Uproar over council's bin "shaming" move
As councils around the country make big changes to the way we dispose of waste, one council's move has left an entire street in Melbourne "offended".
On Wednesday morning, Essendon mum Kali took out her bins and thought nothing more of her weekly habit. It was when she came back after a coffee run that she spotted a tag that had "oh no" written in big red letters.
"We found items that don't belong in your mixed recycling bin," the note read, identifying reusable shopping bags as the culprit.
When she looked around all but one household on her street had the same yellow note.
"I came back and saw all these tags on the bins, I thought 'That's a bit weird'," she told Yahoo News Australia.
"It was the talk of the street," she said, after finding out that fellow residents were in "uproar" over the tags.
Kali, a mum-of-two, has lived in her home for over nine years and said this was the first time she saw the tag on her bin.
"It's just a bizarre thing to do," she said.
"I thought it was funny that I got bin shamed. I'm sure we're all guilty of [recycling incorrectly], it's an easy mistake.
"Our whole street was embarrassed about it," she added, saying "other neighbours were more offended".
Kali is adamant that she didn't do anything wrong, as she ensures the bags in her bin were made out of paper, but said that "you don’t know who is putting things in your bin."
A council spokesperson told Yahoo that the move was made to "inform" residents.
"Council’s intention is to provide information to people at their homes through our kerbside bin education program to create more awareness, so everyone in the community can recycle right," the spokesperson said.
"We understand that recycling can be confusing and that there may be a misunderstanding in what can and can’t go into a recycling bin."
Images: Yahoo News