Collections hit as Telford binmen wilt in the heat

Residents in the town have complained to the council after watching workers mix their carefully separated glass, cardboard and plastic together before it is crushed in the back of a bin wagon.

Others have not had their waste picked up on their normal collection day.

A Trench man, who did not wish to be named, said: "Our bin day is a Tuesday normally but the normal bin wagon came along a fortnight ago on a Wednesday and took away bottles, paper, cardboard, tins.

"Everything went in the back together – I couldn't believe it. This week they didn't come on the Tuesday so they came on Wednesday and out of curiosity I went out to see and everything went into the back and it was all crushed up to make way for more.

"You go out of your way to keep everything separate and then it all gets crushed together. I rang the council and they said workers were running behind with their system and when it gets to Granville tip it gets sorted out. This is the second time this has happened and bear in mind these bins are collected on a fortnightly basis so it's been going on for a month."

Telford & Wrekin Council today assured residents the rubbish will eventually be sorted through back at the recycling centre in Halesfield. Spokesman Russell Griffin said: "Due to the extreme heat, refuse operatives can't always complete the collections as quickly as normal and this has caused some minor delays.

"In order to catch up, our contractors use a process known as co-mingling which sees all the recycling put into the same truck.

"It is then taken to Halesfield, transferred to another vehicle, sorted and then recycled. We will obviously endeavour to keep collections on time as much as possible but we can't legislate for the weather so we would thank people for their patience."