News Reader.info

Binmen have sparked fury after they were caught throwing carefully separated rubbish into a single container, just a year after a local council's recycling clampdown. The workers were

recorded disregarding waste collection rules in Canterbury, where a homeowner caught them in the act as they emptied glass, paper, plastic and cardboard into the same bin. Furious residents

have complained they made a "mockery" of their dogged following of policy set by Canterbury City Council, which cracked down on recycling rules in 2022. The council previously

blamed “irresponsible” locals for contaminated recycling and placing materials in the wrong bin and demanded people properly sort their waste or risk not having it collected. The recent

controversy has led some fed-up residents to threaten to stop following these rules altogether if the council-employed refuse workers did not change their ways. One of a series of videos

filmed by an anonymous Canterbury resident showed workers wearing hi-vis orange suits emptying sorted rubbish from separate red, black and blue bins into one red container. The hurried

binmen were then seen taking the bin to their lorry and dumping its contents in one go. The video is reportedly one of several taken by locals, suggesting widespread disregard for the

council's rules. And it has prompted fury, with one former binman threatening to disregard the rules himself in protest. Martin Johnson, 66, said he is a "keen recycler", and

was "dismayed" after seeing the recent footage. He assumed the workers "take it to the recycling site and tip it up altogether", rather than dividing it into different

sections of the truck and disposing of the rubbish in their correct containers. In protest, he said he told council representatives he was "not sorting out my recycling anymore",

and would "chuck it all into one bin", but was told: "We won’t pick it up." He responded that the rubbish was not being appropriately sorted anyway, adding: "It

makes a mockery of our diligence in separating it all.” Canterbury Council spokesman Rob Davies said it was "clearly" not acceptable for the binmen to sort the recycling in this

way and pledged to investigate. He also apologised to Mr Johnson, saying: “We thank Mr Johnson for making us aware of these incidents and apologise to him. We can reassure Mr Johnson that

this will be fully investigated and appropriate action is taken.”