The Carrier Bag Question
A bin man who shares waste advice on social media has explained the correct way to recycle plastic carrier bags. Ashley C, who posts on TikTok under the name 'No 1 Binman', responded to a follower who asked why reusable supermarket bags can't simply be thrown into household recycling bins.
The comment read: "Why can't we recycle recyclable bags like carrier bags from Asda etc? I do reuse mine but sometimes have too many."
In a clip that has racked up more than 7,000 views, Ashley urged shoppers to keep reusing their bags for as long as possible before returning them to supermarkets that have dedicated collection points.
"That's a lovely thing to have, too many bags," he said. "Just save them. Save them indoors until a couple of them rip and have holes in the bottom of them and then you take them back to Asda."
He added: "Most Asdas or Tescos or Sainsburys will have a bin, probably by the checkout, to put carrier bags in and then they will recycle them from that point onwards."
Ashley, from South East England, suggested shoppers take their spare bags with them on future grocery trips before dropping them into the collection bins.
The Co-op Endorsement
Ashley singled out one supermarket's bags as being particularly useful for another purpose.
"The Co-op ones are the best ones because you can use them for food waste because they're biodegradable," he said. "Compostable bags and normal carrier bags are not."
However, he warned that rules vary depending on where you live. "Some councils allow you to put it in carrier bags, check first, but otherwise it's normally just Co-op," he explained. "If you need to put them somewhere, take them back with you to the shops and they'll recycle them for you."
The Hidden Waste Warning
In a separate set of videos, Ashley warned about a different recycling problem: residents hiding general rubbish underneath recycling in an attempt to get it collected. He says bin crews can detect the trick.
"The number of people in my comment section who go, 'I just hide everything underneath all the other recycling and they never find it'. We find it. We 100 per cent find it - we know the houses that do it all the time," he said.
He described a recent incident: "Just today I went to a bin... You can have a feel for it. You push the bin, and you're like, 'That's too dense to just be plastic and glass'. It had all plastic on top, I was like 'lovely, maybe I'm wrong for once'. Took it to the back of the lorry, put it up, and the top layer came off. Brought it back down - full of bags. Bags of rubbish."
That bin was rejected with a contamination label, and the resident had to sort it themselves. Ashley said his team has developed a feel for when a bin's contents are denser than they should be for a standard recycling load.
Consequences and Viewer Reactions
According to reports, repeated offenders may be actively monitored, with crews performing manual checks before tipping, and there is a potential fixed penalty notice of £60 to £80 for wrong disposal causing a public nuisance or health hazard.
Viewer comments on the videos included: "Just follow the rules, guys. It's for your own good and your future generations" and "I don't understand why people don't just sort it."
One viewer shared a positive experience with a council worker who explained what to remove and returned to empty the bin.
Advice to residents is to check council websites for local recycling rules, as they can vary by area.