A frustrated homeowner has hit out after a binman was caught on camera dumping a food waste caddy straight into a general waste bin.

The man who had his bins mixed in Maidstone, Kent has now questioned what the point in him "religiously" separating his waste is."

A council probe has been launched.

In the footage, a binman is seen tipping out the contents of the small food waste bin into a wheelie bin before taking it towards the lorry.

Residents in Kent have suffered from a lack of bin collections over the past few months, following a new multi-million-pound contract for refuse collection was rolled out across the county.

The Maidstone resident who filmed his bins being mixed - who wishes to remain anonymous for fear of his bins not being collected in the future - fumed: "I religiously separate my food waste from the rest and put it out each time..."

"But what is the point if they immediately mix it up again?"

"I did get a brief look at the back of the refuse lorry and it did look as though it didn't have a separate slot for food waste, so perhaps the binman had no alternative."

"But that is not the service that the council is supposed to be providing."

Maidstone Borough Council, one of the three local authorities comprising the Mid-Kent Waste Partnership, which signed SUEZ Recycling and Recovery UK for the new waste disposal contract earlier this year, said it was investigating the 'unacceptable' incident.

A spokesman said: "The council is aware of an incident of unacceptable waste collection practice in Loose Road. "

"This will now lead to a full investigation of the crew member by SUEZ, as their employer."

The authority has previously apologised for the inconveniences the new SUEZ contract has caused whilst crews learn their new routes.

Missed bin collections continue to wreak havoc across Kent.

After the May elections in Maidstone, a Green and Lib Dem coalition took control of the council - but the problem has not gone away.