Recycling 'ambassadors' check up on residents

Officers were caught going through bins at 6.50am one day in Brierley.

One woman, who asked not to be named, rang the authority and was told they were ‘ambassadors for waste’. She said: “I’m not criticising the council. But I just think we should have known about it.

“It can be a little unnerving if you live on your own. And it only takes a child to put something in the wrong bin and people could get fined.”

A council spokesman said the checks were being carried out early in the morning because the inspectors were also part of the bin crews which followed. Coun Roy Miller, cabinet environment spokesman, said the waste inspectors would be working for the first two months of a new recycling scheme.

They would act as ‘education officers’ who would tell waste chiefs about people who put the wrong items in the wrong bins so they could be contacted and offered help. People would only be fined if they continually failed to put rubbish in the correct bins, he added.

Coun Miller said: “We have used bin inspectors at each step of the phased introduction of the alternate collections and the public have been informed about their role in press releases issued with the earlier phases of the scheme.”