Frustrated Australians have started leaving harshly worded messages on their recycling bins to discourage people from removing bottles and cans from inside.
Several containers were seen with strong messages scrawled on their lids, as locals expressed their anger.
One fed up owner wrote: “keep your hands off my damn bins” while another demanded: “stop scabbing my bins.”
The handwritten notes, shared online, sparked heated debate on social media.
Some were outraged by the behavior, while others expressed solidarity and recognized the challenges of the cost of living crisis.
‘It should be banned. “I understand people find it difficult, but it’s getting out of control,” one person wrote.
Another said it was “pretty low to go through someone else’s bins.”
Others shouted out the rude notes and labeled the messages “disgusting.”
Locals did not hesitate to express their frustration, with strongly worded messages on the lids of several containers (pictured).
“As long as they don’t hurt you or the container or make a mess, what harm does it do?” one woman wrote.
Most Australian states and territories introduced bottle and bin drop-off systems to prevent people from littering in an effort to keep litter off the streets.
Reusable waste dropped off at recycling drop-off points allows people to earn 10 cents per item.
Some items such as bottles of wine and spirits and containers of cordial will not be accepted.
Under the NSW Government’s Return and Earn programme, which was introduced in 2017, more than $1 billion worth of refunds have been issued so far.
Rummaging through waste inside recycling bins is illegal in some Australian jurisdictions.
Anyone caught removing waste from bins in the northern Victorian town of Wodonga can be fined $180 under municipal bylaws.
Meanwhile, Redland City Council, in Brisbane’s southeast, has banned people from sifting through waste placed in residential recycling bins.