You’ve put the bins out for garbage collection and settled in for the night.

So nothing can be more irritating than the rattle and noise of a complete stranger digging through your recycling bin.

Their purpose: claiming bottles and cans for Return and Earn depositing.

It certainly brings a whole new meaning to one man’s trash is another man’s treasure.

This issue was brought to MidCoast Council’s attention earlier this year with reports of people stealing eligible containers for the scheme from someone else’s bin.

Some residents across the Mid Coast area have noted the trend in recent weeks. 

MidCoast Council’s waste health and regulatory services manager John Cavanagh said in recent times, council has not heard from the community about bin raiding issues and few reports have been received.

“If community members are being subject to bin raiding, they can let us know by completing a report and request form on our website,” Mr Cavanagh said.

“In the meantime we continue to encourage people to use the Return and Earn scheme as a means of minimising the amount of eligible containers in their bins.”

The contents of a bin is the legal possession of a property owner when on private land.

According to the Local Government Act, when bins are kerbside for collection the contents becomes the property of MidCoast Council. 

Council’s waste service provider JR Richards and Sons then becomes the legal owner of the contents once it is collected.

Therefore it is not open slather to take from it. 

Mr Cavanagh said council considers bin raiding as theft and is up to police to deal with any prosecutions.  

The Return and Earn deposit scheme offers a rebate of 10 cents on every eligible container.