Kentish Gazette Canterbury & District
Recycling not collected so we’ll empty bins ourselves...
Exclusive
Fed-up residents on a city housing estate have reacted angrily to their recycling not being collected – by emptying their bins on to the street.
The dirty protest in Windsor Road, Thanington, came after nine wheelie bins were left unemptied on collection day.
But the city council says the action was misguided and unacceptable and those responsible could now be prosecuted for littering.
It claims that only one or two residents were responsible for emptying out all the bins, which others in the street objected to.
This is denied by one of the protestors, Claire Johnson, who says it was a joint effort involving at least eight residents following a long-running dispute with the council over the reliability of rubbish collections in the street.
Council spokesman Rob Davies says Serco staff did not empty the bins because the contents were contaminated with non-recyclable rubbish.
But Miss Johnson, 40, who admitted emptying out her bin, rejected the allegation.
Shouting
She said: “That’s just not true. The binmen barely looked in our bins. I just think it was getting late and they wanted to get home.
“I came out of my house after hearing a lot of shouting and it was clear that Serco were not emptying lots of them. They just glanced in some and said they were contaminated.
“My 70-year-old neighbour had one thing in his bin which wasn’t recyclable, which wasn’t his rubbish anyway and must have been dropped in by someone passing by. But they still refused to empty it.
“It caused uproar. We have had problems before with them not coming on the day they were supposed to and it was just the final straw.
“Yes, a few of us emptied out the bins as a protest, but we contained it all in one area so as not to cause other residents problems.”
Miss Johnson’s neighbour, mum-offive Hayley James, added: “I’m really keen on recycling and there was no way my bin contents were contaminated, but they didn’t even look inside it. I was furious and messaged the council to object.”
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