr. Worstall, you have contaminated your recycling again”

“Yes”

“We are going to punish you by taking away your recycling bin”

“Thank you, that’s why I contaminated….”

That is, what are they going to do with those who will use it as a method to stop having to recycle? And why is not having to recycle a punishment?