Southampton: Video shows binmen mixing recycling and general waste

Sarah Locke said she was ‘horrified’ to see her recycling and general waste bags being thrown into the same lorry.

The 69-year-old filmed the incident outside her home in Canton Street, Southampton on April 6, which was the set date for recycling collections.

The video shows the binmen collecting and tossing clear recycling bags and black bags into the middle of the road, which are then loaded into the back of the lorry.

Sarah, a part-time student, said: “I am not a curtain twitcher, but I filmed the binmen to see what they’d do.

“As you can see in the video, they collect the bags together.

“Our rubbish isn’t always collected because of the work happening on Bedford Place, which is why the black bags were still out.

“I was horrified. And I am concerned it happened at all.

“I phoned the council the following day and the person on the phone said there must have been contamination in the bags, and it could’ve been children’s toys.

“We live on a residential road and most of the people who live here are in their 60s or are older, professional people.

“And it’s not a run-down area at all, so how would the binmen know that what was in our plastic bags was contaminated?

“They just picked it up and threw it in the back of the lorry.”

A video taken by Sarah Locke shows the binmen mix general waste and recycling on the set recycling collection date (Image: Sarah Locke)

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Sarah said that 30 minutes after the incident more binmen arrived to take away the black bags – which had already been collected.

She had to inform the workers the bags were collected by the recycling team earlier that day.

She said: “I’d like to know what happened after it was all collected.

“Did they contaminate the whole lot on our road? Everyone on the street is absolutely horrified.

“It seems such a shame. This is what we pay our council tax for and people are getting fined for putting the wrong things in the wrong bin.

“Why recycle if this happens? There’s no point.

“I told the council I will now take my recycling, which is not contaminated, to the recycling centre myself.

“If they are going to come and collect the rubbish and recycling together, there’s no point having two bins and collections."

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Southampton City Council said the matter is under investigation.

A spokesperson said: “We’re aware of the issue.

“Due to illegal parking, crews were unable to complete this service on multiple occasions even with smaller vehicles.

“This is being investigated and our crews will be returning to Canton Street on April 14 to endeavour to clear the street of any household waste.”

They added: “In instances where contaminated recycling bins are recorded, a vehicle is sent to collect this as general waste.

“We do this to reduce cost of disposal and ensure the rest of the round’s recycling is not contaminated.

“The council will continue to encourage residents and businesses to dispose of their waste correctly.”