Chain idea puts lid on bin craze

The craze of setting fire to wheelie bins and sniffing the fumes to get a high looks to have been dramatically cut in a South Yorkshire town.

Teenagers were thought to have set the bins alight and then inhaled the toxic plastic fumes to get a "high".

Police believed the craze was behind bin fires in the Athersley and New Lodge areas of Barnsley.



But a scheme which allowed the bins to be chained to properties has drastically cut the number of fires.

At its peak last year South Yorkshire Police had dealt with 100 cases where the bins had been taken by youngsters and set alight for the high obtained by sniffing the fumes.

Since chains were used to secure the bins only three "bin sniffing" fires have been recorded in the past three months.