Evidence would seem to suggest that it isn’t just environmental campaigners who are fed up with British families not following national recycling rules. A growing number of bin-men are apparently taking the liberty of spying on households across the country, in order to detect, record and subsequently report apparent recycling ‘offences’.
Not that they’re doing so entirely off their own backs – it’s a case of council bosses instructing collection workers to take a much closer look at domestic recycling than they otherwise might. When it’s clear that recycling has been ‘contaminated’ with food or other non-recyclable items, such issues should be reported back to the respective council bosses.
Not only this, but the same strategy is being used to take note of those who are putting their recycling and rubbish out at incorrect times, those who overlook their bins and households that generally put out anything that shouldn’t be put out for standard refuse collection.
According to a report from the Daily Mail, all of the above habits are officially classified as offences and can result in fines of £60 being issued. Offenders and their infringements are apparently being recorded by way of CCTV, in order to ensure the necessary evidence is collected. Believe it or not, simply leaving your been out too long is being threatened with fines as high as £20,000.
Last year, the total number of offences recorded under this recycling and refuse bracket hit 7 million. In 2015, only 1.8 million offences were recorded.
Unsurprisingly, the scheme has prompted relatively robust reactions on both sides of the fence. On one hand, advocates insist that measures like these are the only realistic option in the face of clear and categorical ignorance of the rules. They state that as it isn’t difficult to do your ‘bit’ by following the rules like everyone else, punishments and the required detection methods therefore are entirely justified.
On the other side of the fence, an equally large contingency of homeowners insist that this kind of snooping is entirely unacceptable. That there is no justifiable excuse for quite literally spying on every household and searching for any reason whatsoever to issue fines and warnings. Given that mistakes are often made without any negative intentions whatsoever, council bosses have been accused of unfairly looking for trouble.
Given the fact that the number of recorded incidents has leapt so dramatically over recent years, it would seem they’re finding it too!
Still, it’s no secret that the United Kingdom isn’t yet coming close to reaching its full potential, as far as everyday household recycling is concerned. Even in the face of comprehensive public knowledge and the implementation of various intelligent recycling schemes, households in incalculable numbers still continue to ignore the rules.
So what’s the truth? Have council bosses gone one step too far? Or is this really the only means by which the authorities can ensure every householder is fulfilling its primary responsibilities?
We’ll leave that for you to debate…feel free to share your thoughts!
