Bin workers and recycling staff abused and attacked

Operators are having to take measures to protect their staff

Staff at recycling centres and refuse collectors across the South East have been victims of physical and verbal attacks by the public, a BBC investigation has found.

One worker has described how a car was used "as a weapon" against colleagues and staff at some sites have been offered body-worn cameras for their protection.

There have also been cases of workers being pushed and shoved and hundreds of cases of verbal abuse recorded by councils across the region.

Operators said they were taking measures to protect their staff and urged the public to show respect and patience.

Simon Larbey, people development director at Veolia, which operates 10 waste recycling centres in East Sussex and two in Brighton and Hove, told the BBC a serious incident happened within a couple of weeks of him starting work in the county.

"We had two members of our team run over by a member of the public where the car was used as a weapon, sadly," he said.

"When the incident was reviewed, unfortunately the CCTV footage we had wasn't enough to get a conviction."

Simon Larbey says body-worn cameras and specialist training have helped to reduce abuse cases

Veolia says it has managed to reduce the number of abuse incidents after teaming up with Sussex Police last year.

The company introduced training on how to deal with abuse and staff can wear body-worn cameras for protection.

"We've seen incidents drop from one a week to one a month; sadly those incidents are still occurring," said Mr Larbey.

"We see a massive amount of queuing on sites, so unfortunately some of the frustrations the residents feel while queuing - we do see some of those frustrations escalate."

Steven Rowe says some staff have faced racial slurs

Steven Rowe, Newhaven site manager, said: "Ninety per cent of the public are great, it's only a small percentage who swear at you, you might get the odd one or two with racial slurs.

"Just remember we're just normal people doing a job, it could be one of your family members, someone you care about and you should think about what you're doing."

Jordan Leaney, the company's household recycling sites manager, said he had been confronted by two people after challenging them about prohibited waste.

"They followed me up to the office and walked in behind me and locked the door and I had to call my team to get me out," he said.

Freedom of Information requests to local councils revealed there had been over 250 abuse incidents recorded by staff at waste recycling centres in East Sussex and Brighton since March 2020, but no physical assaults.

Surrey recorded eight physical attacks at their sites, with 231 cases of verbal abuse between 2020 and 2024.

Kent County Council said six physical assaults had been recorded over the five years, and added that staff experienced verbal abuse on a daily basis across the majority of sites.

West Sussex County Council could only provide figures for the last two years, but staff reported 27 cases of verbal abuse and three incidents where workers had been pushed or shoved by members of the public.

Insp Amanda Hart says body-worn video can help with evidence gathering

Amanda Hart, a neighbourhood policing inspector at Sussex Police, said the body-worn technology was helping with evidence gathering.

"The body cam footage is a really good evidential product, for a jury to see the position that person was put in," she said.

In recent years some authorities, such as Kent County Council, have introduced a booking system to use at the waste sites.

David Wimble, cabinet member for the environment at Kent County Council, said: "Having spoken to the workers there, the system works really well.

"There's nothing worse than people turning up at these sites and having to queue which makes them frustrated."

Refuse collectors also targeted

BBC South East also contacted borough and district councils to find out the levels of abuse directed towards refuse collectors over the last five years.

Not all were able to provide a breakdown of incidents. A handful of councils said they had recorded some physical assaults on staff.

In Kent, 135 cases of verbal abuse were recorded, in Sussex 196 incidents were logged.

Meanwhile, there are also ongoing concerns about the safety of refuse staff on the roads.

Paul Anderson, director of communities at Horsham District Council, said: "Last year two of our crew were out when a car hit both of them. One of the guys has faced life-changing injuries.

"One had emptied a bin, the other person was loading a bin into the lorry at the time and the driver just drove into them."

He added: "Often it's about people who haven't got the patience to wait for a refuse lorry to complete its work in their road, and they'll mount a pavement to pass the refuse lorry.

"We have a number of CCTV cameras inside the cab and outside the vehicle and that allows us to monitor what's happened and we can report that immediately to the police."