A FURIOUS householder needed hospital treatment after throwing himself under a rubbish truck near the town centre, The Evening Star can reveal today.The incident is just the latest example of "rubbish rage" - a new phenomenon which has been sweeping the town since the introduction of blue and brown bins alongside the familiar black wheelie bins.

A FURIOUS householder needed hospital treatment after throwing himself under a rubbish truck near the town centre, The Evening Star can reveal today.

The incident is just the latest example of "rubbish rage" - a new phenomenon which has been sweeping the town since the introduction of blue and brown bins alongside the familiar black wheelie bins.

Over the last 18 months police have had to be called out twice to deal with angry householders furious about binmen not taking overflowing black bins.

And dustmen are regularly shouted at, abused and threatened.

There have even been occasions when knives have been brandished by angry householders.

Today three binmen have spoken about the new danger they are facing on their rounds. We have agreed not to use their surnames because of their fear of reprisals.

Dustcart driver Mark said: "Most people, the overwhelming majority, are fine and use the bins properly.

"But there is a small minority who don't and can get very aggressive. They shout and swear and it gets very nasty.

"I've even had them threatening my family. My mother was widowed recently and someone threatened her because we'd refused to take their rubbish overflow."

Mark's colleague Roger has been working as a binman for 30 years and loves the job - apart from the "aggro".

He said: "We're not allowed to take extra bags of rubbish with the black bins, but when we leave them you often get chased down the road.

"The other week we were in Gresley Gardens (off Wherstead Road) and this chap came rushing out when we didn't take his bags of rubbish.

"He got really abusive and unpleasant. Eventually he threw himself under the lorry and insisted on going to hospital. We had to call out the police."

Truck driver Garry said much of what was causing problems could be recycled.

"I've had people creating a scene because we won't take their black bin overflows and it's quite clear that most of what they're throwing out could have gone in the blue bin - they just haven't sorted it out.

"Some of the people having this problem don't speak English and don't understand so we try to get them leaflets in their own language.

"But most of them understand perfectly well and are just too pig-headed to bother with sorting out what they're throwing out.

"They think that because they pay council tax the council should sort out their rubbish for them."