ON ARRIVAL home from work this evening I discovered my green top recycling bin had been ‘stickered’ and therefore not emptied.

Investigation revealed a small carrier bag of rubbish tied neatly at the top which a stranger had placed in the bin at some point between me putting it out at 6pm on Monday evening and collection this morning.

This refusal to collect for the smallest transgression is, in my opinion, overzealous to the point of jobsworthy-ness.

I have no control over the behaviour of others once I have hauled the bin down to the street, unless you expect me to install cameras, alarms and a guard dog, (or sit up all night perhaps?).

I have previously been informed by the brown bin collector that he won’t take my bin if I don’t bag up what goes in it – an action which costs me money on top of the council tax I pay for rubbish collection. I have also been stickered for putting unused herbs (parsley) in the bin – and told we should not put plant waste in – what then is a tea bag or a potato peeling I ask you?

You guys do a tremendous job and I wholly support recycling and have done so for many years but this attitude is the sort of thing that antagonises people and sets neighbour against neighbour.

I have previously had incidents where someone whose bin wasn’t collected swapped their full one for my emptied one, and threatening letters from Magna Housing about not using their bins next door to my property after their residents filled my bins with rubbish, forcing me to use their empty ones.

It’s ridiculous and unnecessary. Can we have a modicum of common sense please when collecting from residents who are doing their best to comply?

Julie Freeman

Guernsey Street

Portland