A BIN crew was caught on camera as normal rubbish and recyclables were dumped together into the same wagon.

Householder Tony Hurley says he watched "in disbelief" as separate wheelie bins, containing household waste he had carefully divided into landfill and recyclable items, were hoisted side-by-side on the back of the refuse wagon.

He was so angry, he grabbed his mobile phone camera and took snaps as his grey wheelie bin and his green bin were tipped together into the same lorry. The wagon then moved along his back street in Bury New Road and did the same with all his neighbours’ different coloured bins.

Mr Hurley’s irrefutable photographic evidence has brought an apology from council chiefs, with a promise: "This will not happen again."

A council spokesman said the normal large-bodied refuse wagons could not be used behind Mr Hurley’s row of houses because of the narrow access, so one of the smaller vehicles was used.

"On this occasion both the recycling and refuse collections had been delayed due to a prolonged vehicle breakdown. Due to the amount of material left out behind the houses after Christmas, the crew took the decision to clear all the bins to avoid any further disruption to residents and to leave the area tidy as quickly as possible.

"We apologise for the delays experienced by residents and we want to reassure them that this will not happen again as an appropriate spare vehicle will be utilised in the event of any future breakdowns."

The spokesman said the waste and recyclables had been taken away together "with the best will by the operatives who knew that otherwise these residents would be left with uncollected waste."

But township chairman Councillor Colin Lambert said Mr Hurley’s experience would badly dent residents’ confidence in the recycling programme.

"We had reports of this happening in Sutherland Road in November and both I and the Advertiser investigated. But we were assured by the council that residents were mistaken.

"Now we have an admission that this has happened in Bury New Road and it is an admission recycling is not all it appears to be in Heywood.

"Residents need to have total confidence that their efforts to recycle are not negated by a collection system which is not able to cope."

Mr Hurley said: "I would have been happy to have been proved wrong and to have been told it was a special wagon split down the middle so normal waste and recyclable materials were kept apart.

"I was absolutely horrified to see all my efforts wasted as all the carefully-sorted waste was dumped into one wagon. That is why I took a photograph from the bedroom window.

"We have waste sorted at source because members of the public want to support recycling, but now we find they are still landfilling the public’s efforts."

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