Black Death bacteria found in bins left uncollected for fortnight

Samples taken during a study of the health hazards associated with fortnightly collections tested positive for a string of potentially deadly bacteria, including bugs from the yersinia family.

In the Middle Ages one particular strain - yersinia pestis - caused the devastating plague which is estimated to have killed 75 million people in the space of just three years.

Other members of the yersinia family are associated with nasty food bugs and have been blamed for causing Crohn's disease.

Results from the study by researchers at one of the world's leading waste management centres showed that bins could be a breeding ground for a host of bacteria associated with some of the most devastating stomach bugs including salmonella, e.coli, legionella, clostridium and deadly listeria.

Rotting food also proved a fertile breeding ground for flies.

The findings will add fuel to the outcry over cost-cutting councils stripping householders of weekly refuse collections.

The Daily Mail's Great Bin Revolt campaign has highlighted widespread anger at the move to fortnightly collections.

And only last week the issue became a high profile issue at local elections when voters registered their opposition to the scrapping of weekly rubbish collections by toppling councils of all parties.

Officials at the Environment Department know about the study, but still insist there is no risk to public health in fortnightly collections.

The study is the work of researchers at the SITA Centre of the University of Northampton.

They used modified standard issue 240-litre wheelie bins to extract air from the 'dead-space' of the bin, and take swabs over a 13-week period last year.

'As anticipated, the levels of bacteria in the wheelie bins increased over each two-week cycle,' the report concludes.

It also found that the risk to human health became an issue when the householder did not use bin bags or when bags split, exposing contents to vermin, such as rats, and flies.

With more flies during summer months, it found that fortnightly collections favoured the life-cycle of the housefly which 'could in turn become a significant vector in the transmission of disease.'

Calling for action to limit risk, the report concluded: 'As we endeavour to drive the population to meet national and local recycling targets with a system of biweekly kerbside collection, the potential biohazards associated should not be overlooked.

'Without the implementation of stringent, safe systems of deposition, containment and collection of household residual wastes, these hazards to man may remain a potential problem.'

The plague is not just a disease of the Middle Ages, it killed some 10 million Indians in the first two decades of the 20th century and has been dubbed a 're-emerging disease' globally.

The Daily Mail Daily Mail's Great Bin Revolt campaign has been urging readers to press councils to abandon 'alternate weekly collections'.

These collections mean different kinds of waste must be sorted into different bins. Perishable, domestic and food waste is collected only every fortnight.

Ministers and council chiefs say fortnightly collections will stop us sending waste to landfill sites and encourage recycling.

Nine million households now have their bins collected every fortnight.

That figure is expected to rise as Labour's drive to cut costs by ending weekly visits from the binman gathers pace.

New health fears continue to be raised.

Last month scientists warned that rubbish left out for a fortnight before collection could trigger a string of serious health problems including asthma.

Levels of bacteria and fungal spores produced by decaying waste were ten times higher in streets where the bins are collected fortnightly instead of every week.