Householders who put too much rubbish in their bins face face higher fines than thieves and drunks.
Councils have been told to slap on-the-spot fines of up to £110 on those who overload their bins.
Residents can also expect tough punishments for putting a bin out in the night before collection, leaving the lid ajar or standing it in the wrong place. Fines will range from between £75 and £110.
The radical Government proposals aim to change people’s habits and the way households deal with their rubbish.
The fines are higher than the £80 on-the-spot fines given out by police to shopflifters and those involved in drunken disorder in town and city centres.
The Conservatives accused the Government of creating an army of town hall “bin bullies” to impose a new stealth tax.
Shadow local government secretary Eric Pickles said: “They are hitting law-abiding families with massive fines while professional criminals get the soft touch.
“It is clear Whitehall bureaucrats are instructing town halls to target householders with fines for minor breaches.
“Yet, with the slow death of weekly collections and shrinking bins, it’s hard for families to dispose of rubbish responsibly,” he added.
Latest figures indicate some 20,000 tickets for breach of rubbish collection rules were issued in 2006.
The Government has always insisted the upper levels of fines are a matter for councils to decide.
However, the order to throw the book at householders at a set level of £110 is outlined in guidance from the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.
A spokesman for Defra confirmed: “The guidance is not new. It sets fines at between £75 and £110.”
He added: “Fixed penalty notice fines are an alternative to prosecution, and were called for by local authorities so that they could react to the severity and frequency of the environmental offence and offender and ensure our streets are kept clean for all of us.”
By Sunita Patel
54 Comments
its the old story lets fine people who we know can pay and are easily traceable not the ones who will not pay as that means more work for whoever is enforcing this stupid ruling
Can i ask why we pay council tax again?
Not being funny, so what they are saying that someone who lives in a 6 bedroom house, shouldn’t throw away more rubbish than a person from a one bed flat? Surely more people equals more rubbish, and i’m sure the bigger the house, the bigger the council tax bill! don’t understand as they don’t get more police for their money, or better health care.
It’s all a load of rubbish (excuse the pun) just another excuse to pick on the taxpayer.
I live in a 3 bed cottage with just my partner, we have a baby on the way, have the designed 100% recycliable nappies yet? just i’m sure my rubbish output will increase.
Why don’t they pick on the packaging companies, i don’t choose to buy my fruit with plastic packaging, it’s how asda sell it!
And who produces the over-packaging? The supermarkets. Due to the governments spineless timidity the real culprits remain unchallenged. This requires legislation urgently, though it won’t happen. Consider this virtually another stealth tax.
unbeleiveable!
good as some one who has experienced having fly tipping dumped on our lane then told by the council that they dont remove from unadopted private lanes I had to take it to the tip myself and i think anyone doing things like this should be hammered for their anti social behaviour
Stealth taxes by the Government
As has been said its easier to get money off law abiding people than those people who are to be quite honest below the quality of people required
Like Andy says - what is council tax for then..?
also its not everybody who had a monday to friday 9-5 lifestyle. what about people who reside in this fine county, who have to pay all the taxes like everyone else but work away frequently or even work abroad?
what about air stewardesses, airline pilots, businessmen who frequently are out of the country on non-regular days but have to pay tv licence, road tax, council tax like everyone else?
Collections every 2 weeks are bad enough for these type of people. If you put your bin out prior to going away to work for a couple of days it just gets filled up from passers by or even neighbours.
An every week service used to be OK, but I work abroad frequently but am only away for 1-2 days. Therefore on some occasions my rubbish is left in the back garden for up to 6 weeks if I miss 3 collections.
Logistically its not going to work for everyone and its simply another tax. Im not a supporter of any particular persuasion however our country is a far cry from the poll tax riots - nowadays people should be burning down towns and murdering our politicians considering the changes that we have seen… but being typical British all we do is moan and do not do anything about it.
Its all very well assuming everyone has 2.4 children a car and a dog but everyone is different. If I go to the rubbish dump I have to sometimes pay for my rubbish to be collected AGAIN when I have missed out on the ‘chance’ I got with the bin men as I was working away.
My bin gets pretty close to having the lid ajar after a couple of weeks (the rubbish requires a good pounding to get it flat) - perhaps the council would like to offer a plastic recycling service for home collection to off-set the rubbish the Government comes out with?
So for people leaving their wheelie bin out a day early because they are going away on holiday or perhaps work nights, an on the spot fine can be given?
I hope some people don’t consider fly-tipping a viable option if fines are dished out without appropriate consideration.
I support a rigourous enforcement regime for waste, dont do the crime if you cant do the time / pay the fine…. we desperately need to increase recycling and why should i subsidise some other persons lazy havit of landfilling all their cans and glass, when i wash mine and take it to asda??? How can you police a system with no teeth?? The Tory Pickles is crazy if he thinks you can police with out a deterent, it shows they are soft on crime, they think no cctv should be allowed, rapists should be let out ealry but their DNA should not be kept on file because it offends their civil liberties? Are they mad? Has the conservative party gone soft on crime, does it not care about litter and the environment?
I AGREE THAT PEOPLE SHOULD BE FINED FOR DOING SUCH THINGS - ITS A GOOD WAY TO ENSURE THEY DO THE RIGHT THING E.G. DONT SPEED, PARK IN THE WRONG PLACE, NOT RECYCLE, DONT DRINK TOO MUCH IN THE STREET ETC, BETTTER THAT THAN PUT UP INCOME TAX I SAY
I think we should just have pay by weight or pay per sack, I recycle everthing and live by myself, i have a little half sized bin which I put out maybe once a month at most, yet I pay the same council tax as a family of ten who get the Xtra Large Bin and all, this is madness, we would not tolerate a communal phone bill nor a communal gas bill, why on earth should I pay for someone elses landfill, its criminal, it just incentivises wastefulness…. The first politian that is brave enough to back full scale privatisation and charging for refuse would have my vote in a shot, its not something we need to subsidise as a public service, it should be sold off like the gas, power, water, phones etc and we would all then be much better off. In Japan they pay only abvout £30 a year for the bin collections, that’s what it costs, so why pay £1500 a year Council tax, even though I dont waste anything and subsidise lazy people to landfill
Matthew Ashton - if you were working away, how did you produce any rubbish at your house over this period??? please explain
If the council offered a plastic recycling scheme in addition to their other recycling efforts this would not even be an issue. As it stands, an enforced recycling scheme with no provision for plastic waste is a waste of time. And they’ve probably done it deliberately so that they can fine people more often.
Surely the madness has now gone far enough.
I will now be putting all my previously recycled rubbish into black sacks and taking it to the local tip so I can put it in the non recyclable skip.
I can be a thief, a drunk or a mugger and get a smaller fine than for the heinous crime of leaving my bin in the wrong place.
To hell with the environment (excuse for taxes) and global warming (as big a lie as the terrorist threat) since the lunatics have well and truly taken over at the asylum I think I will join them - now where shall I drive my gas guzzler to to fly tip my rubbish.
Beam me up Scotty before I wake up from my nightmare.
We only pay about a pound a week for our refuse and recycling servcices - yes folks just £52 per year of our council tax goes on these vital services irrespective of the amount of council tax we pay or how many people live in your house. How can additional services be provided when what we pay is so low. Our environment should be better taken care of and I am sure that paying a little more for better services in this area would be welcomed
If you want to complain to someone complain to your supermarkets and other retailers - the average family of four pays around £650 per annum just for packaging - perhaps the council are not the villains of the piece after all.
If you neither want nor need the packaging you find on your food and other goods leave it at the check out or return it to the customer services desk in protest on your next visit to the supermarket. Perhaps if we make it their problem they will do something about it but while we meekly go into the supermarket and hand over our hard earned cash for over packaged items they will keep doing it to us. Every time we put our money in their tills it is their justification that they must be packaging things the way we want them because we keep doing it. If thousands of us left packaging at the check out they would change the way they do things or at least provide unpacking stations with recycling bins like they do on the continent. All supermarkets have comments books - use them.
Why shouldn’t our council come down on people who put their refuse in their neighbours bins or those who leave their bins out all week to cause inconvenience to others particularly those with mobility scooters and Mums with push chairs. If someone was dumping waste outside your home wouldn’t you want something done about it?
We all have busy lives but we must still take responsibility for our waste and the best way to do that is to minimise the amount of instant garbgage that we bring into our homes in the first place - they can make you pay for it but they cannot make you take it home!.
WE, the people have the power to change the behaviour of the supermarkets and other retailers and if your MP is not tackling the subject in Parliament maybe it is becuase you have never bothered to let him know how you feel. If we all did something constructive things would change but it is easy to email a local paper and have a whinge about the council but it will serve no purpose. DO YOUR BIT & MAKE A REAL DIFFERENCE.
Why ? you are mad, you think terrorism is made up? Despite 9/11 & 7/7 - you think climate change is made up depsite a measured increase in global temperature, a thinning of the antantaric ice caps and a 1m global sea level rise, all measured by leading scientists…
I wish you would go to landfill mate, you are a disgrace on this fine nation with your silly views
In reply to G.Yu’s concerns (and I sympathise whith him), fining people for excess rubbish is only going to increase the cases for fly tipping. After all, why pay a £100 fine when you can find a quiet lane to dump your rubbish in?
really only 52£ - well how come i paid those lot at sabc over 1000£ last year, yes £1000 of MY money just for a bin, it makes me cry
Concerning the fine for putting your bin out the night before collection the next day.How will the council know you have put out the bin too early?Will they be sending council workers out onto the streets to check?I doubt it.
Mark - 90% of your council tax went to the shropshrie county council to pay for schools, the rest mainly goes to police and fire, very little on waste as the lady says
Why? you are crazy
Y Mab - its not stealth its pretty visible really I think
Merc - you blame the supermarkets for filling your bin, so why do YOU buy it, shop at the market instead mate you’ll save alot
Andy - google Real Nappy Network, they are not recyclable per se, but you can use washable nappies and save all that minging waste
All -
How on earth can any system work without regulation and enforcement and penalties for those who break the rules? Why does anyone have any sympathy with those who litter, waste and cheat the system, fine them all more and more I pray
that’s my peice, done
Most of your council tax goes to the County Council, the police force and the fire brigade approx 10% of the council tax you pay stays in the district where you live to provide direct services. Your borough is merely a tax collector on behalf of other agencies who get the lions share of your hard earned cash. Perhaps you should read your council tax bill that tells you where the money goes and then get on to the other agencies and find out what they are doing with your cash.
Many residents of Shropshire actually pay more to their town or parish councils than they do to the district or borough where live. Ask what they are spending it on - New village signs, …..in Bloom & Mayoral Tea parties.
So pack in your district dissing and borough bashing, get your facts right and get on the case of those who really are squandering your money!
John, Deepak
9/11 & 7/7 and global warming - all told to us by the same people who told us of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq !!
Mad maybe - or am I just thinking straight.
Did you know the council have the power to enter your house and search your bin !!
Deepak, so you want me to increase the use of my washing machine bearing in mind the currentrising costs of energy bills? Sure because that is saving the planet.
The issue here is simple, Global Warming, and issue do to governments around the world being ignorant. CO2 is an issue, because the governments allowed years of chopping trees without replacement. Land fills full, as the governments decided that incinerators are costly. bearing in mind they could use these incinerators as energy sources.
So yep, you got it. we are just having to pick up the pieces of a poor job done by our world leaders! if i drove a gas gusler, this wouldn’t be an issue if the tree’s had been replaced.
It’s all a con. we use petrol& diesel as that is what our cars are built to run on. if alternates were supplied which didn’t incure huge costs i’m sure we would all use it. so maybe the government should invest some money on that. i mean they say they have to close post offices to save money and then with the other hand give 3Bn to a private company (Northern Rock) because of poor managment skills! i give up!
John Edwards - domestic refuse represents only some 15% of the UK’s total refuse. We only recycle a small percentage of that. So to suggest that the amount of refuse we recycle is in any way helping reduce to global warming - whatever the cause - is completely fanciful.
This article is about the level of fines for putting out rubbish being more severe than thieves or Drunks.
NOW, I think we will all agree that putting rubbish out, for collection by others, which we pay them to do, is NOT a crime.
HOWEVER, stealing something IS a crime, and in fact requires a “criminal intent” or a “criminal state of mind” to perpetrate.
That is a million miles away from the simple act of putting rubbish in a bin.
The one action CANNOT be equated in any way to the other, WHETHER OR NOT excess rubbish is put in a bin. The Putting of excess rubbish is only a matter of carrying out a legitimate act to a greater degree.
By contrast, you steal something, or you don’t - the definition of the act is clear.
We CANNOT, as a nation, carry on seeking to punish ordinary citizens for carrying out a perfectly legitimate act.
Whether or not you can reduce your rubbish content by economy of use, shopping at the market, or lobbying your supermarket is irrelevant.
We are unfairly punishing the “act by the person”, not the cause!
If we carry on persecuting “ordinary people” like this, we are surely going to create a groundswell of adverse opinion, which, in the end, will spill over into total disegard for ordinary law and order.
I detect this is already happening in other areas. There is a silent, growing disregard for authority, becuase it is seen as overbearing, petty, and not bringing to justice those crimes which are seen as serious by the ordinary, honest, and decent law abiding public.
This article, where it clearly states that the punishment for putting out rubbish, is greater than that for stealing, clearly demonstrates this.
Government needs to take a good, hard, long look at itself before it is too late.
We had the poll tax riots before, and it will happen again.
I REALLY despair at where this country is going.
A comment for Andy of Gnosal, they already do fully recyclable nappies mate, they are called “terry nappies” the initial outlay may be a bit high, but then those nappies can be boiled and used over and over again, not just with one child, but many. My wife use the same set for all four of our children. Not one ever had nappy rash and we helped the environment by not dumping huge amounts of plastic coated rubbish that won’t decompose. It’s all down to how lazy you are really.
good in my opinion we should tougher still on the slobs in this country who are dirty messy etc, we have to whip them into shape with an iron fist, its not acceptable for the vast majority to play by rules and haev a minority abuse the system, so we the tax payer subsidise their dirty grimy disgusting lifestyles. Clean up after yourselfs, then we wont need any conucil tax
Those of us who recycle and put out a reasonable amount of waste are in effect being stolen from by those who do not bother, put out excess waste or fly-tip. In any other sphere of life if someone claims more than their fair share, takes more than they have paid for or causes the local authority additional unnecessary expense (for which we all pick up the tab) we give it names like vandalism, criminal damage, benefit fraud, embezlement & theft. Law abiding citizens should feel deeply aggrieved about this.
Each of the three types of collection - refuse, green/cardboard, boxes cost just 66p each if someone wants to create/bring into their home more refuse than will fit in their bin that is their look out and they should bear the cost and take it to the tip themselves. Why should we subsidise them? Should we subsidise folk who choose to drive gas guzzlers? or those who run up credit card bills?
Maybe if our local authority spent less money on clearing up after the selfish, irresponsible and the wasteful they would be able to afford to give us plastic collections and food waste collections.
The bloke who thinks that washing nappies is not ecologically sound should get his facts straight before making a fool of himself in a public forum. He is woefully ill-informed and should spend some of his precoious time researching the subject. The production and transportation of disposable nappies uses huge amounts of energy and their disposal involves sending untreated human waste into the earth on which we all depend. Not to mention that these things take up to 200 years to degrade - what a legacy for our children to inherit. Maybe he should look at the medical research that indicates that the over heating that disposables causes in the genitalia has been linked to a variety of medical conditions including decreased fertility not to mention the lack of research into the effects of the strange array of chemicals that give them their absorbency have on our babies - is that what he wants for his children?
As with many things, we have to make a stand and we are either part of the solution or part of the problem.
its a bit like the speed camera thing really (debate going on on another blog on this site) IF YOU CANT DO THE TIME / PAY THE FINE THEN DONT DO THE CRIME!!! Simple ita a crime to be so wasteful, play by the rules
Ridiculous.
How on earth can you justify a £75+ fine for putting your bin out the night before???
They often do the rounds on our road very early in the morning so I do put our bin out the night before and move it back before I go to work. If however, our bin collection didn’t turn up till 3 in the afternoon, would I still get fined for putting my bin out in the morning before work? It would be there for the same amount of time. Or would I be expected to return at lunchtime to put it out? And what about returning it back into my garden, if it’s collected in the morning after I leave for work and I don’t move it till I get back from work at 6pm are they going to fine me for that too?
And where on earth is the right or wrong place to put a bin? I leave mine at the end of the drive, is this acceptable? Quite often it gets returned in some close proximity to my house, although usually the bin men leave it slap bang in the middle of the pavement… will they get fined for this or will I?
I agree with the majority in that if I didn’t pay for this service I could understand, but I do. For example, when I have a problem with my internet provider not providing the service I am paying for I complain, they apologise and fix it (usually!), how is this any different?
Talk about being power mad…
Lucy - there is no fine for putting your bin out early, indeed the council tell you to put your bin out the night before on their leaflets, fines are for people who put out tonnes of extra sacks of refuse, or who put their refuse in their recycling bin thus potentially contaminating all our recycling efforts, or for people who dump waste or litter our streets. all of these offences have a huge amount of public support for being stopped and what better way to stop them than hitting people in the pocket, the only people who complain about an enforcement regime are the criminals who want to break the law, clearly, for the rest of us its a good thing to control and minimise refuse and litter.
If you extend your broadband analogy to rubbish, well of course if you happily surf away all day you pay your bill you get the service there is no bother, however if you went on line surfing for porn and hacked into mi5 sites etc, you would get fined and you would be disconnected because you would be breaking the law… So of course if you break the refuse law by littering, not recycling etc, then there are consequences… If you dont think such behaviour is criminal then you must be mad, look at all the landfills and disgusting mess and litter round here, we need to stop it and fining people is a good way to start to change their behaviour
uurgh I trod in chewing gum this morning, disgusting, now that is something they should fine people for, dog mess is the other one, its digusting behaviour (by the owners, not the dogs having a call of nature). I would like to see fines of up to £1000 for this toxic pollution, better still their head on a spike on the town castle, these people make me sick, just use the correct bin for the correct thing, keep the recycling in the recycling, the rubbish in the rubbish and the litter, gum and dogs mess off my footpath please
lucy i dont think ayone minds you leaving your bin out for like one day, but try living where i did breifly in longnor street where about 20 houses all leave their bin in the same place outside your house and then leave them there for weeks and weeks, i would like those peopel fined
I agree with John Danish’s point that dogs mess is the bigger problem, for me there should be levels of offences with litter, like a fag butt, its not the end of the world really is it, but gum or faeces well that should be jailable, its a crime against humanity, it could lead to toxicrea where little children can go blind, similarly if you smash glass in a childrens play ground that’s a different level of littering offence to say just putting a glss bottle in the plastic bottle recycling by accident isnt it? I think there should be cautions like the police use, for minor offences like fags butts etc, but the real big ones like massive fly tips and dogs mess well i would support the fine being double or triple the level which they are talking about
Andy - consider the cost of buying all those disposables v the cost of buying and laundering reusuables. even with rising energy reusables save parents ££s, and you should be able to pick up a set from a family who no longer need them for a minimal cost, or even free from freecycle. Some councils even subsidise the cost of reusables. your gp surgery/health visitor should be able to give you info.
Issue I have with fines for putting bin out the night before is that since we changed over to fortnightly collections our bin is often emptied before we get up (and we both leave for work at 8am so it is done early!)- are we really supposed to get up at the crack of dawn on collection day just to put the bin out?! what is the harm of putting it out at bedtime the day before exactly?
ITS ONLY A BIN!!! Get over it!!
#31 mark davies & #33 Star Blogger
Lucy (#30) was pointing out what was written in the article. That is “Residents can also expect tough punishments for putting a bin out in the night before collection”
So is the Star correct in reporting this or is it that neither the Star or the council know what is and is not a “crime” concerning bin collection.
I say “crime” because they are not criminal acts; they are just bylaws that the councils can pick and choose at will.
These problems were unheard of until the last few years with the nanny state increasingly telling us all how we should and should not live our lives. Now it seems all forms of government have become power-mad - and this includes your local twopenny councillors. And from some of the comments above it seems that the Stasi are already forming.
In my own situation, I work odd hours and sometimes work away from home for a few days. As the binmen usually arrive at 8am I have no choice but to put the bin out early otherwise it would never be emptied. Matthew Ashton (#7) made a fine point in that we don’t all have a 9 to 5 lifestyle.
Yes but the article is wrong, no one is going to get fined for leaving their bin out overnight, they are actually asked to do that because the bin men work so early, just pointing out an innaccurate statement there and hopefully allaying lucy’s concerns, i too put by bin out the night before and bring it in at 6:30pm when i get home from work and there is no problem with this, i have never been threatened with a fine and never will. I think the article is mistaken here
Yes i too put my bin out on friday but if i’m a way for the weekend by nieghbour kindly returns it and i reciprocate, we have no bother on our street everyone is nice and puts their waste in the correct container, i think most people are doing all the recycling and being greener now anyway so there should be no need for anyone to get fined
this is all a storm in a tea cup, just do what you are asked with your waste and there’s no hassel, they are doing you a favour taking it away the least you can do is take all the cans, glass etc out and put them in another box, is it really that much to ask?
If you think about how many steel cans and aluiminium cans we use a year can you imagine how much the council is making from us making the effort to separate cans they are not doing us a favour so use your brains and take them to a scrape yard and get some of your council tax back .ed you are very wrong it is not a favour its a buisness and they are making a lot of money every week.
All these angry words! If we all put as much energy and thought into being decent human beings and trying to rescue this wonderful planet from the greed and over-indulgence of the people, we might actually get somewhere and leave a world fit for our children to prosper in.
I hate it when people seem to think that they give a grand a year to the council to empty your bin, at the ,oment our council tax pays for, to name just a few
Education
Roads
Parks and recreation
Libraries
Sports centres
Social care and services
Housing
Fire service
Police service
Museums
Public Transport
Cycle paths
Old peoples homes
Childrens homes and foster care
Countryside maintenance
Public rights of way
Benefit payments
Flood defences
Emergency planning
and a few other things
Oh and they might just empty the bin as well if they have time.
I think the fines are a bit daft aswell especially the fine for putting the bin out the night before but dont forget the council only does what the government tells it to do.
How can anyone complain about being fined for such behaviour, its not like you HAVE to do it, just play the game, sort your waste out, be hygeinic, responsible and respectable with it and no one needs to get fined. Like the vast majority of law abiding citizens I dont fear fines, cctv, police powers etc, because I play by the rules and obey the law. I think the only ones who moan about such things are the ones who are scared THEY might get fined.
PS - Kelly you are flat wrong, a tonne of cans weighed in at the scrap yard would get you about 50 quid if your lucky… Off you go, go and collect a TONNE of cans, go on, i dare you, give it a go, see how long it takes you…. Have you seen the price of deisel!!
If waste collection were profitable it wouldnt be done by the public sector obviously, durr, use your brain, come on!! Private companies would be knocking on your door asking for your cans
you can grow potato’s in binbags. this may seem trivial but in the long run will produce more than the hot air and drivel before it
Dan is correct, waste management is massively expensive and as landfill runs out and deisel prices go up, it is only going to get more expensive, we are heading for a resource crunch on par with the credit crunch, we are running out environmental resourced because we use them unsustainably and as such we are going to see massive price hikes of energy, water, and waste, so brace yourselves all, if you aren’t reducing, reusing and recycling now, you will be forced to in the future, because there is just no other option, the landfill sites are full
i dont care, it wont effect me, because I dont drop litter, or dump trash and I do recycle, so who cares if they fine anyone else, it wont effect me because I play by the rules
#42
This planet doesn’t need to be ’saved’ from us. It could destroy all of us in a matter of minutes if it had the will to do so. It’s a lot sturdier than most people give it credit for…
If people recycled more we wouldnt have this problem, that is the ultimate solution
Why can’t Shropshire County Council opt for plasma gasification of waste?
It’s about one hundred pounds per tonne cheaper than incineration if the health damage costs of incineration are included.
The City of Ottawa is going for it.
Veolia, who want to build an incineraotr at Harlescott have been awarded a plasma gasification contract by Dow Corning in Midland, Michigan.
Europlasma will use plasma gasification to generate electricity for French grid in South Bordeaux.
St Lucie County, Florida, are using plasma gasification to safely dispose of an existing landfill site.
Hasn’t any UK councillor realised that incineration leave about 30 percent of the volume as ash, which has to be landfilled?
There’s nothing to landfill with plasma gasification.
its all a big con i pay my taxes let some one else collect my rubbish and sort it all a load of old twaddle , climate change yes right.
whatever you cant plasma gasify municpal waste micheal, the process is designed to deal with tiny amounts of industrial waste, just burn it, i say, the pollution will go east with the wind and wont bother us here
good they are just as criminal as thieves, treat them the same, fine them and jail them for their disgusting anti social littering