Local councils and waste collection
Discussion
I've lived in the same house for 13 years. Weekly refuse collection on Mondays, recycling collection every other Monday, garden waste (paid for as an extra on top of the council tax) every other Wednesday.
Worked perfectly, never had a missed collection.
Council decided to switch to a new format - weekly food waste collection on Thursdays, alternating recycling and waste on the same day. Garden waste unchanged.
They sent out multiple letters, emails and calendars in the months before the change.
They provided new wheelie bins, food waste caddies and recycling bags to every house. Must've cost a few quid.
What they didn't do was find a contractor with enough staff to actually do the collections.
No collection today in my village. Some areas got nothing last week either.
Plenty of posts on local Facebook groups complaining.
Totally incompetent.
Worked perfectly, never had a missed collection.
Council decided to switch to a new format - weekly food waste collection on Thursdays, alternating recycling and waste on the same day. Garden waste unchanged.
They sent out multiple letters, emails and calendars in the months before the change.
They provided new wheelie bins, food waste caddies and recycling bags to every house. Must've cost a few quid.
What they didn't do was find a contractor with enough staff to actually do the collections.
No collection today in my village. Some areas got nothing last week either.
Plenty of posts on local Facebook groups complaining.
Totally incompetent.
My local council refuse collectors refused to take my garden waste bin (full of grass cuttings) claiming it was too heavy.
However they do not have a "weight limit" and do not have any means of weighing a bin, so its left to the discretion of the crew as to what constitutes too heavy.
On the day in question, it was pouring down and they were very late.
Apparently just by walking past a bin they have the ability to confirm its too heavy and ignore it.
Council refused to do anything
However they do not have a "weight limit" and do not have any means of weighing a bin, so its left to the discretion of the crew as to what constitutes too heavy.
On the day in question, it was pouring down and they were very late.
Apparently just by walking past a bin they have the ability to confirm its too heavy and ignore it.
Council refused to do anything
A couple of locals have posted on Facebook after talking to the waste collectors. 4 issues:
Recycling truck only has 2 operatives now which means the driver has to get out and help. Takes a lot longer.
Collecting and emptying the new food waste caddy means there are now 5 containers to handle, rather than 4. Takes longer.
Because the rubbish will only be collected from the official wheelie bin (only holds 3 black bags), residents have to recycle more, or the rubbish won't fit. More recycling, takes longer, truck fills up sooner, more trips back to the depot to empty it.
Recycling trucks are now based at a depot which is further away. Presumably this is because the old depot (a household waste Recycling tip) cannot handle food waste.
As well as being 5 miles further away, the depot is at a major bottleneck on the A30 (St. Erth). 7 miles of pretty slow traffic on the remaining bit of A30 single carriageway, St. Ives turnoff down to Penzance. Chokka at this time of year. Takes much longer.
Very poor planning by the council and the contractors. Par for the course though.
Recycling truck only has 2 operatives now which means the driver has to get out and help. Takes a lot longer.
Collecting and emptying the new food waste caddy means there are now 5 containers to handle, rather than 4. Takes longer.
Because the rubbish will only be collected from the official wheelie bin (only holds 3 black bags), residents have to recycle more, or the rubbish won't fit. More recycling, takes longer, truck fills up sooner, more trips back to the depot to empty it.
Recycling trucks are now based at a depot which is further away. Presumably this is because the old depot (a household waste Recycling tip) cannot handle food waste.
As well as being 5 miles further away, the depot is at a major bottleneck on the A30 (St. Erth). 7 miles of pretty slow traffic on the remaining bit of A30 single carriageway, St. Ives turnoff down to Penzance. Chokka at this time of year. Takes much longer.
Very poor planning by the council and the contractors. Par for the course though.
Phoned the council this morning, fobbed off with "it's just teething problems. It'll be collected within 48 hours".
So that'll be by Monday then.
On a side note, it seems plenty of council staff are still working from home - the person I spoke to was. All fine, but not going into the office means they miss the "big picture" when things go wrong - no canteen note-comparing and gossip. They just see what the employer tells them.
So that'll be by Monday then.
On a side note, it seems plenty of council staff are still working from home - the person I spoke to was. All fine, but not going into the office means they miss the "big picture" when things go wrong - no canteen note-comparing and gossip. They just see what the employer tells them.
clockworks said:
On a side note, it seems plenty of council staff are still working from home - the person I spoke to was. All fine, but not going into the office means they miss the "big picture" when things go wrong - no canteen note-comparing and gossip. They just see what the employer tells them.
My O/H works from home and gets more 'water cooler gossip' via IM than she ever listened to in the office itself.Riley Blue said:
My O/H works from home and gets more 'water cooler gossip' via IM than she ever listened to in the office itself.
Let's hope nothing negative/derogatory gets posted and seen by the company. Some are pretty hot on finding stuff and taking action.My last employer "had words" on the first "offence", out the door if it happened again.
I grew up in an area where we had bins, but I moved to MK 15 years ago where we had bags, always hated them. We recently got bins been excellent since but many local moaning about them every week.
We now have a weekly collection of;
black - general waste
green - garden waste
and an alternative collection every other week
red- cardboard/paper
blue - metal,plastic, glass
We now have a weekly collection of;
black - general waste
green - garden waste
and an alternative collection every other week
red- cardboard/paper
blue - metal,plastic, glass
To be fair our service is quite good, card, plastic & tins every three weeks, trash every two. Glass to a local recycle point.
If I have a grumble it's that different areas have different materials in each bin, some take glass some don't and some will/won't take stuff as recyclable even if the carton says it is. No one standard across the country/recycling.
If I have a grumble it's that different areas have different materials in each bin, some take glass some don't and some will/won't take stuff as recyclable even if the carton says it is. No one standard across the country/recycling.
Alex Z said:
We have alternating waste and recycling wheelie bin collections each Thursday. Garden waste goes on the recycling day if you want to pay for that service.
It works just fine
I'm sure it will work eventually, apart from the very small 180l general waste wheelie bin. That's just about enough for the 2 of us, and we recycle pretty much all our cardboard, plastic and paper. We have never created much food waste, and we rarely throw away glass (don't drink), or cans (rarely buy canned food/drink).It works just fine
I can't imagine how households with babies will cope with just 3 bin bags a week.
When we lived in Bracknell Forest the collection cycle was
Food waste - every week
Recycling - every 2 weeks
Garden - every 2 weeks
General - every 3 weeks
This resulted in an unusual rota over 6 weeks
Week 1 Food
Week 2 Food + Recycling + Garden
Week 3 Food + General
Week 4 Food + Recycling + Garden
Week 5 Food
Week 6 Food + Recycling + Garden + General
Some weeks it was just the tiny food bin and every 6 weeks it was all 4 bins!
Very difficult to keep track and if one resident put out the wrong bins that week then all the neighbours followed suit.
Food waste - every week
Recycling - every 2 weeks
Garden - every 2 weeks
General - every 3 weeks
This resulted in an unusual rota over 6 weeks
Week 1 Food
Week 2 Food + Recycling + Garden
Week 3 Food + General
Week 4 Food + Recycling + Garden
Week 5 Food
Week 6 Food + Recycling + Garden + General
Some weeks it was just the tiny food bin and every 6 weeks it was all 4 bins!
Very difficult to keep track and if one resident put out the wrong bins that week then all the neighbours followed suit.
clockworks said:
Phoned the council this morning, fobbed off with "it's just teething problems. It'll be collected within 48 hours".
So that'll be by Monday then.
On a side note, it seems plenty of council staff are still working from home - the person I spoke to was. All fine, but not going into the office means they miss the "big picture" when things go wrong - no canteen note-comparing and gossip. They just see what the employer tells them.
Do you have rainbow zebra crossings, staff with numerous lanyards and very glossy leaflets telling you about the fantastic things going onSo that'll be by Monday then.
On a side note, it seems plenty of council staff are still working from home - the person I spoke to was. All fine, but not going into the office means they miss the "big picture" when things go wrong - no canteen note-comparing and gossip. They just see what the employer tells them.
Spare tyre said:
Do you have rainbow zebra crossings, staff with numerous lanyards and very glossy leaflets telling you about the fantastic things going on
LolNot seen any funny crossings, but we certainly get lots of leaflets and "helpful" weekly update emails.
The recycling crew arrived just before lunchtime - hard to miss the sound of empty wine bottles being tipped into the wagon at several houses.
Just 2 men, so the driver had to jump out and do one side of the road, leaving his diesel engine ticking over. Shame they can't do their bit to save the planet by using an electric lorry.
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