Last week, Aglandjia residents witnessed an extraordinary sight, as a Nicosia municipality crew drove round neighbourhoods slinging both the purple rubbish bags with household waste with other bags containing recyclables, into the same lorry.

The lorry was fitted with a mechanical gripper, which indiscriminately grabbed all kinds of rubbish.

Residents contacted the Cyprus Mail, saying the work was “sloppy” as the crew also left plastic bottles behind, which eventually rolled into the busy street.

They also wondered why they bother recycling as “the municipality obviously does not care”.

“I very much doubt if the rubbish will be sorted later,” one Aglandjia resident said.

Another questioned the ethics of charging people €100 a go for a bundle of purple bags, when “really anything would do”.

Residents said that the van accompanying the lorry bore the Nicosia municipality logo.

The municipality was contacted for a comment.

Last year, Aglandjia residents complained to the Cyprus Mail over having to pay €100 to collect a set number of prepaid mauve bags from municipal offices, instead of purchasing them from supermarkets, as a means of pre-paying rubbish collection dues.

The municipality had said back then that the tariff did not just cover the bags, but included “other important cleanliness services offered by the municipality”, such as cleaning pavements and roads.