Should be Hung Drawn and Quartered !!!

***Marts*** · 18-10-2006

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/south_west/6058952.stm .. feed him to the sheep I say

**rolfw** · 18-10-2006

Originally Posted by BBC News

BBC NEWS
Fine for letter in recycling bag
Magistrates have fined a man £200 after finding him guilty of putting paper in a recycling sack for bottles and cans only - breaking council rules.

Michael Reeves, 28, a journalist from Swansea, had denied putting an item of junk mail in the bag.

The court was told the letter, which was addressed to him, "contaminated" the other items put out for recycling.

After the hearing Mr Reeves said he had since stopped recycling and feared his case would discourage others.

Magistrates in the city were told under the Environmental Protection Act, councils could impose strict rules on their refuse collection services.

Mr Reeves was served with a warning notice in April this year when he put his bins out a day early because he was going on holiday.

Then in June a green recycling bag was found outside his ground floor flat in the Mount Pleasant area of the city containing both paper and bottles and cans.

Swansea Council enforcement officer Martin Lemon said: "There is a recycling scheme available in which paper can put into a green recycling sack and glass bottles and tins can be put into a separate sack."

People are not going to recycle if they end up in court and it costs them £200
Michael Reeves

He said if the items were mixed in the same bag then it would be sent to landfill instead as the council's recycling collection team refused to pick it up.

"The fly-tipping team have responsibility for collecting waste that has been incorrectly disposed of," he said.

"The teams are trained to search through any offending waste that they have found to look for evidence of its origins.

"My colleague informed me that he had opened a green recycling sack and that he found a piece of junk mail with Mr Reeve's name and address."

I don't believe they proved beyond reasonable doubt that I put the paper in the bag - I did not
Michael Reeves

The sports writer with the city's Evening Post newspaper denied putting the letter in the bag.

The court heard there were no eye witnesses or camera footage of him doing so.

His solicitor Nicola Smith said there was "an array" of possibilities of how it came to be in the sack.

But magistrates found him guilty and fined him £100 and ordered him to pay £100 costs.

Speaking after Tuesday's hearing he described the case as "crazy".

"I don't believe they proved beyond reasonable doubt that I put the paper in the bag - I did not," he said.

He added: "I have not recycled since I received the summons.

"People are not going to recycle if they end up in court and it costs them £200."

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/wales/south_west/6058952.stm

Published: 2006/10/17 13:30:56 GMT

© BBC MMVI

I can agree with the idea that people shouldn't polute recycling bags, but this appears to have gone over the top, or has he been doing this deliberately to make a story?

**gameboy** · 19-10-2006

Originally Posted by rolfw

or has he been doing this deliberately to make a story?

He's a sports reporter!

This is big brother gone mad. Next time you want get your neighbour a fine get some junk mail out their bin and put it in a recycling sack!

Where did the reasonable doubt argument go - innocent until proved guilty!

Land fill costs are set to double soon - read this excellent article...

_http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2090-2404876,00.html

Only my two pence worth

**Analoguesat** · 19-10-2006

Good. If the carrot doesnt work hit them with the stick.

**PoloMint** · 19-10-2006

We've had the stick for a while – if, on bin day, the lid of the bin is not lying flat across the top, it is deemed to be overfull and not emptied. The owner needs to phone up, apologise for having an extra bin bag this week which stopped the lid completely closing, and arrange for a special pickup.

Or alternatively cram it in the neighbours bin after they have gone to bed.

**Channel Hopper** · 19-10-2006

All junk mail I receive gets shredded and used for winter fuel.

If it has my details on it, it doesn't leave the house through the front door.

**Salty25** · 19-10-2006

To be fair to the council, its probably a right pain in the arse having to seperate paper from bottles etc because people like Mr Reeves can't be bothered to do it themselves.

Having said that, a £200 fine probably isn't the best punishment. What would have been more effective would have been to send him on a course on how to recycle - then Mr Reeves would have looked like an idiot (which he is, or at least arrogant), and not the council and judge.

I can't see the harm in seperating your rubbish, its hardly rocket science. We've invested in a compost bin thingy to put our rottibles (is that a word???) in, and I can't see why other can't do the same, because even if you don't garden you can sell/give your compost to those who do. As they, or at least Tesco say, 'every little helps'.

PS also, it has to be him simply because surely no one could be that shit-faced to do it and frame him for it

and if someone did, he probably deserved it if someone had gone to all that effort!

**Llew** · 19-10-2006

Here in Cambs., recycling rates stand at 40%, resulting in less use of landfill sites.
The average London recycling rate is 20%. Our council is now going to allow London waste to be dumped in Cambridgeshire landfill sites.

Granted we will be charging London for use of these sites, but I can't see the logic of us having to go to the trouble of carefully seperating our rubbish into four different receptacles (black bin for normal household waste, green bin or brown paper bag for garden waste, plastic bottle box, black box for tins and newspapers) when the dumping sites are going to be filled up with other areas' rubbish.

It's about time the London authorities got their act together and stepped up their recycling campaign

Llew

***Marts*** · 19-10-2006

I guess we can consider ourselves lucky here. Our rubbish is removed six days a week and we don't have any rates to pay

Maaarts

**Topper** · 19-10-2006

Originally Posted by Marts

I guess we can consider ourselves lucky here. Our rubbish is removed six days a week and we don't have any rates to pay
Maaarts

I thought the tide went in and out 7 days a week Marts

**Channel Hopper** · 19-10-2006

Originally Posted by Llew

Here in Cambs., recycling rates stand at 40%, resulting in less use of landfill sites.
The average London recycling rate is 20%. Our council is now going to allow London waste to be dumped in Cambridgeshire landfill sites.

Granted we will be charging London for use of these sites, but I can't see the logic of us having to go to the trouble of carefully seperating our rubbish into four different receptacles (black bin for normal household waste, green bin or brown paper bag for garden waste, plastic bottle box, black box for tins and newspapers) when the dumping sites are going to be filled up with other areas' rubbish.

It's about time the London authorities got their act together and stepped up their recycling campaign

Llew

Careless talk like that gets middlemen into the equation. Next the Mayors office will be asking local councils to blanket charge the consituency for the waste (creaming off a large amount of money into the bargain), instead of working out better ways of recycling at steeet level.
Oh, they already have.

***Marts*** · 19-10-2006

Originally Posted by Topper

I thought the tide went in and out 7 days a week Marts

I know, I know Topper .. but it's a fact .. 6 days a week and no rates to pay .. as I will be standing for the Mayor of our village in March of next year we will see .. cos I certainly intend to upset the apple cart .. by putting this village on the map .. and I kid you not

My signature points one towards our village

Marts

**Topper** · 20-10-2006

Originally Posted by Marts

cos I certainly intend to upset the apple cart .. by putting this village on the map .. and I kid you not
Marts

Well I feel sorry for the apple cart in advance, but of course that is your privilege your mayoral worshipfulness

***CROSSBONES*** · 20-10-2006

Thats sounds just about right for Swansea council!

***Marts*** · 20-10-2006

Originally Posted by Topper

Well I feel sorry for the apple cart in advance, but of course that is your privilege your mayoral worshipfulness

Thank you .. and I will see to it that rubbish is removed seven days a week

***BarMoo*** · 22-10-2006

Originally Posted by Channel Hopper

All junk mail I receive gets shredded and used for winter fuel.

For our younger viewers, this is called CHOP (The CH Oxymoron Process) - i.e., whereby recycling is reduced to 100% carbon emission.

I think only you could say and DO that CH

Funny.

.

***BarMoo*** · 22-10-2006

Originally Posted by Salty25

rottibles (is that a word???)

No, but you could call refer to it as organic waste

Incidentally, where I live, we have SIX communal trash bins. An Organic bin, A Paper Bin, A clear glass, A brown glass, A green glass, A domestic other? bin.

Maybe the UK should adopt our plastic bottle tax [read: deposit] - €0.25 on every plastic bottled fizzy drink at point of sale. Take back to get your deposit back. That should kick-start most lazy Brit ass's into recycling.

Mind, it is a pain when you buy a supermarket own-label drink - because you can only go back to the same-named supermarket to collect your deposit.

.

***Marts*** · 23-10-2006

Originally Posted by BarMoo

Maybe the UK should adopt our plastic bottle tax [read: deposit] - €0.25 on every plastic bottled fizzy drink at point of sale. Take back to get your deposit back. That should kick-start most lazy Brit ass's into recycling.

.

Likewise here. The guy in question re this thread now has a criminal record

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