I suspect a neighbour of befouling my recycling bin. The only option is to get petty

October 28, 2026 — 7:00pm

You have reached your maximum number of saved items.

Remove items from your saved list to add more.

No gift articles left

You've used all of your gift articles. 3 more will become available on the 1st of every month.

I used to fancy myself as a binfluencer, the first mover on bin night, leading the way and signalling to the neighbourhood what colour bin they should be wheeling out this week.

But all that changed one morning a few years back as I left for work and went to pop an empty cereal box into my yellow-lidded recycle bin. I was shocked to see a half-drunk bottle of chardonnay (who wastes good wine?) and a shopping bag containing a shoebox with worn stilettos. Sneaked into my bin in the dead of night.

I soon landed on a list of suspects. Eliminating elderly neighbours who had graduated to sensible shoes, and the tradies renting across the road – unless they were cross dressers – I was fairly sure I knew the culprit.

In my head, I dumped the items on their verandah but in truth I placed them in the right bins and just added it to my mental list of grievances about their selfish parking and generally up-themselves demeanour. My husband rolled his eyes.

While I’m an occasional bin fairy, reciprocating with neighbours to wheel bins back in after........

© The Age