Saved from landfill or stolen? What do you think?
vg | 20.05.2008 18:29 | Ecology | Repression
A Wrexham woman is facing a possible criminal charge of theft under Section 1 of the Theft Act 1968 for allegedly taking four green plastic garden chairs out of the landfill skip at the local household 'recycling' centre.
A green plastic garden chair
The 'recycling' centre is owned by Wrexham County Borough Council (WCBC) and run by the Waste 'Recycling' Group (WRG) under contract. The alleged theft was reported by WRG to WCBC, who apparently own the stuff in the skips that they then chuck into landfill, and it is WCBC who asked the police to investigate the matter. It also had the option of taking a civil action under the Environmental Protection Act. Stopping people from rescuing stuff from landfill is a serious business for the council.
The council's 'Vision, Strategic Aims and Priorities' for 2008-9 include the following: "We are committed to dealing with waste in the most economical and environmentally sustainable way – setting an aspirational target to divert 40% of municipal waste away from landfill. We also aim to recycle, reuse or compost 65% of the waste received at household recycling centres..." It is difficult to see why the council would seek a theft charge against someone who was helping to achieve that target.
Instead of politely telling the council not to waste their time, the cops obligingly arrested and interviewed the suspected 'thief' just over a week ago and threatened to search her house and garden in order to recover the 'stolen' goods which they say must be returned to their 'rightful owner' (so they can be put back in the landfill skip, presumably). When the suspect answered bail today, she was told that the police would like to arrange a photo/video identity parade before submitting a file to the Crown Prosecution Service which will have to decide whether prosecuting the case would be good use of public money and in the public interest etc.
In the council's view it is just too risky to allow anyone to take plastic garden chairs out of skips. Just suppose there was a problem with one of the chairs, and just further suppose that this problem wasn't noticed and a child should sit on that chair and fall off and injure themselves, and just suppose that the parent of that injured child came back to the council and threatened to sue. Just suppose, eh! Never mind that the council is supposed to be conserving its dwindling landfill capacity; never mind that the mixture of plastics and other chemicals that end up in landfill poison the earth and lead to babies being miscarried or born with cleft palates, that children develop breathing problems and tumours from living near landfill. The causes of such tragedies are much harder to prove in the courts.
Given that the suspect in this alleged crime has been attempting to persuade the council to set up a proper re-use section at each of its household 'recycling' centres for some time now, making polite, sensible and helpful suggestions that have been stubbornly rejected or ignored, it is hard to avoid the conclusion that the council is trying to shut up the troublesome citizen by reporting this 'theft' to the police.
Although WCBC and WRG have lots of excuses about how a re-use scheme would not be possible, desirable or workable, and could leave them open to prosecution if faulty goods were taken for re-use, councils in many places including Islington and the Isle of Man operate just such schemes, apparently without any problems and keeping large amounts of stuff out of landfill. The council claims that it has tried a scheme like this before but withdrawn it after complaints from the public. On closer scrutiny, it turns out that this was a scheme whereby 'totters' sorted through people's rubbish as they put it into the skip, which some people found upsetting, whereas a proper re-use scheme would allow members of the public themselves to select those items which might be useful to someone else, and leave them in a covered area within the recycling centre (or elsewhere) for other people to take for their own use.
Freeconomy Wrexham has recently set up a small re-use scheme which is proving very popular, and which has satisfied the Trading Standards department of the same WCBC that it is operating safely and responsibly. It's a bit of a mystery why the Environmental Services Department of WCBC has such difficulties with the concept of re-use, especially since it's right near the top of the waste 'hierarchy' which the council claims to be committed to.
It does look as if the police are determined that the case should be prosecuted, and if it goes ahead, it should prove a very interesting court case. If anyone has experience of such cases, it would be good to hear from you.
The council's 'Vision, Strategic Aims and Priorities' for 2008-9 include the following: "We are committed to dealing with waste in the most economical and environmentally sustainable way – setting an aspirational target to divert 40% of municipal waste away from landfill. We also aim to recycle, reuse or compost 65% of the waste received at household recycling centres..." It is difficult to see why the council would seek a theft charge against someone who was helping to achieve that target.
Instead of politely telling the council not to waste their time, the cops obligingly arrested and interviewed the suspected 'thief' just over a week ago and threatened to search her house and garden in order to recover the 'stolen' goods which they say must be returned to their 'rightful owner' (so they can be put back in the landfill skip, presumably). When the suspect answered bail today, she was told that the police would like to arrange a photo/video identity parade before submitting a file to the Crown Prosecution Service which will have to decide whether prosecuting the case would be good use of public money and in the public interest etc.
In the council's view it is just too risky to allow anyone to take plastic garden chairs out of skips. Just suppose there was a problem with one of the chairs, and just further suppose that this problem wasn't noticed and a child should sit on that chair and fall off and injure themselves, and just suppose that the parent of that injured child came back to the council and threatened to sue. Just suppose, eh! Never mind that the council is supposed to be conserving its dwindling landfill capacity; never mind that the mixture of plastics and other chemicals that end up in landfill poison the earth and lead to babies being miscarried or born with cleft palates, that children develop breathing problems and tumours from living near landfill. The causes of such tragedies are much harder to prove in the courts.
Given that the suspect in this alleged crime has been attempting to persuade the council to set up a proper re-use section at each of its household 'recycling' centres for some time now, making polite, sensible and helpful suggestions that have been stubbornly rejected or ignored, it is hard to avoid the conclusion that the council is trying to shut up the troublesome citizen by reporting this 'theft' to the police.
Although WCBC and WRG have lots of excuses about how a re-use scheme would not be possible, desirable or workable, and could leave them open to prosecution if faulty goods were taken for re-use, councils in many places including Islington and the Isle of Man operate just such schemes, apparently without any problems and keeping large amounts of stuff out of landfill. The council claims that it has tried a scheme like this before but withdrawn it after complaints from the public. On closer scrutiny, it turns out that this was a scheme whereby 'totters' sorted through people's rubbish as they put it into the skip, which some people found upsetting, whereas a proper re-use scheme would allow members of the public themselves to select those items which might be useful to someone else, and leave them in a covered area within the recycling centre (or elsewhere) for other people to take for their own use.
Freeconomy Wrexham has recently set up a small re-use scheme which is proving very popular, and which has satisfied the Trading Standards department of the same WCBC that it is operating safely and responsibly. It's a bit of a mystery why the Environmental Services Department of WCBC has such difficulties with the concept of re-use, especially since it's right near the top of the waste 'hierarchy' which the council claims to be committed to.
It does look as if the police are determined that the case should be prosecuted, and if it goes ahead, it should prove a very interesting court case. If anyone has experience of such cases, it would be good to hear from you.
vg
e-mail:
freeconomywrexham_at_yahoo.co.uk
Additions
chair today and gone tomorrow
25.05.2008 08:09
UPDATE
The chairs have been removed to a place of safety. It is hoped that once the fuss has died down they can live out the rest of their useful life in the community, by the end of which Wrexham County Borough Council will have found a better way to dispose of plastic than burying it in landfill.
In the meantime, the suspect has now issued a statement to the police:
STATEMENT
I am writing to make a statement concerning the alleged theft of four plastic garden chairs from the Brymbo household recycling centre at Lodge, Wrexham, on 2 May 2008.
I cannot believe that any reasonable person would think that removing usable items from the landfill skip constitutes theft, still less decide to call the police and ask them to waste valuable police time investigating this alleged offence. I would have thought that almost anything else the police do would be a higher priority.
A lot of police time has already been spent on this case:
* the police have sent an officer round to my house to investigate
* the officer and his sergeant spent time interviewing me at Coedpoeth local police station
* the officer then attended Wrexham police station to interview me on tape under caution
* time was spent by the custody officer completing a large number of forms when I was arrested
* my photograph, dna and fingerprints were taken
* I was bailed to return to Wrexham police station, only to be told that arrangements which should have been in place before my return had not yet been made
* I was re-bailed to return to the police station next week to take part in an identity video parade
There is no real victim in this alleged theft, since Waste Recycling Group (WRG) on behalf of Wrexham County Borough Council (WCBC), the supposed owner of the allegedly stolen goods, was about to commit the chairs to landfill, a practice which goes against the council’s own waste management priorities.
Wrexham County Borough Council's 'Vision, Strategic Aims and Priorities' for 2008-9 include the following: "We are committed to dealing with waste in the most economical and environmentally sustainable way – setting an aspirational target to divert 40% of municipal waste away from landfill. We also aim to recycle, reuse or compost 65% of the waste received at household recycling centres..."
I find it difficult to see why the council would seek a theft charge against someone who was helping to achieve that target.
However, since the police have decided that a thorough investigation of this matter is appropriate and are now proposing to hold a video identity parade, I have decided to make the following statement to save further waste of police time and resources in attempting to establish that I took chairs from the skip on the day in question. If the case is prosecuted in court, the question of whether I did or did not remove the chairs would not be an issue in my defence.
On 2 May 2008, I removed four green plastic garden chairs from the landfill skip at the Brymbo household recycling centre at Lodge, Wrexham.
END
The chairs have been removed to a place of safety. It is hoped that once the fuss has died down they can live out the rest of their useful life in the community, by the end of which Wrexham County Borough Council will have found a better way to dispose of plastic than burying it in landfill.
In the meantime, the suspect has now issued a statement to the police:
STATEMENT
I am writing to make a statement concerning the alleged theft of four plastic garden chairs from the Brymbo household recycling centre at Lodge, Wrexham, on 2 May 2008.
I cannot believe that any reasonable person would think that removing usable items from the landfill skip constitutes theft, still less decide to call the police and ask them to waste valuable police time investigating this alleged offence. I would have thought that almost anything else the police do would be a higher priority.
A lot of police time has already been spent on this case:
* the police have sent an officer round to my house to investigate
* the officer and his sergeant spent time interviewing me at Coedpoeth local police station
* the officer then attended Wrexham police station to interview me on tape under caution
* time was spent by the custody officer completing a large number of forms when I was arrested
* my photograph, dna and fingerprints were taken
* I was bailed to return to Wrexham police station, only to be told that arrangements which should have been in place before my return had not yet been made
* I was re-bailed to return to the police station next week to take part in an identity video parade
There is no real victim in this alleged theft, since Waste Recycling Group (WRG) on behalf of Wrexham County Borough Council (WCBC), the supposed owner of the allegedly stolen goods, was about to commit the chairs to landfill, a practice which goes against the council’s own waste management priorities.
Wrexham County Borough Council's 'Vision, Strategic Aims and Priorities' for 2008-9 include the following: "We are committed to dealing with waste in the most economical and environmentally sustainable way – setting an aspirational target to divert 40% of municipal waste away from landfill. We also aim to recycle, reuse or compost 65% of the waste received at household recycling centres..."
I find it difficult to see why the council would seek a theft charge against someone who was helping to achieve that target.
However, since the police have decided that a thorough investigation of this matter is appropriate and are now proposing to hold a video identity parade, I have decided to make the following statement to save further waste of police time and resources in attempting to establish that I took chairs from the skip on the day in question. If the case is prosecuted in court, the question of whether I did or did not remove the chairs would not be an issue in my defence.
On 2 May 2008, I removed four green plastic garden chairs from the landfill skip at the Brymbo household recycling centre at Lodge, Wrexham.
END
vg
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