The most UK thing ever: fined for pouring coffee down a drain

There has to be some deterrent to stop people pouring a tin of paint or whatever down there. Water from here is filtered and only part treated and likely discharged into rivers or streams so not like sewerage. However these drains also pick up all the road run off including diesel, leaking oil or transmission fluid from vehicles which is much more harmful environmentally than coffee. I think a warning would suffice but where do you draw the line? Is bottled water ok? What if its carbonated? Milk ok? Coca cola?
 
Vandle said:
There has to be some deterrent to stop people pouring a tin of paint or whatever down there. Water from here is filtered and only part treated and likely discharged into rivers or streams so not like sewerage. However these drains also pick up all the road run off including diesel, leaking oil or transmission fluid from vehicles which is much more harmful environmentally than coffee. I think a warning would suffice but where do you draw the line? Is bottled water ok? What if its carbonated? Milk ok? Coca cola?
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There are already laws/codes in place for this sort of thing, drinkable liquids aren't within a million miles of coming close to being problematic for obvious reasons.

See here: https://www.york.ac.uk/biology/curr...waste-disposal/sink-disposal/sink-disposal-3/

Pay special attention to the linked Red List section.

A warning would not suffice because it's nonsensical, are these people going to start barging into every kitchen be it a business/restaurant or home in the UK to fine them for leftover liquids like tea, gravy, milk etc? It all goes to the exact same place, it's utter buffoonery on behalf of everyone involved in the fine and that includes the local council. The advice to pour the crap into a bin is actually worse, it'll just leak out at best or worse propagate the rot of any leftover solid foods in the thing.
 
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It doesn't go to the same place though, that's the point. In most cases these days they have separate systems for sewer and rainwater. Unless you live in a very old street then what goes down your toilet or kitchen sink doesn't go where your roof drainpipes take the rainwater.
Restaurants, cafes and commercial kitchens are different again as they have grease traps that are emptied by private contractors and disposed of responsibly elsewhere (allegedly)
 
Vandle said:
It doesn't go to the same place though, that's the point. In most cases these days they have separate systems for sewer and rainwater. Unless you live in a very old street then what goes down your toilet or kitchen sink doesn't go where your roof drainpipes take the rainwater.
Restaurants, cafes and commercial kitchens are different again as they have grease traps that are emptied by private contractors and disposed of responsibly elsewhere (allegedly)
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Even assuming you're correct, a roadside drain would never in a million years be harmed by drinkable liquids.

I find the "filtration" argument null given most of the people in the UK use the same drains for everything. Makes me think of recycling that asks you to separate X and Y object only to dump everything into the same container.
 
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Vandle said:
It doesn't go to the same place though, that's the point. In most cases these days they have separate systems for sewer and rainwater. Unless you live in a very old street then what goes down your toilet or kitchen sink doesn't go where your roof drainpipes take the rainwater.
Restaurants, cafes and commercial kitchens are different again as they have grease traps that are emptied by private contractors and disposed of responsibly elsewhere (allegedly)
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Isn't it actually pretty common to have combined sewer systems that mix rainfall and sewage? That's the whole reason behind sewage spilling into rivers etc through overflows when it rains heavily. Think it was only the 60s when they started building separate rainwater and foul water sewers for new developments.

In any case the environmental impact of single servings of beverages occasionally potentially making their way into waterways seems so insignificant that even a warning would be disproportionate. Probably less harmful than a lot of other stuff that gets washed down the drains as a matter of course like worn tyre particles, oil, rat pee etc
 
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GreatAuk said:
Isn't it actually pretty common to have combined sewer systems that mix rainfall and sewage? That's the whole reason behind sewage spilling into rivers etc through overflows when it rains heavily. Think it was only the 60s when they started building separate rainwater and foul water sewers for new developments.

In any case the environmental impact of single servings of beverages occasionally potentially making their way into waterways seems so insignificant that even a warning would be disproportionate. Probably less harmful than a lot of other stuff that gets washed down the drains as a matter of course like worn tyre particles, oil, rat pee etc
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Last I checked our entire sewage system hasn't been dug up or reworked. There may be initial outlets in restaurants etc to avoid fat blockages but the end result is still the same.
 
The thing that annoyed me apart from the errant stupidity was that it took three strong chaps to berate the woman for her antisocial tendencies. How much did that cost the rate payers of Richmond borough?
Councils are out to screw the local rate payers and town centres of as much as they can yet fail to curb ;) pavement parking in almost every instance.
 
Gray2233 said:
I'd argue that a lone woman being approached by three "enforcement officers" and threatened with a £150 fine for no sane reason is inherently aggressive, I can totally understand why someone might be shaken up by this
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To be fair, her being shaken up isn't a story or useful point at all. So what that she's shaken up. It's natural to be shaken up when adrenaline kicks in. I saw friends recently pulled over the the police while driving normally down a road. The driver was shaken before the cop even arrived at the car.

The cops tried to blow up a small notnung event with a fine, and she tried to blow up the story imo.
 
unwashed potato! said:
To be fair, her being shaken up isn't a story or useful point at all. So what that she's shaken up. It's natural to be shaken up when adrenaline kicks in. I saw friends recently pulled over the the police while driving normally down a road. The driver was shaken before the cop even arrived at the car.

The cops tried to blow up a small notnung event with a fine, and she tried to blow up the story imo.
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You think adrenaline needs to kick in over three "officers" approaching a woman over pouring coffee down a drain?

Do you work for the TVL or as an "enforcement" officer by any chance?

It's absolutely a useful news report, it happens far too often and this is one case of it becoming public.
 
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Vandle said:
It doesn't go to the same place though, that's the point. In most cases these days they have separate systems for sewer and rainwater. Unless you live in a very old street then what goes down your toilet or kitchen sink doesn't go where your roof drainpipes take the rainwater.
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its 99% water its a cup of coffee, meanwhile the water companies are pumping raw sewage into rivers and beaches
 
I think you can literally just walk off and not say anything if these goons approach you, pretty sure they don’t have any powers to stop, detain or question you, only actual police officers have the power to do that?

Edit: damn, apparently some environment agency people have the same powers as a police constable, including powers of arrest, i did not know that
 
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GreatAuk said:
Isn't it actually pretty common to have combined sewer systems that mix rainfall and sewage? That's the whole reason behind sewage spilling into rivers etc through overflows when it rains heavily. Think it was only the 60s when they started building separate rainwater and foul water sewers for new developments.
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Pretty much, yes.
Surface water quite commonly joins into the foul water system, though it should never be the other way around. This thus dilutes the combined effluent over the distance of the network, to the point where any contaminants are at an acceptably low concentration at the point of discharge. Of course this works on the principle that people don't deliberately put anything down the sewers that they shouldn't... and the CSOs (Combined Sewage Overflow) only trigger when the downstream sewer is blocked or surcharged, the main cause of which is people putting things down that do block the pipe.

Local catchments do often have separate surface networks, but many eventuially join the main foul network, especially in heavily built-up areas because there just isn't the space (or tolerance) to lay more pipes.
The only places that have 100% separate networks are those that carry trade effluent from factories and similar industries, which have dedicated sewers carrying hideously toxic waste chemicals going direct to treatment works.
 
Nabinium said:
Sorry mate, not interested.

slams door shut
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You can't do that though lol, once you've opened the door they legally can enter, the same goes for unlocked doors/patios, you name it :P
You're also not allowed to lock them inside with you etc :cry:
The police always side with them too.
 
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