A single mother has been fined £400 for leaving her recycling next to an unemptied bin for collection.

In December Bonnie Janes was struggling to fit all of her plastics and cardboards into the overflowing bin at Hermon Hill recycling centre.

She decided to place the rest next to the bin for collection.

On New Year’s Day the 38-year-old received a letter from the Redbridge Council demanding £400 for fly-tipping.

Ms Janes said: “I don’t think they can justify it, the council hasn’t come back to me with any reason for the refusal of my appeal.

“I’ve been washing and separating my recycling for years, trying to do the right thing.

“I could have thrown it in landfill but I am a lifelong environmentalist, I was just trying to do my bit.

“It’s their fault that the recycling bin wasn’t emptied for me to put my recycling into.

“Now they’re just trying to bully me into paying the fine. I cannot afford it. They have shown no humanity or decency. I am so cross and sad.

“I feel bullied and persecuted.”

Ms Janes claimed she has had “horrendous trouble with housing issues” and currently has nowhere for her 10-year-old daughter – who she shares custody with her former partner – to stay when she visits.

The Trafalgar Place resident: “I’m a low earner with restricted hours because I am committed to the school run.

“Life is a struggle and I do my best to do the right things. And the thanks I get is a £400 fine. I don’t have £400.

“And if I have to pay this, the council will be making my life even more difficult than it already is.

“I’ve not mentioned any of this to the council because it shouldn’t matter. What they are doing is wrong regardless of my personal situation.”

Ms Janes, who is a lifelong vegetarian, said she will take the appeals process as far as it can go to fight the fine, even to court in necessary.

She added: “I feel very strongly about the environment but now I just feel insulted, they’re accusing me of fly-tipping, I couldn’t believe it.

“I’m quite a bolshy person and I will keep fighting this. There might be others out there that wouldn’t, but I don’t think they should be allowed to get away with it.

“They should be focusing on the real fly-tippers, not people like me trying to do their bit for the environment.”

A spokesman for Redbridge Council said: “Fly-tipping is taken very seriously by the council and costs large sums of money to clear up.

“Tough action through penalty notices is a necessary way to keep our neighbourhoods clean and deters people from dumping rubbish.

“There is a sign at the site stating that anyone leaving items next to the bins would be prosecuted. Ms Janes has admitted to leaving the boxes there and the appeal has been refused.”