A Break on the Bins

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After two weeks on the dump, Rob has a plan to force the group to once again confront the reality of Britain's household waste.

Rob announces to the group that tomorrow there will be a recycling challenge. The second part will involve them all, and will take place on the dump itself. But the first part is just for four of them, and it will involve a special trip into the outside world. Rob asks them to choose the four members of the group who would benefit most from learning more about recycling They put forward Sasha, Aaron, Jermaine and Ian. Sasha and Aaron look excited until Rob hands them a large alarm clock. When he tells them they'll need to set it for 5.30am they look less than impressed.

Doing the rounds

Despite the early hour, Sasha has still found time to put makeup on so that she can look her best no matter what their trip involves. As they wait by the entrance to the dump a dust truck rounds the corner. 'Oh no,' they groan as it becomes clear what's in store - a morning out on the bins!

The first job for the apprentice bin-men (and bin-woman) is a health and safety briefing with driver Adam and loader Malcolm. The group need to learn how to safely load wheelie bins onto the mechanism which is quite fierce as it jolts the bins over. Adam warns that he has 'seen people go up' who weren't careful. The group look a bit concerned: naturally none of them are particularly keen on being propelled into the crusher at the back of the truck.

On the streets of Sutton Ian, Jermaine and Aaron quickly get the knack of loading the bins, but Sasha is still struggling and repeatedly she hooks bins on only for them to fall off again. It's clear that she has no future in waste disposal, unlike Aaron who asks Malcolm for a job and starts quizzing the crew on their pay scale.

The four now realise how much we needlessly throw away and they're shocked by just how much stuff they find in the bins that could easily be recycled with a minimum of effort. Aaron sums it up: 'This country thinks that when it throws things away they disappear. But the landfill showed me that there's no such thing as 'away'. It's not going away. It's under our feet.'