Footage shows how bags of recycling were repeatedly thrown into a refuse lorry alongside general waste in a street in London.

Fulham resident Paride Lunazzi took the videos while working from home, saying he had noticed this happening for years and was fed up.

The videos, taken on January 6 and January 13, show how black bags were thrown into the same sections of a split lorry as clear bags of recycling.

Seeing recycling being treated this way put him off sorting his rubbish, he said, as there seemed to be ‘no point’.

His local council has now apologised, saying they are ‘appalled’ to see it happening and would be demanding action from contractors Serco.

Paride, who works in consulting, said his intention was not to get individual bin men into trouble but to point out there seemed to be a general lack of attention to disposing of waste correctly.

He told Metro.co.uk: ‘I’m not trying to get anyone fired – I’m just saying, “what’s the point of recycling if this is what they do with our rubbish?”‘

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While sorting his rubbish he said he usually takes a lot of time and pride in cleaning his recycling and trying to reduce the volume, but said it was very disheartening to see ‘the end result’.

When he shared the footage, taken near Fulham Palace Road, some told him that the recycling bags could have been thrown in with the rubbish because they were contaminated.

But he said the bin men seemed to be acting ‘too fast’ for these checks to have been done.

‘I saw it so many times,’ he said, adding that he notices the weekly collection as he works remotely and his office faces the street.

Another resident who alerted the council to the videos when he shared them online was told that an operative had previously been disciplined for the way recycling was dealt with, with contractor Serco agreeing to put extra supervision in place.

Before moving to London, 49-year-old Paride lived in a small town near Sorrento in Italy and said he was expected to split waste into five sections: glass, aluminium, cardboard, organic, and general.

A major capital city ‘should be much more advanced,’ he added.

He said he didn’t necessarily want five separate sections introduced here as many people in London live in small properties, but said the current system should be enforced better.

This is particularly important as some waste lorries crush waste to create more space, making it near impossible to separate out recycling later on, he added.

A Hammersmith and Fulham Council spokesperson said: ‘We were appalled to see this video and immediately sought an explanation and action from Serco.

‘We know how hard local residents work to recycle and we’ve put huge efforts into improving our results – we now have the fifth lowest rate of waste per person in the UK.

‘We unreservedly apologise for the failings in our recycling service and we will continue to demand better.’

Natasha Epstein, Serco’s Senior Contract Manager in the area, said the company had ‘studied the videos in question very closely’ and would like to apologise to the residents affected.

She said in a statement: ‘We take reports of this kind very seriously and will be conducting a thorough investigation, which will be followed-up with the appropriate action.

‘Additionally, we are committing to providing supplementary training to our crews, and we will be monitoring their performance with more frequent randomised checks.’

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