Adnan Taskiran and Vince Cuculletto next to the NWLA’s poster campaign

MEET the bin collectors whose unsung work is being celebrated with movie-style posters at bus stops.

Adnan Taskiran and Vince Cuculletto have been working for a combined 42 years collecting refuse and recycling in the borough.

“If you were to calculate it properly, there would be people dying [without us],” said Mr Taskiran.

“If you think about the rubbish not being collected, there would be mountains of bags that people can’t walk past and they’d end up going into the road or drains would be blocked, flooding, and the water would be contaminated.”

Recalling a time he did save a life, Mr Cuculletto said: “We actually did tip a bin and a guy fell into the hopper once, but we pressed the emergency button. As we tipped the bin in we heard him shout, so we stopped it, but the bin was still there so he couldn’t get out.”

He added: “Once that hopper grabs them, if you don’t hear them, they’ll just get crushed in the back. So, I always open the lids and check before we tip.”

The two men said getting to know everyone on your collection route meant even meeting Islington’s rich and famous.

“The time I saw Boris Johnson was pretty funny. He was just waving at me, and I was like ‘oh OK,’ and realised he was still waving at me, so I waved back,” said Mr Taskiran. “Then I started seeing him every morning, and we’d say ‘good morning’ to each other.”

The bin collectors can be spotted on billboards and bus stops posing as film stars as part of North London Waste Authority’s new campaign, “Together We Recyle” which is designed to get the average customer more familiar with what can go in which bin.

Mr Taskiran and Mr Cuculletto said they spend much of their valuable time fishing black bags of rubbish out of Islington’s recycling bins and that it would “make our jobs easier” if people didn’t do that.

If too many non-recylables get into the truck, the whole thing becomes contaminated and can’t be recycled.

Mr Taskiran added: “I reckon this is a good opportunity to get through to residents and get them to understand what’s recyclable and what’s not.”

Their message is clear: stop putting black bags, wood, and any kind of metal you have lying around in the recycling.