West Lindsey residents have complained “bin police” have stopped their recycling bins getting emptied after dozens were rejected in one village.
Around 40 people living in Dunholme were left baffled why their blue wheelie bins hadn’t been emptied this week.
The council say they are enforcing the rules on which materials can and can’t be in bins after being lenient previously – and claimed nearly a third of waste currently put in blue bins can’t be recycled.
Rejected bins are given advisory tags, which have been dubbed ‘tags of shame’, although some people say they weren’t given any explanation for being turned down.
Residents have expressed fears the strict rules could lead to less recycling if blue bins are overflowing, or people could even resort to fly-tipping.
Julia Brown was one of those whose bin as rejected, but didn’t get a tag to explain why.
She said: “It’s disgusting, I’m not sure what’s in it that can’t go in as no label [was] left to explain why. I’ve referred back to the leaflet and everything that is in it is on the leaflet so I’m confused!”
The council says it is enforcing the recycling rules that have already been laid down | Photo: Lizzie Bell
Another woman who lives in the village said: “Everyone is so confused – they want to do the right thing but don’t know how. It seems like people are going through the bins to look for any small detail to reject them.
“If the blue bins are full, recycling will have to go in the black bins instead to be thrown away. A lot of people will give up.
“I saw nine bins which had been rejected on a single road. Some didn’t even have tags – had the bin police run out?”
It comes weeks after purple-lid bins were introduced for paper and cardboard, and the council began to issue the ‘tags of shame’.
Another Dunholme woman said: “The new rules are ludicrous.I’d like to think I’m of average intelligence but my bins were refused. They are now rammed, which I never had before.
“Fly tipping will be huge soon.I hate fly tipping/littering but I won’t blame anyone who does it now.”
Paper, cardboard, soft plastics, clothes and electrical items are all banned from blue bins.
West Lindsey District Council has urged households to read the advice provided on what is acceptable in different bins.
“It is correct that blue bins are being rejected if they contain any contaminated material, this includes paper and card which must now be placed in the purple-lidded bins recently issued,” a spokesperson said.
“In March we wrote to every household and delivered extensive communications through social media and our website to explain the introduction of new separate paper and card collections and to remind residents what materials we were able to collect in their blue-lidded recycling bins.
The ‘tags of shame’ are attached to bins which have been rejected | Photo: Lizzie Bell
“We have also undertaken three complete ‘tag and take’ cycles before starting to reject blue bins, leaving advisory tags on which contained incorrect items in them to give residents the opportunity to get used to the new system before we started rejecting bins.
“The materials we can collect and recycle have not altered, we are not simply enforcing what is and is not acceptable. Prior to this initiative over 30% of the materials we saw in the blue lidded bins were not able to be recycled and so we are now simply asking residents to put the right thing in the right bin and help us to improve the quality of recycling across the district.”
Ady Selby, assistant director operational and commercial services at West Lindsey District Council said: “The council has been communicating to residents about the new collection regime since February, we are delighted that the vast majority of householders are presenting great quality recycling. Unfortunately we have to reject bins which contain the wrong materials, however we will continue to support residents by putting extra people on the ground and producing clear and timely comms messages.
“We want residents to remember that we would never want to leave a bin unemptied unless it is really necessary. The wrong items regularly found in the blue recycling bins are: soft plastics such as film lids and carrier bags to kitchen roll and used tissues. All these items cannot be recycled and will contaminate other good recycling, and even the lorry load itself. This results in not only increased sorting costs, but also less recycled items as residents expect them to be.
“We would like to thank all our residents who have helped us achieve great results in the early weeks of the scheme and we are confident the positive environmental benefits resulting from this change will be achieved”.
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Nominations are open for schools and education settings to be recognised in the 2022 Lincolnshire Education Excellence Awards.
The event is organised by Stonebow Media, publishers of The Lincolnite, to celebrate the best school and teachers in Greater Lincolnshire.
The headline sponsors making the awards possible are Lincoln College Group.
Twelve categories are now open for nominations. The deadline for nominations is June 3, with a judging lunch scheduled for June 7.
Nominations are open from parents, carers, friends, families or education settings themselves, so if you know someone who deserving of winning now is the time to vote!
The awards ceremony will be held at the Engine Shed on July 7.
It’s been a week since the controversial statue of Margaret Thatcher was installed in Grantham’s St Peter’s Hill.
The £300,000 bronze monument immediately caused a stir and debate from both supporters and opponents of the first female Prime Minister of the UK.
Within hours of its 7am installation last Sunday, it had already been egged by a man later revealed to be 59-year-old Jeremy Webster, a deputy director at the Attenborough Arts Centre at the University of Leicester.
Mr Webster’s mother-in-law recently described his actions as “childish”.
Quoted in the MailOnline she said: “Margaret Thatcher lasted a long time in power. She was a trailblazer as the first woman prime minister and she had such energy, even though I know she slept very little.
“I’m very surprised to hear about all of this [egg throwing]. I’m going to have to call my daughter. I wouldn’t have thought Jeremy would be the sort of person to do this. It seems very childish to me – he has a responsible job.”
There have been reports of other antisocial behaviour taking place including people urinating up the statue, but investigations into these are yet to be confirmed by officials.
Away from the statue itself, others took to social media to react to the new monument.
Twitterer @BolsoverBeast thought Mr Webster’s actions should be expanded as a way to… get more people involved?
I think it would be a good idea to put Thatcher’s statue on a low loader and tow it slowly around the country so that we all have a chance to throw something at it. pic.twitter.com/uftMqr0LgR
— Chloe Schlosberg (@ChloeSchlosberg) May 19, 2022
Some called back to the fate of other statues
@Irritatedllama called back to the fate of slave trader Edward Colston who was thrown into the Bristol Harby in June 2020.
It's absolutely disgraceful that people are throwing eggs at the Margaret Thatcher statue in Grantham! We need to deploy a taskforce to give it jolly good wash!#Granthampic.twitter.com/RKftKUls4u
It wasn’t long before a parody account of the statue was set up on Twitter – nor before “she” was interacting with other parody accounts.
It was awful. I could see almost all of Grantham
— That Statue of Thatcher (@thatcher_statue) May 18, 2022
A… positive view?
There were supporters of the statue, however, Darren Grimes from GBNews was one of the few popular posts calling on people not to “give in to threats of petty vandalism”. He later posted the statue should be in parliament – where it was previously rejected from.
I honestly think Margaret Thatcher would have found this first round of petty vandalism of her statue to be utterly hilarious.
The statue looks absolutely glorious.
Almost a decade on from her passing, she’s still winding them up!
Some, like @Jonnyhibberd were more measured in their response.
I don't see a problem with a Thatcher statue and I also don't see a problem with people throwing eggs at it. Thatcher is an important part of our history, and so is what a lot of people thought about her.
— Jonathan Hibberd 🇺🇦 (@Jonnyhibberd) May 18, 2022