Council spies looking through your wheelie bin

SPIES sent by local councils are rummaging through household dustbins to find out how race and wealth affects people’s willingness to recycle.

Spies are rummaging through bins to ascertain if how race and wealth affects how much people recycle Spies are rummaging through bins to ascertain if how race and wealth affects how much people recycle

Bin police from 90 councils targeted more than 10,000 unsuspecting families last year alone, scrutinising supermarket labels, discarded food and private mail to find out which groups were the worst offenders.

Critics branded the scheme “highly intrusive” as the squads of snoopers deliberately focused on ethnically diverse areas as part of a “recycling drive” instigated by the last Government.

Councils cited little-known guidance from the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs to legitimise the secret searches.

While some councils use their staff, many are also hiring private contractors to sift through sacks of rubbish. They then use social profiling techniques to match different types of rubbish to different social and ethnic groups.

Householders are put in categories, like “hard-pressed” or “wealthy achievers” and offending groups are then targeted by public awareness campaigns.

Waste audits legally allow officials and private contractors free rein to sift through bins and analyse household rubbish. However, the undercover missions have provoked outrage and critics have branded them a waste of taxpayers’ money and an invasion of privacy.

Many also fear it is the first step towards charging residents who fail to meet Government recycling targets.

Fiona McEvoy, of the TaxPayers’ Alliance, said: “Councils shouldn’t be paying contractors to rummage through residents’ bins when there’s huge pressure on their finances.

“Local authorities should abandon their fascination with what’s inside our bins once and for all and concentrate on cutting the considerable fat within town halls.”

The results show those with least to worry about from the bin searches are educated city dwellers, who throw out the least and recycle the most.

In Wokingham, Berkshire, however, officials sifted through at least 500 bins, uncovering almost a ton of rubbish that could have been recycled.

In their defence, many councils insist secrecy is necessary to avoid prejudicing the results.

They claim that once rubbish has been put outside a property for collection, it falls into the ownership of the local authority.

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