A woman accused of putting non-recyclable rubbish in bins provided by her local council was today cleared by magistrates at a court in Exeter.

Donna Challice, 31, had denied putting waste, including left-over takeaways, cigarette ends, bicycle parts and the contents of a vacuum cleaner into the recycling bin provided by Exeter City Council.

Ms Challice, 31, was the first person in England and Wales to be prosecuted for allegedly putting non-recyclable rubbish in her green collection bin and faced a fine of up to £6,000 if found guilty.

However, she was cleared by the magistrates on account there was insufficient evidence to prove she had been emptying the rubbish into the bin.

"The burden of proof is beyond reasonable doubt, we have considered this burden on each of the six counts alleged," said Frances Eastmond, the chairman of the magistrates.

"We have not decided today as to whether she is responsible for the contamination, but in making our decision we feel that the prosecution has not proved their case beyond reasonable doubt as they have been unable to prove that she was responsible for the contamination in the green bins," he said.

The hearing - at at Cullompton Magistrates' Court in Exeter - heard that each householder in the scheme was sent a leaflet explaining what could be put into the green bins. But during a series of inspections, Ms Challice’s two green wheelie bins were found to have the wrong sort of rubbish inside.

In February this year, Peter Delaney, a council recycling education and enforcement officer, said he found one recycling bin - which was only supposed to contain clean, dry items - in a "disgusting state" with yogurt, teabags and the remains of a pot noodle.

"There was a yoghurt mix, something that had been spilt on top and a breakfast cereal or something like that and a bicycle chain wheel," said Mr Dalaney.

"We found china and other household waste. The bin was being used as an ordinary refuse bin. There were tea bags, potato peelings and the remains of a takeaway meal. There was also the remains of a Pot Noodle and a cola bottle that still had drink in it," he said.

Mr Delaney said Ms Challice was interviewed under caution in February about the problems with her rubbish.

"After I cautioned her I asked her straight out whether it was her that put the contamination in the recycling bin. She said others had put it in the bin," he said.

The court heard there was no video evidence or covert surveillance of the bins to determine if other people had been putting rubblish in them.

Ms Challice is said to have "failed on a number of occasions" to comply with Exeter City Council’s Recycle From Home scheme, according to the prosecution.

Richard Banwell, prosecuting, said: "Essentially this case concerns the implementation of a scheme called Recycle From Home and Challice’s failure on a number of occasions to do the right thing and comply with the scheme."

Mr Banwell said the council had a statutory recycling target to meet set by government, which in turn was part of the UK’s effort to comply with European guidelines. He said it was important that the rubbish was correctly sorted because one contaminated bin could effect the entire load in a lorry.

The court heard the local area of Exeter where Ms Challice lived was a problem area for recycling and around 20 other enforcement notices had been served and three or four other people had been interviewed under caution.

Ms Challice left court without speaking to reporters but her solicitor, Mark Shell, said she was "delighted" at the verdict.

"She is very overwhelmed. This has been a very high profile case with a lot of press coverage which is not something she is used to," said Shell.

He added: "She is just very numb at the moment. I think she just wants to get back home to her kids and wake up tomorrow knowing this is behind her."

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