Refuse collection

Sonea Fifer · 19 Jul 2007 at 23:42

Hi there

I know its perhaps a crappy subject to bring up here but it affects us all and its no worse than some of the other threads i've seen posted

Our area has recently changed from weekly to fortnightly refuse pickups - now I can understand the idea behind this as they powers that be prompt us to recycle as much as possible, at present we have three bins -

Grey = household refuse
Brown = garden refuse
Blue = paper

On the other hand we have the side thats says "why are we paying our council tax and receiving a lesser service?" Or "this cant be hygenic?"

I can see both sides of the coin and tbh it doesn't really effect my household too much and there's only the two of us - but what about the families with their babies? Dirty nappies sitting in an outside bin for two weeks? :eek:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/actionnetwork/A12808479

Your thoughts?

Glaucus · 19 Jul 2007 at 23:47

Easy solution, give us half sized black bins and collect every week.

Also make recycling better, ffs they don't even take plastic bottles.

Psymonkee · 19 Jul 2007 at 23:48

I still say weekly

Whilst we can manage (3 adults) for 2 weeks if we miss a collection it starts to get a bit full. Smell isn't normally a problem though

Heres a video of what I'd love to see

Vonhelmet · 19 Jul 2007 at 23:50

I think fortnightly waste collections is wrong, but I also think people should recycle more.

Mind you, recycling provision in this country is crap, so I really think the government is passing the buck...

dannyjo22 · 24 Oct 2007 at 16:33

Didnt want to start a new thread but I'm done recycling. I think I may become a bin man because it must be the easiest job in the world.

Yet again I come home to find another reason why they can't take my recycling bin away.

A half street full of people with tags on their bins with excuses.

I've had them not take my compostable waste because its too heavy. Thats a green wheelie bin 3/4's full of nothing but grass. I phoned them up and they said I would have to take some out or they wouldnt take it away. Of course its going to get full they only collect once a fortnight.

Needless to say I just then put half of it in my black bin in a black bag.

Today I come home to find they havent taken my empty beer cans and bottles because I hadn't seperated them all out in carrier bags. Why the hell havent they told me this new rule and why just give me one bucket then. For the last 3 years it's been fine for me and everyone else.

Other people in the street havent had cardboard taken because they havent cut the plastic pouring spout of an orange carton.

All i'm gonna do now is lob it all in my black bin and to hell with recycling. I bet they dont do anything with it anyway, just lob it in a landfill.

:mad:

Tom0 · 24 Oct 2007 at 16:37

Recycling is for chumps. Pay council tax for them to recycle, when they sorted through peoples garbage and did it in the first place anyway! (around here atleast)

So not only you do you have to sort and siv through your own mess, you're lining some councilers pockets for doing so due to less workers needing paid at the rubbish place because we're doing it for them!

dannyjo22 · 24 Oct 2007 at 16:39

Tom0 said:
Recycling is for chumps. Pay council tax for them to recycle, when they sorted through peoples garbage and did it in the first place anyway! (around here atleast)

So not only you do you have to sort and siv through your own mess, you're lining some councilers pockets for doing so due to less workers needing paid at the rubbish place because we're doing it for them!

I talked to one of my mates and he said he had a problem with them going through his bin and if they dropped something on the floor they left it. Glass. cans whatever. So he sticks his kids nappies in the bin, unwrapped for when they stick their arm in to check. He said it stopped them. Sadly I dont have any kids

A2Z · 24 Oct 2007 at 16:54

AcidHell2 said:
ffs they don't even take plastic bottles.

are you sure? mine do

~J~ · 24 Oct 2007 at 16:58

A2Z said:
are you sure? mine do

Mine don't either. Something I can't understand. We've LOADS of (or did have) plastic pop bottles when recycling first came out, and they never picked them up. Managed to stop them one day and ask why and they said "Metal or glass only"!

meghatronic · 24 Oct 2007 at 16:59

Our council (Bolton) is utterly phenomenal when it comes to recycling.

And, more importantly, they listen to us... we used to only recycle paper and plastic. We asked for more, they expanded plastic to include glass and wood... so the only general waste was food and cardboard. Still, we asked for more and we got it... we got a compost bin for uncooked veg and wood, a green bin for anything we don't want to compost and a sack for cardboard.

The only thing the house now throws away is plastic that can't be recycled (oil containers), cling film, polystyrene and cooked food.

dannyjo22 · 24 Oct 2007 at 17:04

~J~ said:
Mine don't either. Something I can't understand. We've LOADS of (or did have) plastic pop bottles when recycling first came out, and they never picked them up. Managed to stop them one day and ask why and they said "Metal or glass only"!

They are talking of bringing a 4th bin to my area. So it will be Black bin/Green bin/ Green bucket for glass/cans etc and a brown one for plastics.

Its fine if you live where there is loads of space but some places I go by has nothing but wheelie bins in the streets.

I know a guy who when selling his old house took his bins with him. They left a note on his bin as they only took one of them away. He phoned them up, they said the other bin wasn't registered to his house. To which he replied he paid for the bins himself and had paid for the ones at his new house. They belonged to him he could take them where he wanted.

If I move house again I'm taking mine with me. They cost me £70. They no longer give them to you for free.

dannyjo22 · 24 Oct 2007 at 17:06

jdickerson said:
Our council (Bolton) is utterly phenomenal when it comes to recycling.

And, more importantly, they listen to us... we used to only recycle paper and plastic. We asked for more, they expanded plastic to include glass and wood... so the only general waste was food and cardboard. Still, we asked for more and we got it... we got a compost bin for uncooked veg and wood, a green bin for anything we don't want to compost and a sack for cardboard.

The only thing the house now throws away is plastic that can't be recycled (oil containers), cling film, polystyrene and cooked food.

Thats great that they listen but what do you do with all those bins! As they pick my black bin once a fortnight in the summer it stinks despite everything being tied in bags. I really dont want that smell in my back garden in the summer. With the millions of flies it attracts.

camels5 · 24 Oct 2007 at 17:10

we have fortnightly collections and our recyling bin is always overflowing. In answer to nappies though perhaps you should consider using cloth ones when at home which would cost you less as well. Having said that our neighbours have 2 young children and I don't notice their bin smelling

Nullvoid · 24 Oct 2007 at 17:12

Tom0 said:
Recycling is for chumps. Pay council tax for them to recycle, when they sorted through peoples garbage and did it in the first place anyway! (around here atleast)

So not only you do you have to sort and siv through your own mess, you're lining some councilers pockets for doing so due to less workers needing paid at the rubbish place because we're doing it for them!

Unsorted household waste results in much lower recycling efficiencies and also brings additional health risks for those poor sods who have to do the initial sorting at the recycling facility. Even when we separate out paper and garden waste and glass etc, what arrives at the recycling facility still gets manually sorted to remove any contaminants, so they aren't really saving on wages.

I guess the biggest problem is the complete lack of standardisation throughout the country. Here in Fife they don't separately collect plastic, metal or glass so the onus is on us to take ours along to recycling banks or local civic amenity sites, with the result that many people simply don't participate. And even when we do take plastic along, it turns out they only want types 1 and 2, which excludes a lot of the packaging forced on us by the shops and supermarkets.

Until they get more organised in terms of how they collect and process the waste I don't see how they can expect the population to get more engaged with it.

meghatronic · 24 Oct 2007 at 17:17

dannyjo22 said:
Thats great that they listen but what do you do with all those bins! As they pick my black bin once a fortnight in the summer it stinks despite everything being tied in bags. I really dont want that smell in my back garden in the summer. With the millions of flies it attracts.

Well we have a maroon bin and a black bin round one side of the house and a green bin around the other side of the house. We keep a dark green er... box??? in the kitchen which is for plastics/glass etc. And also have the paper and cardboard sacks in the kitchen. We have to wash everything or they won't take it which also means it doens't stink the kitchen out = win win.

Yes it is an effort, but after all this, our black bin (general waste) has only 1 bag a week - if that. They used to only collect all the bins fortnightly, but again they listened to the public (and people that don't want to recycle* it seems) and changed it to:

Odd week - Black bin
Even week - Black/Green/Maroon bin, paper sack, cardboard sack and green box.

(* rumor is they're going to either start charging people that don't recycle, or give those that do a trivial council tax break)

Random_23 · 24 Oct 2007 at 17:20

My GF's parents and a good friend of mine have had this system for along time, myself though normally have just one bin that the garbage goes in.
Nottingham council are changing to the 3bin system now, which I welcome the only problem I have though is actuall rubbish sitting in a bin for 2weeks... it will stink and well isnt exactly clean is it ?

VonClinkerhofen · 24 Oct 2007 at 17:23

I have a weekly collection but I only put my bin out once a fortnight since it's usually only about a 3rd full by then.

I recycle plastic/paper/glass/cardboard/metal but this involves me taking some of this stuff to a depot as the council doesn't collect plastic.

Fortnightly collections for all I say

~J~ · 24 Oct 2007 at 17:24

Y'see where I am is a row of about 15 terraced cottages. The street at the front is an old country road, the back gardens have NO access at all other than going through the house or somehow walking about 3 mile around a wood and trying to find your way to your garden. It's impossible.

So none of us have wheelie bins (no where to store one other than on the street, which risks insurance) so we just either a normal dustbin to keep stuff in during the week (usually at the back) which we all have to then transport through the house in black bags onto the street on a Sunday night or Monday morning.

If it's the former, you run the risk of foxes, badgers, rats, squirrels, ferrel cats tearing at the bags to get to anything, if it's the latter, you face the same but for not as long. I've NEVER not known a Monday morning when the street is full of bits of food that have been scavanged by some animal. Even remember some young girl down the road having her weeks used sanitary towels ripped to shreds and scattered down the road. Can't blame the binmen for NOT picking them up, but it was, no pun intended, bloody disgusting.

Having a collection every 2 week for us is going to lead to TWICE as much rubbish having to be carried through the house and more than likely some kind of vermin investation.

Either way, our area is gonna be hell.

dannyjo22 · 24 Oct 2007 at 17:24

jdickerson said:
Odd week - Black bin
Even week - Black/Green/Maroon bin, paper sack, cardboard sack and green box.

(* rumor is they're going to either start charging people that don't recycle, or give those that do a trivial council tax break)

Rumour in these parts is they want to charge you for weight of the bin regardless of whether you recycle or not. No doubt there wont be a reduction on council tax they will just start charging for bin weight.

Then they will wonder why there is an increase in fly tipping and probably need to hike the council tax to pay for cleaning up the fly tipping

Mind you this is the same idiotic council that wants to bring a congestion charge in that means even if you use the park and ride you have to drive into the congestion area to use it. They also want to charge people for leaving the city in the morning as well as coming in. £25 a week for going to work, bargain.

That MP guarenteed herself out of a job come the next vote

Random_23 · 24 Oct 2007 at 17:33

Lol, I pay enough money in road tax insurance/break down cover and fuel... I wont be paying £25 to EARN money if that happens your always on a loser! Jesus people wonder why I hate the council / goverment so much.. total hars holes.