PEOPLE’S bins across Oxford could be rummaged through by council officers on the hunt for evidence to fine people for not recycling properly.

In a drive to encourage people to get rid of rubbish properly, Labour-run Oxford City Council has contacted people in hundreds of flats, warning it could hand them fixed penalty notices of £100 if landfill waste is mixed with recyclable items.

The authority stressed the fines are a last resort, with initial warnings followed up by visits from council officers.

But Craig Simmons, chairman of the city council scrutiny committee and leader of the Green group, said it was the “wrong way to do it”.

The council has also revealed council officers will search bin sacks for clues – such as bills, letters and other identifying items – and ask neighbours for information in their pursuit of those who persistently flout the rules. This is because many blocks of flats use communal bins, making it difficult to prove who is responsible.

According to figures released this week, the local authority has issued 265 warnings since January to properties in the city suspected of mixing up their waste.

It added it had only issued two fixed penalty notices in the same period.

The council confirmed it had sent 69 of the warnings to people in flats in Southfield Park, Sorrel Road, St Nicholas Road, Alice Smith Square, Templar House, Moorbank and Bay Close.

The Oxford Mail has learned a further 400 are due to be contacted in those areas in the near future.

More than 470 properties have been visited by council officers since January for them to talk to residents directly about the issue.

Councillor Simmons added: “We need to put more into educating people about how to dispose of their rubbish. These are people in housing rent allowance flats and people in desperate housing need.

“Educating people should lead to improving recycling rates.”

He added: “They should issue these notices, but not legally threatening ones.”

John Tanner, city council executive board member for climate change and Cleaner, Greener Oxford, said: “We don’t want people to have to pay fines. We want them to improve the way they recycle.

“We will only impose fines where it is appropriate, but what we want to do is talk to people who are not playing by the rules.

“It will be difficult to fine people in buildings of flats where there is a shared responsibility.”

Some residents in Southfield Park flats said several people had been issued with the warnings – sent out under Section 46 of the 1990 Environmental Protection Act – as they had communal recycling bins.

County council employee Will Madgwick, of Kenilworth Court, said he supported fining those who did not recycle properly.

But the 25-year-old added: “I am not sure going through people’s private mail in the rubbish is the way to do it, it seems a bit extreme.”

And Wolvercote mum-of-two Leanne McClements said investigations into those persistently breaking recycling rules should be left to resident groups in flat complexes.

The 40-year-old, of Quadrangle House in St Peter’s Road, said: “I would not want someone going through my bin bags, it’s a very odd thing to do.

“There must be a better way to ensure people are recycling. The idea of someone going through through the rubbish makes me quite uncomfortable.”

“There are management committees for most blocks of flats and I think they should handle it.”

City council spokesman Tom Jennings said that contaminated waste was costing “significant” amounts of cash and staff time, but said there was no exact figure.

But the local authority has said its latest push was due to falling prices paid for recycled waste.

Viridor, the company which recycles waste for the council, sells on the recycled waste and passes some of that money back to the council.

But it has been reluctant to recycle contaminated waste, which has a knock-on effect on the council’s income.

Mr Tanner added: “People need not to say ‘I will just throw that in there too’, particularly at the moment when the prices of recycling paper and glass are quite low.

“We will put a sticker on the bin or speak to them and if that does not help then we will consider fining them.”