A WOMAN says she’ll stop separating her rubbish for recycling because binmen left her plastic items uncollected for five days.

Fay Cunningham and her neighbours in Capstan Place, Colchester, put out their black bags, as usual, along with clear sacks of plastic items, ahead of the regular collection on Wednesday last week.

The black bags were picked up, but the recycling was left out on the pavement.

Mrs Cunningham contacted Colchester Council and was told it would be collected on Thursday or Friday.

She sent a note to her neighbours telling them to put their recycling out again, but it was five days later when it was finally taken away.

She said: “All my rubbish will now go in a black bag every week. There’s no point in recycling if there’s not going to be a collection."

Mrs Cunningham said binmen visited three times last Wednesday – once to collect the black bags once, to get garden refuse and once to hand out rolls of bags for next year – but ignored the clear sacks each time.

The council said it was investigating the problem.