I find it extraordinary that electronic “spy bugs” have secretly been planted in hundreds of thousands of household wheelie bins.

It is hardly the best way of getting the message across about recycling, engaging with the public and gaining their full support to ensure the government meets strict targets set by the European Parliament – else face a hefty fine.

A few years ago, householders in Cambridgeshire were written to by the local authority and asked if they would mind their blackl plastic rubbish bags being randomly picked on to check what rubbish was being thrown out to give council officers further insight into recycling. Anyone who objected was excluded. I was the press officer promoting recycling for East Anglia and it made a great slot on Anglia TV when a reporter split open a rubbish bag and demonstrated how more than half the household waste could have been recycled.

Dealing with rubbish is something this government has not been able to grasp, it needs to be kept as simple as possible. At the moment, different local authorities provide a different coloured bag, box or sack to denote where recyclables should be placed. Why can’t one system operate county wide? All local authorities have a different system, some will collect plastic and kitchen waste while others others focus on paper, cans and glass; this depends very much on whether they have an outlet to send it to. Collections are often made alternate weeks with household waste, a system which has had no public support and fills many column inches in the local press from irate householders. But their views are ignored.

It’s obvious why the government wants to keep a track on people’s rubbish, to prevent them losing any future prosecutions. Legal cases are based on firm evidence and proving ownership of wheelie bins is one step in this direction.

Our landfill sites are rapidly filling up which is why recycling is so essential. I regard these items as valuable resources which can be given a new lease of life. I would love to track discarded medical or IT equipment from the UK through to its new, grateful home in Africa. We are such a throwaway society.

Do you remember fridge mountains and the chaos this caused? And what about the delayed implementation of the Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment?
We will never support incinerators in this country, just like power stations, even though in Denmark there is even one sited in view of the royal palace – and their Queen does not object! So recycling must be one solution to divert waste.
And it is no surprise that fly tipping is a growing menace, a blot on our landscape, with Defra shamefully admitting that rubbish is illegally dumped every 35 seconds in the UK. My solution would be to offer to remove these items free of charge from households and recoup the cost by selling them on either to the public or to a manufacturer, make it easy for everyone all round and protect our environment.