Bins, like fences, are great sources of discord.

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I still can't forgive my neighbours who objected to me putting my recycling in "their" yellow top bin. I got into the habit of placing the odd can and bottle into "their" bin when it was out on the kerb early on Mondays. If "their" bin wasn't full, I reasoned, why put two bins out?

But one evening, the two women who live behind me knocked on my door and told me that they had spotted me doing so. And it just wasn't on. Not on.

I pointed out that it wasn't actually their bin but the council's. All the same, my reasonableness cut no ice. It buttered no parsnips.

Since then, lots of people have told me their bin horror stories - or so they perceive these matters of utter triviality to be.

The management committee of an apartment block in which a friend lives has just put in cameras to spot people putting items in the wrong recycling bin. The penalty has not yet been disclosed but presumably the transgressor will be forced to sit in the stocks and get pelted with rotten tomatoes, organic of course.

Some councils say that "dog poo and other pet waste can be bagged and disposed of in the red general waste bin". But there are instances of people objecting when they spot a dog owner putting the waste into "their" bin.

And don't get anyone going on those lads who go round yellow top bins at night to get the cans which earn 10 cents in the excellent recycling centres in NSW.

To my mind, if people want to work really hard to earn ten cents, more power to their elbows. Such enterprise should be encouraged. They are strivers who deserve to get ahead.

My local one in the Woolies car parks gets 34,000 cans a day. On a Saturday morning, streams of enterprising people queue to push the cans and bottles in.

Every time I see them, I admire their energy. It also makes me reflect on how 10 cents is significant money for some people.

But putting your waste in "their" bin is the big issue of our times. The Nine news organisation actually did a poll on it and found that "Australia divided over whether it's OK to put stuff in other people's bins on bin night".

Divided is the right word: 49 per cent said it was OK and 51 per cent said no way.

There is etiquette on this big issue apparently. "The polite thing to do is ask........

© Canberra Times