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Council launches 'shop your neighbour' dustbin hotline
Last updated at 23:07pm on 12.10.06
Teignbridge District Council is cracking down on residents who don't recycle
Homeowners are being asked to spy on their neighbours and report them if they are not recycling, it emerged.
A free telephone number has been set up by a council for residents to report anyone flouting strict rules on rubbish collection.
• That's rubbish! Resident takes refuge problem into his own hands
Offenders will then be visited by a "recycling sheriff"' who will inspect their bins as part of the controversial scheme.
Last night the council officials were widely criticised for using tactics that will "turn neighbour against neighbour" and lead to families facing fines up to £2,500.
The plan to get residents to report their neighbours was revealed after Teignbridge District Council distributed thousands of leaflets asking residents to look out for people who do not recycle correctly.
Under the headline: "Wanted: People who can't recycle or won't recycle," it reads: "It is now easier than ever to recycle yet 30 per cent of residents still aren't!"
"Do you know of someone in your road who is not doing their bit? Do you feel strongly enough about it to let us help them?"
"Then contact us free on 0800 7310323 and a recycling sheriff will be there to assist."
The council says it has been forced to adopt the strategy to tackle residents who do not adhere to their complex four-bin recycling scheme.
But there are fears the recycling "hotline" could lead to numerous prosecutions as well as prank calls from people who have disputes with their neighbours.
One resident, who asked not to be named said: "It is a sneaky business to turn neighbour against neighbour - a dream come true for every curtain twitcher and busy-body."
"The council should be ashamed of itself to use such underhand tactics."
The leaflet was distributed to thousands of homes in several Devon towns including Newton Abbot, Kingsteignton and Teignmouth where all homes have four bins each, consisting of separate containers for newspapers, glass, food waste and non-recyclable landfill.
Last night a spokesman for the Liberal Democrat controlled council insisted the leaflet was not meant to be "sinister" or designed to seek prosecutions.
She said: "The council just wanted to help people who were having difficulty getting to grips with recycling."
"This is all about providing assistance to people who aren't sure about how to recycle, particularly the elderly."
News of the scheme emerged after one man made a personal protest against fortnightly rubbish collections.
When bin men refused to collect John Chandler's rubbish yesterday he threw the bag in to the lorry himself.
Mr Chandler, a mechanic, says he and his neighbours are fed up with mountains of bags left uncollected because of rules which restrict residents to one wheelie bin every two weeks.
The 28-year-old father-of-one said: "It looks awful, you can always smell the rubbish when you're walking up the street."
"Lots of people are upset about it. I've tried talking to the council but nothing has happened so I decided to take action."
But the council claims that John is failing to recycle his waste properly and is threatening legal action against him for allegedly intimidating refuse collectors.
Last weekend the Daily Mail told how fortnightly rubbish collections are to be forced on millions of homeowners in a backdoor campaign."
Town hall chiefs have been told to end weekly visits by the binmen in winter - so that the cold weather keeps down the smell and vermin.
The hope is that by the summer, when the odours and rats return, it will be too late to bring back once-a-week collections.
The guidance over fortnightly collections comes in the wake of concern over Government plans to slap extra taxes on rubbish.
One in ten councils has started fitting wheelie bins with microchips which weigh rubbish so that householders can be billed by the kilo.
Reader views (10)
Once again the consumer is hammered while companies who create the rubbish problem through overuse of packaging walk away scot free.
Collecting rubbish once per fortnight, set the environmental health department on them, they are endangering your health.
The last time I heard it was illegal to take payment for services and then not deliver (sounds like a case of this with your council tax payments).
Go after the elected representatives, they sit in their council offices totally removed from you and your concerns making decisions in totla isolation.
Time to boot out your unimaginative councillors or collect enough money to take them to court over endangering your health.
Best wishes
- Glen, Glasgow, Scotland, 16/10/2006 14:09
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I'm all for charging by weight, so long as they reduce our council tax by the proportion that is currently set against waste collection - at least then, those that do bother to reduce, reuse and recycle will see some material benefit (which seems to be the only thing that prompts large majorities into action i.e. what's in it for me?).
- Mg, Sandhurst, Berkshire, 16/10/2006 10:49
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Rat out your neighbour for the gov? Hello, 1984.
- Donna, U.S., 13/10/2006 17:56
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Stalin would be proud and the KGB would be so pleased. Go ahead and snitch on your neigbour's trash habits.
- Andrew G, Merrimack USA, 13/10/2006 17:45
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I remember when NY City tried to do something along these lines. Even after discovering that recycling was MORE wasteful than not, at least for NYC : (transportation of garbage, processing of the garbage, chemicals used in the recyling process, pollution created by the recylcling process) and they STILL tried to make recycling mandatory. Will these stupid hippies never just go away???
- Dead Kennedy, Reno, NV, 13/10/2006 17:12
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I'm all for recycling and fully participate in my local scheme however it is clear that some local authorities have set up schemes that are far too complicated. I wonder just how much damage has been done to the environment by producing all the bin’s and plastic boxes that have been scrapped because the local scheme has not worked.
- Mike, Bedford, 13/10/2006 16:07
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I trust that this `grasses'-charter' telephone scandal formed part of the relevant Councils' election manifesto, because if it's some kind of arbitrary local lunacy, it's time for articulate voters in the affected areas to involve the lawyers.
- Ted Knight, Shetland, 13/10/2006 15:24
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The sad reality is that people are slamming it now, but those same people will shop you in a second...
Why bother? Soon we'll all live in rat infested homes anyway.
Start a pest control company quick and you'll be loaded by this time next year!
- Jay, London, 13/10/2006 08:37
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One in ten councils has started fitting wheelie bins with microchips which weigh rubbish so that householders can be billed by the kilo.
Unbelievable! Socialism at its finest!
- Pete, Los Angeles., 13/10/2006 07:34
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What a shame this scheme doesn't operate in the London borough in which I live, as I would gladly report the family that lives opposite me. Because they have so much rubbish, they have a second wheelie bin - and both bins are often full to busting by the night before the bins are emptied, thus being an open invitation to foxes and cats to forage. As the family has children at school, I can't understand why they - if not their mother - hasn't heard of recycling, as much of their waste could be recycled.
- Judith Thursby, London, UK, 13/10/2006 01:38
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