Recycling rules are draconian (From Thurrock Gazette)

Recycling rules are draconian

1:04pm Wednesday 5th September 2012 in Letters to the Editor

ONE of the few good ideas that came out of the Second World War was the idea of recycling.

It took a long time to catch on, but eventually the people in charge realise what a good concept it was and 60-odd years later came the concept of three different coloured wheelie bins.

My wife and I took to this idea from the very start and assiduously sorted our waste into the correct bins.

Now, for the past three weeks, my recycling bin has not been emptied and, on investigation, it appears the refuse collectors are not taking bins if there happens to be a plastic shopping bag showing.

On further investigation it transpires certain members of the bin-filling public are not playing by the rules.

Some of these naughty fillers are putting waste food in plastic bags and putting the bags in the nearest bin, usually a blue recycle bin.

We have always used plastic shopping bags in our kitchen and put our recyclables in them – our bin men have lifted our lids, seen a bag and left our full bin in the middle of the footpath.

Now, as usual, a few people misues the system and all of us suffer.

Would it be too hard for our refuse collectors, when they are lifting the lids to see if there are bags of food waste in the bin, to equate the guilty bin and client, or would this involve extra training?

Maybe those in authority at refuse headquarters could come up with a solution that penalised the right people and left the rest of us out of it, but of course that does entail the use of nous! – K WINGRAVE, The Geerings, Corringham.