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5 months ago
26
A frustrated homeowner has hit out after a binman was caught on camera dumping his food caddy straight into a general waste bin.
The man from Maidstone, Kent was left asking what the point of him 'religiously' separating his waste, as the council said they had launched a probe.
In the footage, a binman is seen tipping out the contents of the small food waste bin into a wheelie bin before taking it towards the lorry.
The resident who filmed his bins being mixed wishes to remain anonymous for fear of his bins not being collected in the future.
The binman is seen emptying the caddy into a black wheelie bin
The food waste is dumped into the household waste bin
But he fumed: 'I religiously separate my food waste from the rest and put it out each time.
'But what is the point if they immediately mix it up again?'
'I did get a brief look at the back of the refuse lorry and it did look as though it didn't have a separate slot for food waste, so perhaps the binman had no alternative.
'But that is not the service that the council is supposed to be providing.'
In common with much of the UK, Maidstone residents have to sort their rubbish out, using a green bin for recycling, a black bin for non-recyclables, a food bin or caddy, and a subscription-only bin for garden waste.
But residents in Kent have been suffering from missed collections over the past few months, following a new multi-million-pound contract for refuse collection was rolled out across the county.
Maidstone Borough Council, one of the three local authorities comprising the Mid-Kent Waste Partnership, which signed SUEZ Recycling and Recovery UK for the new waste disposal contract earlier this year, said it was investigating the 'unacceptable' incident.
The worker casually picked up the food caddy before emptying its contents
He did not appear to notice he was being filmed
The binman was caught apparently flouting the rules by a homeowner
Caught in the act: food falls from the caddy into the black bin
He then took the larger bin to the lorry to empty it
A spokesman said: 'The council is aware of an incident of unacceptable waste collection practice in Loose Road.
'This will now lead to a full investigation of the crew member by SUEZ, as their employer.'
The authority has previously apologised for the inconveniences the new SUEZ contract has caused whilst crews learn their new routes.
Missed bin collections continue to wreak havoc across Kent.
After the May elections in Maidstone, a Green and Lib Dem coalition took control of the council - but the problem has not gone away.
Previous analysis has show the huge disparity between what some councils will collect and how much they need to separate your various items of waste into different wheelie bins, boxes and boxes.
Residents of Bristol are forced to sort their rubbish into as many as thirteen different bins, bags and boxes. But in many other parts of the country, such as Birmingham, residents only need to use three bins to get dispose of their waste.
MailOnline analysis of council regimes shows that 97 councils give residents just three bins to dispose of their rubbish. It also shows 60 councils in England, Scotland and Wales use five bins, normally when recycling is split across two bins - such as one for paper and one for glass and metal.
Residents are required to painstakingly sort their rubbish into six bins and containers by 31 councils and for those in 26 local authorities they use seven. Just seven local authorities require eight and five require nine.
But responding to concern, the government in May said it would simplify the system, allowing plastic, metal, glass, paper and card to all go in one bin.
To use our interactive map, hover your mouse over an area or tap on mobile to see how many bins are used and the council's recycling rate:
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