Council orders Milton Keynes residents to get up at crack of dawn to ensure their bins are collected

All 99,000 householders in MK have been ordered by the council to get up at the crack of dawn on the day their rubbish is collected.

In a no-nonsense notice published last week, Milton Keynes Council addressed the sticky subject of split bin bags.

They say the reason for cat and rat-foraged black sacks is that people are putting rubbish containing food out the night before refuse collectors come.

And they wrote, complete with capital letters for emphasis: “Bins go out on the MORNING of your collection day BEFORE 7am. Not the night or day before.”

To add impact they included a symbol of a clock – with the hands showing 5am!

The advice sheet, posted by the council on Twitter, immediately caused ripples of reaction.

“Is it compulsory to get up before 7am on bin day? I must have missed this discussion in Parliament,” tweeted MKGreen Party spokesman Alan Francis.

The Citizen asked the council this week if it really wanted people to get up at 5am to put their rubbish out.

A spokesman said: “We’ve always asked people to have their refuse out by 7am on collection day. I did the very same myself this morning.”

He added: “We did put something on social media recently, which did confuse people, but we’ve taken that down and we will re-visit it to make it clearer.”

One Twitter user came up with the answer to sack-splitting scavengers – by asking for thicker and tougher bin bags.

MK Council has now removed its ‘crack of dawn’ Twitter notice, complete with the 5am clockface. So when SHOULD we put our rubbish out?

Council: Sacks can only be put out the day or night before collection – but only if they contain no food waste at all. If there is food waste, they should be put out in the morning, as soon as possible before the refuse collectors arrive.

Why no food waste?

Council: What we ask is to not to put any food waste in the black refuse sacks at all, to reduce the likelihood of animal foraging, ripping bags open and spreading rubbish around etc. Bags should securely tied.

Where should we put our food waste?

Council: Ideally it should go into the green bins, or the food waste caddies which can be put out the evening before, with pink sacks.

But don’t we have to pay to have our green bins emptied?

MK Citizen: No. The Labour administration on the council was going to charge people £33 a year. Tories and Lib Dems objected, but Labour say they wouldn’t change their minds. Then they did. So now there will be no charge. You’re confused? So are we...

What goes in pink sacks?

Recyclable materials such as paper, cardboard, plastic bottles, tin cans, metal lids and aluminium foil. Don’t waste your pink sacks – they’re a precious commodity. Deliveries are two weeks’ behind at the moment.