Binmen have been filmed dumping waste which householders had carefully separated for recycling into the back of a single pick-up truck.
The clip has infuriated residents of a Welsh county where the roll-out of four-weekly collection of general waste has been branded ‘an utter shambles’.
It shows one crew member standing on top of the cab while his colleague passes up containers designed for putting out cardboard and food waste.
He then tips the contents into the same cage before jumping to the ground, leaving the empty bag and caddy at the roadside.
The shocking video – posted to the Llangollen Noticeboard page on August 29 – comes as the roll-out of a new recycling scheme in Denbighshire has provoked fury.
The clip has infuriated residents of a Welsh county. It shows one crew member standing on top of the cab while his colleague passes up containers designed for putting out cardboard and food waste
The workers can be seen tipping the contents into the same cage before jumping to the ground, leaving the empty bag and caddy at the roadside
Rubbish piled high on the streets of Llangollen. The shocking video – posted to the Llangollen Noticeboard page on August 29 – comes as the roll-out of a new recycling scheme in Denbighshire has provoked fury
Locals have complained of rubbish going uncollected, sharing pictures of streets littered with overflowing bins and boxes.
Opponents claim the bungled policy is costing up to £60,000-a-week more than planned – or as much as £3million-a-year.
Just this week the council’s joint Labour/Plaid Cymru cabinet survived a motion to remove them from their posts over the fiasco.
Reacting to the video, Pete Wilson posted: ‘How can a council allow staff to climb on the roof of a vehicle and operate in this manner, and then jump down off the cab!!!
‘I would love to see the signed-off risk assessment that was given authority for this practice to happen!!!
‘We pay council tax for the practice of collections to be carried out in a safe and professional manner!!’
Meanwhile Sandra Barber accused the local council of ‘treating us the public that pay your wage like imbeciles’.
Denbighshire council is investigating the clip but says ‘comingled’ collection is sometimes necessary after addresses are missed repeatedly – and that the rubbish is still separated later.
Binmen in Llangollen. Since June 3, weekly collections of paper, plastic, metal, food cartons and glass have used stacked boxes on trolleys – known as Trolibocs. Non-recyclable waste has switched to four-weekly collections
The council’s Labour leader, Jason McLellan (pictured), admitted getting the roll-out ‘wrong’. But he argued the council had a ‘well-advanced’ plan which ‘didn’t match the reality on the ground.’
It insists the mixed waste is ‘kept separate to the food wherever possible’ – yet the video appears to show an orange food waste caddy being emptied along with everything else.
It comes after householders have suffered weeks of missed waste collections in the North Wales county, leaving bins overflowing.
Since June 3, weekly collections of paper, plastic, metal, food cartons and glass have used stacked boxes on trolleys – known as Trolibocs.
Non-recyclable waste has switched to four-weekly collections.
However residents quickly branded the system an ‘utter shambles’, with boxes filling up, collections missed and rubbish left dumped on streets and pavements.
Anger has been fuelled by the fact Denbighshire previously had recycling rates which were above average for Wales.
This week opposition councillors lost a motion to kick out the council’s Labour leader and his cabinet because of what they branded a ‘disaster.’
‘Every single one of us has had complaints from residents especially over the last 14-15 weeks,’ Independent group leader, councillor Huw Hilditch-Roberts, told the debate.
Fellow independent Karen Edwards, of Llangollen, said there had been ‘meaningless apologies’ and denial of the true scale of the problems.
‘Control of the budget has been completely lost,’ she said.
‘It continues to cost £55,000 to £60,000 per week more than planned which equates to approximately £3 million per annum.’
Hugh Irving, leader of the Tories, said: ‘Our cabinet seem unable to grasp where residents’ priorities lie.’
Llangollen in Denbighshire (stock image). Residents have quickly branded the new recycling system an ‘utter shambles’, with boxes filling up, collections missed and rubbish left dumped on streets and pavements
The council’s Labour leader, Jason McLellan, admitted getting the roll-out ‘wrong’.
But he argued the council had a ‘well-advanced’ plan which ‘didn’t match the reality on the ground.’
He claimed that abandoning the new scheme would be ‘stupid’, saying there were 232 missed collections out of 46,000 households last week.
‘I think we are turning a corner,’ he added.
A Denbighshire county council spokesman said: ‘We are aware of a video circulating on social media and are conducting a thorough investigation into the matter.
‘There are some days where a small number of properties, especially those who have suffered from repeated missed collection, are still receiving a comingled collection.
‘This is done using a cage vehicle and tipped off at another DCC waste transfer station where the comingled waste is kept separate to the food wherever possible and then the comingled recycling is sent to a processor for separation and recycling, as would have happened under the previous collection model.
‘There is a desire to stop all comingled collections but when there is no other option to get the waste off the street, we occasionally do still have to collect comingled recycling.
‘To clarify, comingled collections are kept separately from any food or residual waste and the material is sent for processing as recycling.’
