A Whakatāne couple were slapped with a “first strike” sticker on their greenwaste bin despite being meticulous about following the rules.

Due to rising contamination in recycling and greenwaste bins, Whakatāne District Council introduced a three strikes system at the beginning of July, with the threat of having the bins temporarily confiscated after two warnings.

The council has issued 173 first warnings and another 10 second warnings.

“My husband was so furious when he came home, he chased the rubbish man down the road and asked ‘what’s the idea’,” said one of the Coastlands residents, who didn’t want to be named for fear of embarrassing their neighbours, who they suspected of placing the rubbish in their bin.

Her husband was told by the greenwaste collector that their bin had been stickered because a white plastic bag and a black plastic bag had been found sitting on top of their green waste.

“We don’t have white and black plastic bags, so he said, ‘that’s not my rubbish’.”

The couple had only put their rubbish out that morning and said they were home until 10am and would have seen any culprit put the rubbish in their bin.

“It is usually cleared by lunchtime so they must have waited until I went out.”

The couple said they managed to convince the greenwaste collector the rubbish wasn’t theirs and he wouldn’t record them as being stickered.

However, the residents were still concerned about having a mark against their name.

“It’s a great big label and everybody can see. It’s annoying because we don’t want a red cross beside our name, when we’re so fussy about what we put in our bin.”

She fears it could happen again.

“It could happen every week. You don’t know unless you go and check on your bin all the time. Then how do you prove that you didn’t do it?”

The council’s solid waste manager Nigel Clarke said since the system started, 132 first strike notices had so far been issued on greenwaste bins. Of those, six bins had received a second strike.

On recycling bins, 41 first strikes had been issued. Of those, four bins had received a second strike.

No bins had been removed.

“We received one call from a resident who claimed a neighbour placed a rubbish bag in his greenwaste bin, which led to him receiving a strike.

“This person had not received any previous warnings. After reviewing the evidence and having a discussion with him, we decided to remove the strike in this instance,” Mr Clarke said.

“We understand there may be cases where a strike could have been issued unfairly. If anyone believes this has happened to them, they can contact our customer services team. Each case will be assessed individually based on the evidence available.”

LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air.