Caught on camera: Recycling worker tosses residents' blue bins along with recycling

When Joe Moniz went to collect his bins from the curb Wednesday, he couldn't figure out where they disappeared to. He assumed they had beenstolen.

Moniz decided to check the surveillance videos he had installed around five years ago after his house got broken into. He expected that he would be calling the police with a description. Instead, he would be calling the City of Hamilton.

After checking the surveillance cameras of his Albert Street home, he was surprised to discover the culprit, an employee of Green For Life Environmental (GFL) recycling truck. His video showed the recyclingcollector threw not just recycling, but his bins as well into the truck and drove off with them. He did it to his neighbour's bins as well.

"I was baffled," said Moniz, 38.

Strangely, after throwing two neighbour's bins into the truck, the driver goes and collects a couple of stray pieces of recycling and throws them into the truck.

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Moniz posted the surveillance video to his daughter's YouTube account so he could share it with thenext-door neighbour who had his bins taken as well. The bins of Moniz's neighbour were taken just before his were.

Moniz contacted the office of his city councillor, Matthew Green, Thursday morning to figure out why a recycling truck would have taken them.

"I did not want to be in the wrong. I didn't want to make a big deal if the city had changed its policy."

An employee from Green's office ensured Moniz that a report would be made to the appropriate department and the matter would be looked into.

"If there was an issue with them [the bins], put a sticker on them and say OK,we don't accept these ... but to have thrown them completely out, that was wrong," said Moniz.

No one could tell him whether he was using the wrong bins.

Thursday afternoon Moniz heard back from Green's office letting him know that his bins would be replaced.

Public works spokesperson Jasmine Graham told CBC the YouTube video was passed on to thewaste collectionsgroup, who were made aware of the incident Thursday morning.

They are working with GFL to solve the issue.Graham said GFL will be replacing the bins. If not, Moniz would have been out of pocket around $50 per bin.

He started using the bins to make it easier for the collectors. Instead of multiple small bins, collectors were only having to grab two large bins from Moniz's curb.

"I was lucky that I caught what had happened," said Moniz.