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Dustmen's Day


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Linking here as it doesn't really fit into other topics. A light hearted but interesting 1959 film about "refuse" collection back in the day, showing lots of little details that may be useful to period modellers.

 

 

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Thanks David, Sid James's commentary was amusing.  Very little traffic and parked cars.  The bins seemed to have a lot of ash from coal fires in them.  Another world (and they all wore peaked caps). Think health and safety has improved a bit since then.

 

Look at Life brings back memories of sitting in a darkened cinema listening to "theme from a summer place" and waiting for the show to begin....

 

When I watched it on youtube it lead onto this one......

 

 

Take a look at life again soon!

 

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My friend and I were musing about the lads who used to stand on the back of the truck to tip the bin contents in.  In the last couple of years we were all given special bins (recycling, stinky garbage and other(still not sure what goes in there)).  These must be put at the end of the drive on bin day.  The trucks are fitted with automated lifters and tippers so the lads seem to have disappeared.  We wondered what they are doing now.

 

John

Edited by brossard
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My big take home from the Dustman was the recycling done in Glasgow - taking out the paper/cardboard and metal products for recycling, but in London it was all to landfill in Essex.

 

Recycling is not new, but it seems it's only recently we've truly embraced it, had the Glasgow model been followed perhaps we would today still only need one big big rather than the four or more some of us have.

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3 hours ago, woodenhead said:

My big take home from the Dustman was the recycling done in Glasgow - taking out the paper/cardboard and metal products for recycling, but in London it was all to landfill in Essex.

 

Recycling is not new, but it seems it's only recently we've truly embraced it, had the Glasgow model been followed perhaps we would today still only need one big big rather than the four or more some of us have.

The thing is, it's vastly more efficient if the resident/business does as much of the sorting as practical. Then you go round and pick up all the recyclables only for example and take it straight to a dedicated place.

Much better than sorting it out later, from the rotting food scraps and worse!

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5 hours ago, kevinlms said:

The thing is, it's vastly more efficient if the resident/business does as much of the sorting as practical. Then you go round and pick up all the recyclables only for example and take it straight to a dedicated place.

Much better than sorting it out later, from the rotting food scraps and worse!

 

Yes; the process shown in that film was, at the time, by necessity, as there was no power to compel householders to do their own separation of recyclables from residual waste. Once legislation had been passed which allowed local authorities to impose that requirement, almost all  of them immediately did so, because it's a much more effective way of dealing with recyclable waste.

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9 hours ago, woodenhead said:

My big take home from the Dustman was the recycling done in Glasgow - taking out the paper/cardboard and metal products for recycling, but in London it was all to landfill in Essex.

 

Recycling is not new, but it seems it's only recently we've truly embraced it, had the Glasgow model been followed perhaps we would today still only need one big big rather than the four or more some of us have.

 

In the 80s we would return glass bottles to the shop for 5p or 10p deposit back, milk bottles collected and reused, cardboard and newspapers were taken to the local Scout group for recycling and earning them funds. We had tiny dustbins that were rarely full. Then everywhere went over to plastic disposable packaging and so on, and we all needed huge wheely bins to take it all. Recycling is not the answer, that takes energy. Reuse and reduce is. We need to go back to reusable packaging (Milk and more are quite good with this).

 

Totally agree that for recycling one big receptacle is better than loads of separate ones - the US does this a lot and their recycling rates are much better than ours. Yes, someone has to sort it at the end destination, but hey, that's a job for some people too.

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2 hours ago, Bucoops said:

 

In the 80s we would return glass bottles to the shop for 5p or 10p deposit back, milk bottles collected and reused, cardboard and newspapers were taken to the local Scout group for recycling and earning them funds. We had tiny dustbins that were rarely full. Then everywhere went over to plastic disposable packaging and so on, and we all needed huge wheely bins to take it all. Recycling is not the answer, that takes energy. Reuse and reduce is. We need to go back to reusable packaging (Milk and more are quite good with this).

 

Totally agree that for recycling one big receptacle is better than loads of separate ones - the US does this a lot and their recycling rates are much better than ours. Yes, someone has to sort it at the end destination, but hey, that's a job for some people too.

 

Here in Germany the "pfand" tax/ cost is 25 cents per bottle or tin. Buy you beer, Coke what ever take your empties back and into the bottle bank, you have a credit note to offset against your next shop or e change for cash.

 

In many towns the less well off can be seen early in the morning collecting any empties off the street and supplementing their income by returning the empties to the local drink shop or supermarket. In Köln after carnival they can make a good few Euros helping the city cleaners clean up.

 

 

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8 hours ago, MarkSG said:

 

Yes; the process shown in that film was, at the time, by necessity, as there was no power to compel householders to do their own separation of recyclables from residual waste. Once legislation had been passed which allowed local authorities to impose that requirement, almost all  of them immediately did so, because it's a much more effective way of dealing with recyclable waste.

I think you'll find that most householders will do the right thing in pre-sorting their rubbish, PROVIDING you make it simple and logical.

Also proven to work.

Every now and again it hits the media with reports of truck loads of recyclables going straight to landfill. While there might be good reason for it happening, it is NEVER a good look, and some people are going to take the view 'why should I bother'?

 

You can't compel by law, useless you're prepared to police it and follow up with offenders. Perhaps I've heard that argument before in 'Driving Standards'!

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4 hours ago, kevinlms said:

I think you'll find that most householders will do the right thing in pre-sorting their rubbish, PROVIDING you make it simple and logical.

 

... and easy.  Halogen or old style bulbs go in the purple landfill bin, but energy saving light bulbs or LED types should be taken to the tip Yeah, like I'm going to make a 5 mile journey to queue for quarter to half an hour just to get into a site that's only open 3 days a week to throw away one broken light bulb.  How exactly does that help with greenhouse gases ? 

 

We have a big long list.  My local council says I can't put plastic bags in the recycling so I'm supposed to tip the contents of a bin liner into one bin but put the bag itself into another.   Paper, including shredding goes into a crate with no lid, so it blows all over the street.  Cardboard boxes and carboard tubes in the grey recycling but pringles tubes in the purple landfill.  Colour prejudice on window envelopes !  White ones should go in the blue paper recycling crate (and anyway mine's brown!) but brown envelopes must go in the brown wheelie bin.  

 

Yesterday herself put used stinking cat litter into the grey recycling bin by mistake because landfill. bins in the next county are grey.  They would stand a better chance of people getting it right if they all used the same rules.  And have you tried to get kids to stop putting food waste in the recycling bin?

 

OK, rant over.

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3 hours ago, Michael Hodgson said:

... and easy.  Halogen or old style bulbs go in the purple landfill bin, but energy saving light bulbs or LED types should be taken to the tip Yeah, like I'm going to make a 5 mile journey to queue for quarter to half an hour just to get into a site that's only open 3 days a week to throw away one broken light bulb.  How exactly does that help with greenhouse gases ? 

 

We have a big long list.  My local council says I can't put plastic bags in the recycling so I'm supposed to tip the contents of a bin liner into one bin but put the bag itself into another.   Paper, including shredding goes into a crate with no lid, so it blows all over the street.  Cardboard boxes and carboard tubes in the grey recycling but pringles tubes in the purple landfill.  Colour prejudice on window envelopes !  White ones should go in the blue paper recycling crate (and anyway mine's brown!) but brown envelopes must go in the brown wheelie bin.  

 

Yesterday herself put used stinking cat litter into the grey recycling bin by mistake because landfill. bins in the next county are grey.  They would stand a better chance of people getting it right if they all used the same rules.  And have you tried to get kids to stop putting food waste in the recycling bin?

 

OK, rant over.

Oh, I 100% agree over the bin colours and what goes in them, but you can see why it ISN'T viable to pay someone to sort out mixed rubbish.

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1 minute ago, kevinlms said:

Oh, I 100% agree over the bin colours and what goes in them, but you can see why it ISN'T viable to pay someone to sort out mixed rubbish.

but they do pay some poor sods to go through all this muck on a conveyor belt at the recycling centre.

 

There's mountain of packaging going in those recycling bins since everybody took to buying things on Amazon instead of at shops that were closed - and they're continuing to  do so even though the shops are open again.

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27 minutes ago, Michael Hodgson said:

but they do pay some poor sods to go through all this muck on a conveyor belt at the recycling centre.

 

There's mountain of packaging going in those recycling bins since everybody took to buying things on Amazon instead of at shops that were closed - and they're continuing to  do so even though the shops are open again.

 

Not always paid.

 

Quite often those recycling plants were full of people "training" on courses set up by the dole. Part of Labours New Deal.

 

 

• Work in the voluntary sector, called the 'Community Task Force': those taking part were paid JSA plus a £15 training allowance.

 

• Work with the Environmental Task Force.(DWP website; Peck, “Workfare” 304; Glyn 53)

 

Participation in one of the four options was mandatory in order to be still able to claim JSA, refusal to participate led to 'sanctions' - withdrawal of JSA, and referral to a 'Decision Maker' who decided the outcome of 'sanctions' on the claimant.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Deal_(United_Kingdom)

 

 

 

Virtually work for 30 hours a week for six months in a recycling plant or you got your dole stopped for two years. No proper job at the end of it obviously.

 

Usually the recycling centre was set up as an "environmental charity" so that it looked like you were doing charity work.

 

Thankfully the next government got rid of it eventually. But other countries still use that system. It's virtually slave labour.

 

However if you asked half the people doing it whether they would do it if they were getting paid properly, half of them would.

 

 

Jason

Edited by Steamport Southport
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On 25/06/2021 at 14:22, brossard said:

My friend and I were musing about the lads who used to stand on the back of the truck to tip the bin contents in.  In the last couple of years we were all given special bins (recycling, stinky garbage and other(still not sure what goes in there)).  These must be put at the end of the drive on bin day.  The trucks are fitted with automated lifters and tippers so the lads seem to have disappeared.  We wondered what they are doing now.

 

John

They still need someone to take the 'bins to the back of the lorry, and return the empty 'bin to the wrong house. Our 'bin lorries still have a driver plus three emptiers on most runs.

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12 minutes ago, Fat Controller said:

They still need someone to take the 'bins to the back of the lorry, and return the empty 'bin to the wrong house. Our 'bin lorries still have a driver plus three emptiers on most runs.

 

Still seems quite a labour intensive job looking at them by mine. A lot of time spent on your feet from early in the morning until at least midday.

 

Out in all weathers as well. Better them than me!

 

 

Jason

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14 minutes ago, Steamport Southport said:

 

Still seems quite a labour intensive job looking at them by mine. A lot of time spent on your feet from early in the morning until at least midday.

 

Out in all weathers as well. Better them than me!

 

 

Jason

... and running from bin to bin.  

most unusually though they missed mine on Thursday.  Emailed council and it was emptied yesterday.

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I suppose it will be different from town to town.  Here, the homeowner has to put the bin(s) at the end of the drive and the truck has an automatic grab to lift and tip the bin.  I recall one time, we had a windstorm and mine fell over in the night.  It didn't get emptied because the grabber couldn't deal with that.

 

John

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On 28/06/2021 at 01:55, Michael Hodgson said:

... and running from bin to bin.  

most unusually though they missed mine on Thursday.  Emailed council and it was emptied yesterday.

A friend of mine rang up the council to complain that the bin hadn't been emptied. Got the usual 'Are you sure you put the bin out on time' pass the buck excuse.

'Yes it was out on time, but none of the other 130 houses in the street have been collected either', she replied.

They came back in the afternoon.

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