Council staff snooping in dustbins

Council staff in Stafford have been snooping through household bins as part of a campaign to drive up recycling rates, it has been revealed.

Councillor Stan Highfield made the admission at a meeting of the borough council's cabinet yesterday.

Members acknowledged such initiatives had proved controversial elsewhere, but insisted the system was necessary to help spread the word about the authority's recycling services. But one Labour councillor said he was "uneasy" about the actions.

Members yesterday said there were no plans to start fining householders who leave recyclable items in their general waste bins. Smaller bins and increasing the time between collections were also ruled out.

At yesterday's meeting, Councillor Highfield, cabinet member for environment and health, said: "We're having teams of our own staff go round and have a look in people's residual waste bins when they're being emptied.

"We are looking to see if we can advise residents, in a proper and sensible way, that there are things in the bins that can be recycled.

"We hope it is being well received. What we've got to try and achieve is to get our recycling rate up to the high fifties, or even sixty, per cent."

Councillor Judith Dalgarno said: "There have been comments in other areas where officers have been inspecting bins and handing out fines. We have no intention of doing that. This is an advice thing."

Councillor Highfield added: "It is purely to help residents. We're not going to go round knocking on doors and asking to look in the bins.

"It will only be when they are emptied, and it will be to say, 'Did you know there are items in that bin that can be recycled?'"

Around 50 per cent of household waste in the borough is currently recycled and the council is keen to improve on this figure.

But Councillor Ralph Cooke today said he was "uneasy" over the actions. He said that while improving recycling was important there was an "issue of privacy". He said: "I was not aware of this at all. I can see they may be well intentioned in trying to do some research on it but I think a lot of residents will be alarmed that officers are rifling through their rubbish."