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Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!

I’ve seen two people at different times this week going through our wheelie bin outside the front of the house. They empty everything out and are clearly looking for specific things - metal/copper for recycling perhaps? They both put everything back and added a few things they found to their trolley and moved on. Anyone else seen this happen in the ladder recently? I didn’t know what to do about it! Neither were harming anyone but it was a bit unsettling and pretty depressing that this is the state of things  these days.

Tags for Forum Posts: theft from dustbins

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Not just these days, it's been noted on HoL for some years - see http://www.harringayonline.com/forum/topic/listForTag?tag=theft+fro...  for example. If what materials they take are not useful to me but are useful to them then good luck to them, but this is a reminder to me not to put out any personal information on paper until it's been shredded.

I've seen council staff go through commercial waste but this is clearly not them.

If they're looking for stuff to recycle that's kinda sad, though my concern would also be about identity theft. Which is why we invested in a shredder...

I did the same when our bins had a popular phase

We had this a lot including people taking things from front gardens, a while back in Noel Park, we asked the police what could be done about it, but they said there was nothing we could do to stop it, as we would have to refuse access to postmen, dustmen and visitors etc from coming onto our path!

"They empty everything out and are clearly looking for specific things - metal/copper for recycling perhaps? They both put everything back..."

The logical response is to recycle properly. If you have done that, then there really is no problem. 

We have a separate recycle bin outside, and there will be at least some times when stuff meant for recycling will be placed in it ready for collection...

How would this avoid someone going through it?

Raking through rubbish bins in search of stuff (whatever that stuff) is classed as theft under English common law, as established in numerous "Benji the Binman" cases.  It has been established that anything placed in a rubbish bin outside a householder's property boundary remains that householder's property until it has been collected by an official rubbish team -- which therefore means arguments that anything placed in a rubbish bin is available for a third party to appropriate must fall.  Next time you see someone fossicking through a rubbish bin, go down and point out to them that they are stealing -- I have done this several times, and they always give up and go away.

Bin Divers I call them. I don't mind them as generally they're more tidy than my neighbours. One time a neighbour put out a binbag of mostly non-household rubbish which the animals had raided and spread the contents all over the place. The Bin Divers came along, sorted it, took what they wanted and tidied up all the mess that had been there.

I wish they'd have a go at the bins next to us. At least four have been sitting full, open and mis-sorted (hence uncollected) for months and it's all gradually getting blown over to our path.

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