Dangerous items put in rubbish or recycling

This is fairly sobering stuff… according to a report on Radio New Zealand this morning, council contractors are having to deal with all sorts of hazardous materials in recycling or regular rubbish bags.

The main hazards (apart from back strain due to lifting too-heavy bags), seem to be the dangerous things some lunatics are putting out in the recycling, including used syringes, broken glass, items covered in maggots and even a set gin trap!! Contractors have to put their hands into the recycling to manually sort the different grades of material, so this is putting them severely at risk…

I knew a council rubbish collector years ago who contracted hepatitis B through his work and was sick for months, (luckily recovering eventually)…. so this is not a trivial matter..

Come on people, rubbish collection is an important service-as residents we can do better than this!! Broken glass shouldn’t be in the recycling at all; wrap it and put it in the regular rubbish. Wash recycling items, squash tin cans and put the lids inside. Only put approved recycling items in the recycling bin- ring the council help line or look on their website if in doubt.