YOU’VE BIN FRAMED

A BINMAN has lost his job after being caught on a camera cross-contaminating a resident’s waste.

A woman from Park Corner, near Nettlebed, complained after she watched the footage from her Ring doorbell.

This shows the binman at the end of her driveway looking around before quickly tipping the contents of her dark green food waste caddy into her green recycling wheelie bin.

He then discards the food waste bin on its side before pulling away another green recycling bin.

This flies in the face of the advice given to residents by South Oxfordshire District Council, the waste authority, not to put non-recyclable waste into their large green bins because it contaminates the waste so it can’t be recycled and has to go to landfill instead.

The council has apologised for the incident and said that the man is no longer employed by its waste contractor, Biffa.

The woman, a former teacher who did not want to be identified, said she was shocked by the “appalling” footage. “It’s unbelievable,” she said. “He looked left and right before he did it. He then threw the food waste bin on its side and didn’t even care about putting it the right way up.

“That week I had chicken bones and skin in the food waste so the whole lorry load must have gone into landfill because they contaminated everything. It’s the same as taking that lorry load and chucking it into the sea. How is the world going to survive with this selfish and arrogant mentality?

I try so hard to recycle properly — we all do. I buy different bags to keep all the recycling clean. They cost me money and he just tipped the food waste on top. We all have been given stickers for our green bins that say, ‘Wash, dry, scan’. They have been telling us to check our waste before we chuck it. I feel so cheated. It’s a violation of all our rights in some way.”

The woman added: “I was a teacher and taught children to love nature and think about materials and recycling. But what if this is happening? It just makes me feel so angry.”

A spokesman for South Oxfordshire District Council said: “Our waste contractor, Biffa, provides clear guidance to crews on how they should deal with food waste.

“However, these instructions were clearly not followed in this case and we are sorry for the poor service the resident received.

“The crew member involved is no longer employed by Biffa.”

A Biffa spokesman said: “We are aware of an incident involving one of our refuse workers.

“The individual involved was working through an agency we partner with and has now left the business.

“We apologise to the resident and will be investigating this further to ensure it doesn’t happen again.”

The incident comes after the council launched its “Check it before you chuck it” campaign last month, asking people to double-check their waste before putting in the recycling bin.

The council had found that 11 per cent of items put in green bins were found to be not recyclable.

It placed stickers on all green household recycling bins with a QR code with the recycling criteria, along with a reminder that all items in the green bin should be clean, dry and loose.

Councillor Sue Cooper, cabinet member for environment, backed the campaign, saying: “We would urge people to check that they are putting them in the correct bin.

“We really don’t want any non-recyclable items in our recycling bins. This can cause real problems, especially if it’s messy, like food waste or used nappies, or potentially dangerous, such as batteries or electrics.”