Cornwall - we want more recylcing, but..

FoxEye · 16 Apr 2020 at 20:56

..we can't even afford to maintain what we've got.

In a frankly amazing move, Cornwall Council has awarded a new recycling contract to Biffa, with the conditions that:

1. The Council pays for their entire fleet of vehicles
2. Black bag collection drops to fortnightly from weekly
3. Recycling collections stay at fortnightly despite the Council promising weekly
4. All recycling banks across the county are to be scrapped (the ones you find at supermarkets). Biffa says they cost too much to run (and the CEO needs his bonus, no doubt).

The council says they are, "Responding to a demand for more recycling from our residents. We are targeting an increase from 38% to 50% and above."

And they're doing this by.. reducing recycling facilities and the frequency of collections?

How the bleedin heck do they get from "more recycling, please" to "let's scrap existing recycling facilities"?

Oh wait... now I see.

The councillor responsible for waste and recycling is.. a Lib Dem. Well now it all makes sense. "No tuition fees, we promise"....

Is there anything the Lib Dems can't be two-faced about? And to think I was (almost) stupid enough to vote for them.

https://www.letsrecycle.com/news/latest-news/cornwall-awards-collection-contract-to-biffa/

https://www.okehampton-today.co.uk/...ed in Cornwall&sectionIs=news&searchyear=2019

Maundie · 16 Apr 2020 at 21:21

We have black bin collected one week and then recycling the other, is your issue that they don’t collect your black bin every week?

We only put out our black bin once a month as the majority of our rubbish is recycled

Hedge · 16 Apr 2020 at 21:24

I'd offer you some mansize kleenex but you would have to wait to get rid of the box.

Nitefly · 16 Apr 2020 at 21:27

Weekly black bin! That is the dream!!

I hate that if you opt to throw one unusual item in our diddy black bin, that’s it, you’re playing ‘bin strategy’ for about a month.

Monkeynut · 16 Apr 2020 at 22:25

Nitefly said:
Weekly black bin! That is the dream!!

I hate that if you opt to throw one unusual item in our diddy black bin, that’s it, you’re playing ‘bin strategy’ for about a month.

Bin Strategy.

[FnG]magnolia · 16 Apr 2020 at 22:26

What are your proposals to help fix these issues, OP?

ezekial · 16 Apr 2020 at 22:28

I think we should all be nicer to each other, especially in times such as these

Angilion · 16 Apr 2020 at 22:53

It seems inefficient for a council to pay a middleman to do the council's work while also paying for the equipment to do that work. Why not just do the work and save the money paid to the middleman? Maybe then they could afford to do the job better.

PapaLazaru · 16 Apr 2020 at 22:56

Are you still doing bags down there? What about wheelie bins like the rest of the country?

The_Abyss · 16 Apr 2020 at 23:10

I'm surprised that they need these services, as some would have you believe it is all empty second homes down there, and with the lockdown preventing travel...

Randomface74 · 16 Apr 2020 at 23:13

What gets me is the stuff with a recycling logo on it but the council won't recycle it, e.g. crisp packets.

There needs to be a law saying "you can only put the recycling logo on stuff if it can go in the recycling bin".

The_Abyss · 16 Apr 2020 at 23:16

Each council is different though. I can't put glass in our recycling in Suffolk but I can at our house in Norfolk. Policies vary all over the country.

drakulton · 16 Apr 2020 at 23:20

I believe Cornwall has already been cycled. There is even a web-page dedicated to it...… does it need redoing?

https://www.cornwalls.co.uk/sports-and-activities/cycling

Puzzled · 17 Apr 2020 at 00:43

I still don't get what you are moaning about, I thought all councils were on fortnightly collection now anyway.

Do they give you a teeny wheeny wheelie bin in Cornwall or something?

FoxEye · 17 Apr 2020 at 01:01

Angilion said:
It seems inefficient for a council to pay a middleman to do the council's work while also paying for the equipment to do that work. Why not just do the work and save the money paid to the middleman? Maybe then they could afford to do the job better.

The councillors are forever looking for deals that most people would say are "too good to be true". Whatever company promises them the Earth for next-to-nothing gets the contract.

I guess it's the same picture nationally, nothing exceptional about Cornwall in that regard. A few years back we outsourced all our IT and then brought it all back two years later. After most of the promises were broken and the service levels dropped to critically low levels (council services being negatively affected).

Puzzled said:
I still don't get what you are moaning about, I thought all councils were on fortnightly collection now anyway.

Do they give you a teeny wheeny wheelie bin in Cornwall or something?

I'm a bit puzzled that two people think I'm complaining about fortnightly bin collections.. and nothing else..

They're talking about responding to a general desire for more recycling by cutting recycling opportunities.. removing recycling banks that are popular and widely used down here (the glass/paper/plastic banks at supermarkets).

But to answer your other question.. we don't get wheelie bins here. Just regular black sacks for landfill and small "bag-for-life" type things for recycling that we have to pay for..

And the contractor keeps finding excuses why they shouldn't take it anyway ("not the right bag", "over-filled", etc).

When councils run their own services they tend to be compassionate, use their common sense, and work for the good of the community.

When council sub-contract, two things happen: you end up with a service that won't *ever* exceed the contracted requirements, under any circumstances, no matter how common sense it might be (eg to take a bag that's "too full"). And 2) you probably get a lot less for your money than you'd hoped (or expected), because private firms are very, very skilled in screwing public bodies over.

NVP · 17 Apr 2020 at 01:10

Maundie said:
We have black bin collected one week and then recycling the other, is your issue that they don’t collect your black bin every week?

We only put out our black bin once a month as the majority of our rubbish is recycled

Puzzled said:
I still don't get what you are moaning about, I thought all councils were on fortnightly collection now anyway.

Do they give you a teeny wheeny wheelie bin in Cornwall or something?

Ours is weekly for general waste then grass and recycling alternate. With nappies from 2 kids I'm barely lasting the week, fortnightly would be a crime!

doodah · 17 Apr 2020 at 01:18

Fortnightly - Christ, I assumed all councils were weekly.

chaparral · 17 Apr 2020 at 04:36

Think yourself very lucky OP that you got somewhere to store the rubbish for 2 weeks with having a moderate sized garden
As this can be a real nightmare for people that live in flats and has no garden..

Where i live it also once a fortnight for everything plus most are recycling banks have also been scrapped

FoxEye said:
Extremely cheesed off today with our waste collections (council financed, privately run).

Since the dumps are all closed we can't do what we usually do and take our green waste to the dump ourselves (we don't pay the £55 yearly charge to have the green waste taken from our doorstep fortnightly).

So given we're all in lockdown we figured they might take it if we left it at the end of the street with everyone else's.

Not collected.

How freaking petty. You'd have thought they might use some common sense in the middle of an epidemic, but no.

Well there's no way I'm paying £55 for a couple collections at most during the remaining lockdown.

We'll just have to burn it like everybody else is doing atm - it's causing civil war among the neighbours, but if the council won't collect it then **** being neighbourly. It's either burn it or fly tip it (only weeds and a bit of soil).

As anyone with a moderate sized garden knows, at this time of year you generate several bags of waste per week, and we have nowhere to store them.

Kenai · 17 Apr 2020 at 07:56

billysielu said:
What gets me is the stuff with a recycling logo on it but the council won't recycle it, e.g. crisp packets.

There needs to be a law saying "you can only put the recycling logo on stuff if it can go in the recycling bin".

This is down to individual councils not actually recycling all recyclable materials.

The change in law needs to be that local councils can't pick and choose what they feel like recycling and have to take everything, even if some has to be sent elsewhere to an appropriate facility.

I end up putting a lot of recycling to general waste because our council has such a pathetic range of what they accept.

Em3bbs · 17 Apr 2020 at 08:04

Even during lockdown and with a family of four I'm able to easily cope with bins being picked up every two weeks (recycling one week, normal waste the other week). You can even ask for bigger wheelie bins here if needed, but I haven't had to yet.