Weekly Refuse Collections

[edcayton]

They are talking on the radio about bringing back weekly rubbish collections. Apparently this will save money and be good for the environment!!!

 

What I have never seen said is the effect on the environment of every front garden being full of plastic bins and boxes of all the colours of the sun, and in various states of disrepair and often overflowing. Is it me?

 

Also, on the proposal to increase the motorway speed limit, we are told that reduced journey times are good for the economy. It isn't very long since they tried to convince us that the variable speed limits (all below 70) would reduce journey times! Wogan made much of this on his greatly missed morning radio show.

 

Ed

[trisonic]

Our trash collection is on Mondays and Thursdays of every week.

 

I was reading about that on the BBC just before I came on - I can't believe anyone would put up with trash collection every other week! I'm sure it was twice per week the last time I lived in London.

 

Best, Pete.

[skipepsi]

We seem to import at lot of ideas from america but I think fortnightly bin collections was a homegrown cheapskate idea. Not to be too political about it but councils were thinking about money first and service to the community came last again.

[eldavo]

Not quite sure how fortnightly collections were ever going to save money when it cost our council something like £25m to set up!

 

Cheers

Dave

[trisonic]

You're kidding, Mick. If the fortnightly trash collections were imposed over here they'd dump it in the local authority parking lot......

 

Actually what seems to happen here, mostly, is that we have a choice of about 5 different collectors who have all agreed to a general contract with the council to provide a service twice per week and not to exceed a certain price BUT they can go as low as they like. Therefore trash collection came off the local taxes and we have a choice.

 

I'm thinking of moving from Monday and Thursday collection to Tuesday and Friday Collection - purely because the latter is less affected by public holidays.

 

Re-Cycling is collected every other week by a company that actually pays the local council to do so!

 

Best, Pete.

[The Stationmaster]

I can't see what on earth is wrong with collecting rubbish and recyclables on alternate weeks. We have quite a large (wheelie) recycling bin and a smaller (also wheelie) rubbish bin plus a much smaller food waste bin (which is collected weekly). There are four adults plus a cat in the house and while we sometimes have to put out a supplementary box for the recycling bin we rarely manage to get the rubbish bin more than 50-60%full. The extra vehicle mileage and wages involved in emptying both bins weekly would probably double the cost of our collections and £250 million from the Govt spread over the whole of England's councils is hardly going to cover those sort of costs if they apply everywhere there is currently an 'alternate weeks' method of collection.

 

More a political statement than a practical one in my view.

[Poor Old Bruce]

I can't see what on earth is wrong with collecting rubbish and recyclables on alternate weeks.

I agree with The SM. Our 'non-recyclable' bin only gets about a quarter full over two weeks unless we have a clear-out. The rest is recyclable or compostable. Any council money would be better spent persuading plastics manufacturers to make their stuff out of plastic which is actually recyclable instead of saying they dont want particular grades of plastic even though they are marked with the recyclable triangle. As far as I am concerned, if it is marked recyclable, it goes in the bin. I am doing my bit - they should do theirs.

[trisonic]

It's a good job that the UK is not in warmer climes.

 

Best, Pete.

[Taz]

I can't see what on earth is wrong with collecting rubbish and recyclables on alternate weeks....

 

That is fine Mike if you live in an area where they collect your food waste weekly, but in a lot of areas that isn't the case.

I wouldn't want food waste sitting on my doorstep for up to two weeks.

 

Fortunately I live in an area where they never dropped the weekly collection so this issue hasn't affected me directly.

[shortliner]

Here in the land of the midnight Haggis, we are just about to go (Next week onto fortnightly collections of our main rubbish and alternate fortnight collections of recycleables and garden waste - But despite all stuff being marked with recyclable signs we are NOT allowed to put plastic film or anything recyclable unless marked with two specific marks into the blue bin, and bottles eg plastic capped Coke, must not have caps - so 85% of the "Recyclable" stuff, has to go in the unrecyclable rubbish wheelie bin. An example - my wife has a hairspray - it comes in a pressurised aluminium can marked with a recyclable sign - it is also markd with a highly flammable sticker and has a plastic cap - having rung and asked guess which bin I have to put it in? What a complete rubbish!

As for the timing of the announcement - isn't it strange that in these economically straighhtened times of cutbacks, money can suddenly be found - could it be party conference season?

 

Cynical? Moi??

[The Stationmaster]

That is fine Mike if you live in an area where they collect your food waste weekly, but in a lot of areas that isn't the case.

I wouldn't want food waste sitting on my doorstep for up to two weeks.

I quite agree on that point Brian - weekly seems to work quite well, even in temperatures such as we have this week, provided you keep the container clean and the lid properly closed except when popping in the next load. (for Pete's info our daytime temperatures are currently in the mid-high 20s [centigrade] and our food recycling bin lives in full afternoon sun - but not a patch on your summer temperatures I suspect Pete).

[trisonic]

Ha! Yes, Mike......our weather goes from "unbearable" = hot, over 100f to "brutal" = cold -5f!!!

 

I will say that I find it embarrassing - the amount of stuff we throw away or re-cycle yet mostly we have little choice for to get what we want comes in the packaging that they decide.

 

Like Jack, above, it really annoys me that soft drink or water distributors have to use screw tops that are not compatible with the plastic of the body of the container itself or why Yogurt "manufacturers" use unrecyclable containers (or as in not-generally in use yet). We get sc$#wed yet we are in their hands.

 

Best, Pete.

[melmerby]

 

That is fine Mike if you live in an area where they collect your food waste weekly,

Exactly how much food waste do you have and why?

 

We have alternate recyclable/non recyclable collections and there is no problem.

Food waste is absolutely minimal. In fact apart from the odd fish skin/meat trimmings we have no food waste at all unless something we have bought turns out to be inedible although inside it's use by date.

 

 

But despite all stuff being marked with recyclable signs we are NOT allowed to put plastic film or anything recyclable unless marked with two specific marks into the blue bin, and bottles eg plastic capped Coke, must not have caps - so 85% of the "Recyclable" stuff, has to go in the unrecyclable rubbish wheelie bin. An example - my wife has a hairspray - it comes in a pressurised aluminium can marked with a recyclable sign - it is also markd with a highly flammable sticker and has a plastic cap - having rung and asked guess which bin I have to put it in? What a complete rubbish!

 

Cynical? Moi??

 

Our council will take practically any recyclables apart from plastic film/lids and black containers.

It is all sorted automatically.

 

Keith

[Mallard60022]

Exactly how much food waste do you have and why?

 

We have alternate recyclable/non recyclable collections and there is no problem.

Food waste is absolutely minimal. In fact apart from the odd fish skin/meat trimmings we have no food waste at all unless something we have bought turns out to be inedible although inside it's use by date.

 

Keith

Well said Keith. I understand that there will be some food waste, however I am probably of a generation that won't let food go to waste (other than as you say some skins and similar) and don't eat chicken wings etc.

We have a special food waste composter that deals with all but bones and we use various recycling stations around our area for hard goods which leaves hardly any stuff for the 'trash' bin which could often not require emptying for eight weeks.

I'm going to be shot at I know, but I suggest that it takes time to recyle and some folk can't be ars*d to give that time. When I go to the dump I am just astonished at what people chuck away just because they can. I also am saddened that our environment is now so 'disregarded' by so many; I though youngsters were more caring but many are just slobs.

Tin helmet on, flak jacket donned.

P

[chris_irl]

how can you possibly generate enough rubbish to need 2 collections a week?

[trisonic]

 

 

 

It is all sorted automatically.

 

Keith

 

You'll probably find that it isn't really and most of it just gets dumped - if you can advise on how plastic gets sorted "automatically" - unless they have a technology not generally available elsewhere.

 

Best, Pete.

[Free At Last]

Exactly how much food waste do you have and why?

 

All that goes into my food waste bin is used tea bags, though I suppose I could recycle them and use for ballasting..

[trisonic]

how can you possibly generate enough rubbish to need 2 collections a week?

 

It's not the volume it's the health issue of having it laying around - they'd rather not have to deal with the vermin infestation problem, unfocussed and diverse - which could be anything from giant South American cockroaches to rats or raccoons. Luckily the UK does not have to deal with rabies either.

 

Best, Pete.

[Mallard60022]

 

It's not the volume it's the health issue of having it laying around - they'd rather not have to deal with the vermin infestation problem, unfocussed and diverse - which could be anything from giant South American cockroaches to rats or raccoons. Luckily the UK does not have to deal with rabies either.

 

Best, Pete.

Not Rabies but we do have to deal with the throw away generation who don't give a farthing about the local environment!!!!!

P

[Guest Natalie Graham]

We used to have our rubbish collected three times a week in summer and twice a week in winter by the coalman and his mate with a second-hand bin lorry. Then the council took it on and now we have brand new, all-singing, all dancing bin lorries with a gang of four people and the rubbish gets collected once a fortnight interspersed with a recyclable collection for paper, tins and a limited selection of plastics on the alternate weeks There's progress for you. So now we can have smelly chicken carcasses and the like decaying for up to two weeks, or a month if you happen to be away on bin day, while a big, expensive, diesel engined lorry trundles round every two weeks, 'saving the environment' by lifting countless bins and emptying a few tins and carboard boxes into the back of itself. The great majority of people put their recyclable bins out every time but there's no way they are all anywhere near full. I put mine out every third or fourth collection when it starts to get full.

[ForestPines]

My local area is going through an experiment at the moment. We did have weekly food waste and recycling collections backed up with fortnightly general waste. Our general waste bin was rarely more than a quarter full every fortnight, but somehow the neighbours - a two-adult no-kids household just like ours - managed to generate so much rubbish that their bin was overflowing and they dumped their rubbish in ours.

 

For the past few months, though, we've not had general waste bins per household. Instead, there are communal general waste bins at each end of the street, which get emptied a couple of times per week. In my eyes, it's an excellent result. No more bin taking up my front yard; no more line of bins blocking the pavement each bin day; no more trying to remember if this is the all-rubbish collection week or not. Plus, as the communal bins are bigger, it means that if necessary we can throw out bigger items without getting an extra "bulk collection" charge. Those neighbours who either can't walk to the communal bins easily, or can't lift their lids, have been allowed to keep their household collection.

 

Given all this, my reaction to the Tory announcement basically was "you're spending how much? When my own neighbourhood already has a much better solution anyway?"

 

(as for the 80mph speed limit - my cynical reaction was that driving faster = more fuel consumed per mile = a greater tax take per mile driven)

[trisonic]

Mallard60022,

 

Aye, the other issue is Population size vs Land area. The UK's waste management problem is far greater because of this.

 

If you jiggle the shape of the total land mass of the UK it would fit into just one State in the USA - Wisconsin. Yet there are 49 other States many of which dwarf Wisconsin in size yet the total population of the USA is only, approximately, 5 times that of the UK.

 

So there are many issues affecting this problem not least that many believe there are just too many people living in the UK!!!!

 

Despite what you see on the Telly, the USA is basically a rural country. Which is why living just 20 miles from New York City we're plagued by Deer Invasions, Bears seeking refuse to eat (not me personally but within 5 miles of me) etc.

 

I only got involved with this subject because (unusually) Mick suggested that the reduction in collections was an idea that came over from the 'States, it's not true but I've noticed that many people blame the USA for a variety of ailments afflicting the UK (definitely not Mick but others on here).

 

That's all Folks! Pete.

[Fat Controller]

What's food waste? We have composted our veg peelings etc for the last 30 years; chicken carcasses, when we have them, are picked clean, then used to make stock. If there's food left from cooking one meal, then it'll reappear two days later under another guise. On those rare occasions when a piece of meat has passed its use-by date, our neighbours' chocolate Labrador will gladly consume it.

The problem is that, for several generations now, we have been encouraged to follow the 'Best Before' date on the packet, rather than our common-sense; I work on the principle that, if an item wants to engage in discussion when you open the packet, then perhaps you shouldn't eat it. Otherwise, it's fair game. The stupidity of 'Best Before' dates was brought home to me by seeing a pack of (unprocessed) salt with a 'Date' two years in the future- it had waited round since the Permian, so I don't reckon two more years would do any harm.

We used to have a sensible way of dealing with food waste from larger producers, which had lasted for decades. Cooked food would be collected by the swill-man for pig-food, whilst slaughter-house by-products would be heated and rendered to produce all sorts of things. A previous Conservative government, in a fit of 'too much regulation' zeal, abolished the legal requirement for heating the stuff sufficently to sterilise it; the result was BSE and Foot and Mouth.

[petethemole]

"if you can advise on how plastic gets sorted "automatically" - unless they have a technology not generally available elsewhere."

 

I'm not up on the science of it but there are plastic bottle sorting plants that use a beam of light to provide a spectrographic analysis of the bottles as they go along a conveyor, then a series of air jets to blow them into the correct bins for PET etc

[skipepsi]

We have three bins one general waste one recycling and a garden waste bin, the general and garden waste alternate weekly and the recycling bin is picked up once a fortnight on a different day. With four or five adult size people and cats and rabbits the general bin will be full days before the collection is due but the garden waste bin is only full if I trim the grass prune the bushes and weed the gravel beds which simply doesn't happen fortnightly. The recycle bin is also overflowing by the end of the fortnight