A binman has warned that people who hide general waste underneath their recycling are always found out, and that refuse collectors keep track of houses they suspect of trying the trick.
Ashley, known online as the No 1 Binman, posted a video on TikTok in which he said he constantly has people in his comments boasting that they "hide" general waste underneath their recycling in an effort to get it taken away without the binmen knowing. But Ashley claimed he and his fellow binmen always know, and even keep track of which houses are repeat offenders so that they can manually check the bins before they're emptied into the back of the truck.
'We 100 per cent find it'
He said: "The number of people in my comment section who go, 'I just hide everything underneath all the other recycling and they never find it'. We find it. We 100 per cent find it - we know the houses that do it all the time."
"Just today I went to a bin... You can have a feel for it. You push the bin, and you're like, 'that's too dense to just be plastic and glass'. It had all plastic on top, I was like 'lovely, maybe I'm wrong for once'. Took it to the back of the lorry, put it up, and the top layer came off. Brought it back down - full of bags. Bags of rubbish."
"It got rejected. Stuck a label on it saying this bin is contaminated and we're not collecting it. And now it's up to you to sort it. And we're going to know next time we go to that bin that it's been contaminated."
Commenters react
Many commenters on the post defended Ashley, saying they found it shocking how many people refuse to sort their recycling from their general waste and expect it to be collected all the same.
One person said: "Just follow the rules, guys. It's for your own good and your future generations." Another added: "I don't understand why people don't just sort it."
A third shared their experience with kind binmen who helped her avoid the dreaded contamination sticker, stating: "I put plastic bath toys in my recycling bin, no clue they weren't included in recycling, so my bin was left full. A lovely fella from the council knocked on later that day and explained, 'Leave it out minus the toys, and we'll come back and empty it'. No issues."
Contamination rules and penalties
Putting items in the wrong bin is called contamination. This most commonly occurs when general waste is put in recycling bins, as these should only ever be used for recyclable materials such as cardboard, plastic, glass, and textiles.
Binmen can reject your bin if you do this, and they will leave a sticker on it explaining why it was rejected. You must then manually remove the incorrect items before the binmen will pick up the waste on the next scheduled cycle, which may leave you with smelly rubbish piling up outside your house or in your back yard.
While you are unlikely to receive a fine for doing this by accident, repeated issues or in cases where wrong disposal creates a public nuisance or health hazard could result in you receiving a fixed penalty notice of between £60 and £80. What you can and can't put in your recycling bin varies by area - contact your local council or check their website for details.
