Police escort for Norfolk refuse collectors

Officers were called in after a resident swore at a collection operative over a Breckland Council drive to get people to put the right waste in the right bin.

The resident was so furious his bin was not being emptied because it contained the wrong waste that he picked it up and threw it into the back of the rubbish truck. After the incident on the Abbey estate in Thetford, the council asked for a police escort to make sure it would not happen again.

” Contaminated bins are a major problem, as placing non-recyclable material into the black bins could result in the full refuse lorry load being rejected “
– Breckland council
Breckland runs a three-bin scheme, where householders put green waste in brown bins, household waste in green bins, and recyclable waste, such as plastic bottles and cardboard, goes in black bins.

Using a red card scheme, collection contractor Serco recently got tougher on people dumping waste in the wrong bin.

Red cards are issued to explain why collectors could not take rubbish away, such as because there was household waste among the recyclable bottles and tins, and yellow cards to point out there were a few items in the waste they took away that should not have been there.

Contamination

A council statement read: “Contaminated bins are a major problem, as placing non-recyclable material into the black bins could result in the full refuse lorry load being rejected. As a consequence, valuable recyclable material would then go to landfill. This creates frustration for both the refuse collectors and the bin-owner because the bin cannot be emptied.

“Serco's service crews have therefore been issuing red cards to households whose bins have been contaminated to draw their attention to the problem and try to resolve it.” And it said the red-carding system was making a difference in Thetford as recycling levels had gone up. Council spokeswoman Sarah Edwards said: “There was an isolated case of abuse.

“Usually people who complain ring us and we talk them through it and they understand. It is not fair for people to take it out on binmen. They are just doing their job.” Insp Tim Peacock, of Thetford police, said: “The council asked us to be there for support. We did so two weeks ago, which was the first time we were told of problems. We will endeavour to be there for as long as it takes for the problem to be knocked on the head.

“It is really quite disappointing that police officers have to support the work of rubbish bin collectors just because people can't sort their rubbish. Unfortunately, it feeds the idea that Abbey estate is a horrible estate, and it is not. It is again just the minority intent on wrecking it for the majority,” Mr Peacock concluded.

Serco cannot empty the recyclable bin if it has black sacks or too many carrier bags filled with general rubbish in it, such as nappies, glass and building or kitchen waste.