Eye-spy binmen will soon be knocking on doors in Wolverhampton – to tick off residents for not recycling their rubbish.
Officials are keeping records on which households do not put out their recycling boxes each fortnight and will be personally visiting addresses to ask why.
The move, which will come into force from April, has prompted concern from some councillors, who say the policy smacks of Big Brother.
Currently, council teams are placing red and white labels on the bins of addresses identified as not recycling paper, glass and cans.
Wolverhampton City Council insisted today its staff are not looking inside people’s bins to see what they are throwing away.
But they admit noting down which homes do not use their recycling boxes.
Bosses say they will now knock on doors from April to remind people to use the boxes, which are emptied every fortnight.
Wolverhampton Waste and Recycling Partnership found that use of the green boxes is “particularly poor” in areas like Bilston, The Scotlands, Low Hill, Bushbury, Whitmore Reans and Dunstall Park.
But the stickers have also been found on bins in Tettenhall.
Councillor Barry Findlay, who represents Tettenhall Regis, said: “It does seem a bit like spying and I can understand why some people will not like this.”
Councillor Wendy Thompson, who represents Tettenhall Wightwick and has been given a sticker, said: “I have raised this with the council as I think the stickers could be taken the wrong way.”
Jayne Willis, waste policy manager at the city council, said: “We do not look inside people’s bins but we carried out a survey before Christmas.
“In one area where we put the stickers out we increased the amount recycled on that round by five tons that week.
“If, on the day we did the survey the household did not put the recycling box out, we will visit them. Of course, this is not 100 per cent accurate as someone may have just forgotten that week or may have been on holiday.
“We certainly have no plans to fine anybody for not recycling but we want to do all we can to encourage them to participate.”
20 Comments
havent this crackpot bunch of losers got nothing better to do.
if their staff ate sitting on their hands then make them redundant not making more unbearable rules for us normal people.
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I will tell them why, because i recycled and they kept leaving the bags. They basically want me to sort the rubbish into seperate bags and they then don’t take it.It got to the point where i was tearing the labels of cans so they would take it. Exscuse me if i am wrong but do i not pay extorianate council tax for these services to be provided. If we just had two piles recycle and non recycle that would be fine but the fact they refused to take my rubbish because they felt i hadn’t done it corerctly i thought stuff it if i put it all in one pile i knowe it will be taken.
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Perhaps the money they get from recycled stuff could be spent on cleaning up the town its FILTHY
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Well, this is going to be workable and affordable!
Here come the recycling Gestapo.
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As usual wolverhampton council cant get it right, they put the stickers on every bin in our street last monday but it was not a scheduled recycle day so of course there were bo boxes out. But of course they were happy to use extra staff to put the stickers on (at our expence), they were working in addition to the usual refuse collectors. Lets hear their excuse/reasons for this cock up then!
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E&S get real! Cut the sensationalism please. Big Brother is not watching you!
The council should be able to ask why someone isn’t recycling. Read the story closely – it’s about people who aren’t recycling, not people who already are.
There might be a genuine reason why someone isn’t recycling such as having recycling box too big for their needs or are disabled. It’s good that the council are being proactive about increasing recycling rates. They should be congratulated.
On the other hand it could be that recycling isn’t happening in some areas because the home owners are just plain thick, have no conscience or can’t be bothered hauling their 30 stone frames from the sofa to deposit their beer cans and pizza boxes into the right bin in between Jeremy Kyle and Trisha! These types of people should be condemed.
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my lampost outside my house dont work. why cant the binmen report it while walking the streets emptying bins early morning?
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No, Mr James (post 6), it’s about the council doing the Socialist thing and trying to think on behalf of others, whilst forcing actions and costs upon them.
It’s a colossal waste of time and resources, as per most of the inanity and insanity on Wolverhampton MBC.
Of course, if you’d like to become a nice, compliant, gradually controlled little zombie, you can just go along quietly with the sheep.
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they should collect plastic for recycling. in manchester they have blue, green brown & grey mini wheelie bins, not daft boxes. And they still empty the grey bins weekly.
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Yes JIMMI JAMES- READ THE STORY CAREFULLY YOURSELF-
They will visit you if you havnt put the bin out, its not about whether you recycle, if you forget, they will visit you. So its not just people who dont recycle.
Its all a waste of money, theyre going to be paid to knock on doors, just so they can be told to get lost by the residents. Its not going to work.
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There’s those of us in high-rise accommodation who would like to recycle but don’t have the facilities. We have a paper-bank which isn’t emptied often enough. I travel to Willenhall to recycle clothing, shoes and bottles but there’s no local facility (that I know of) where I can dispose of metal cans.
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All areas named and shamed dont surprise me.
Its the i cant be bothered.
and the i’m to posh to do that areas !!!
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When Wolverhampton Council enforce a ban on all the bloody junk mail we get through the door on a daily basis - then I might support this, until then anyone who knocks on my door to give me a ‘ticking off’ will rue the day!
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They recycling collectors can not be bothered to collect from our cul de sac unless the heavy boxes are dumped at the end of the roadso the green boxes dont get emptied if outside the house. The bins doget emptied.The council should get its own house in order first.
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Time to kick out all the ‘jobs worth’ fools working in Wolverhampton council. What stupid little dicators they are. Get a real job and do something worthwhile.
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Paper re-cyling bin needs to be on wheels.
Once filled and being small, it is inadequate in size thus needing a supplementary carton or two. Paper is heavy and this aged house holder finds it is not easy to transport to the pavement
for collection.
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THEY want to learn how to PICK UP the rubbish they drop, from bottles which break, to pieces, which can cause damage to tyres, but they do not use the brush and shovel to get it up, they do not have the time.
So how come they have the time to spy?
Another thing is this, we wait for our box to have enough in to put it out, it is a waste of time just putting out a few odd bits, it is to US anyway.
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I wait until my recycling box is full before i put it out!!!! - I see it pointless putting my box out with a couple of cans or newspapers in there!! - I’m ready for ‘em!!!
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What a lot of excitable comments: Has anyone looked at the landfill sites as they travel around the country?How can we continue to fill vast areas of land with rubbish when we can easily with a little effort separate and recycle at least some of our waste?
Why wait till the box is full? Surely better to put it out every 2 weeks and get rid of it, the binmen are coming round in any event.
For the record the crew who empty in my area are brilliant, and they help the elderly occupants by moving the bins up to the road and back.
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I recycle every other week on the kerbside leaving as much excess seperated into bags as I need to, all of this es taken and take my plastic bottles and cardboard to Shaw Road or Anchor Lane when i need to. It doesn’t take much effort to separate your waste and if more people recycled we wouldn’t be so far down on the list of areas for the percentage of waste recycled. I think the stickers are a brilliant idea if it informs people what they can and cannot recycle at the kerbside. Bring in fortnightly bin collections! That seems to be the only way to get everyone to do their bit, it’s really not hard.
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