Is This Acceptable In The 21St Century?

[vortex]

Four weekly refuse collections?

Surely,this cannot be right and will lead to our towns and cities more prone to an eyesore of litter?

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4133946/Once-month-bin-collections-cause-stink.html

[mikey4444]

My local Council, Swansea, introduced 2 weekly collections last year and its working out very well, as far as I can see, There are intervening collections of recyclable rubbish, including food waste, so very little needs to go into black bags. I presume other Councils have a similar scheme. I have checked Conway Council and they certainly do.

[douglas9401]

Four weekly collection, Mikey, FOUR.

[mikey4444]

Dougie....it might be challenging but if refuse is correctly recycled, then it should be doable. Lots of people around me ignored all recycling advice, until forced to do so.

These ignorant people just piled everything onto black bags !

[ummmm]

No, it's not acceptable. Where are we suppose to store all this rubbish?

We have weekly collections and they'll only take two bin bags but as much recycling as you put out.

[mikey4444]

But the DM headline is very misleading....it makes no mention of recycling at all.

[mikey4444]

Ummm....I have found that if the rubbish is correctly sorted, into the various recycling types, then very little seems to left to go into back bags.

But what seems to driving this is financial pressure :::::

"Councils are under extreme financial pressures, especially over social care, and are faced with EU targets that demand at least half of household waste is recycled by 2020. Failure risks fines of up to £500,000 a day"

So if its a choice between keeping care homes going and bin collections, it seems only right that social care is being prioritised.

[douglas9401]

Councils are some of the most inefficient organisations on the planet.
Witness the number of orange clad skivers standing around a job site on any given day.
Managers with the organisational skills of an gibbon enforcing orders sent down from the inadequates in the chambers. The only things carried through with no fuss are catering for jollies and expenses claims.

[ummmm]

Mikey - I know this but a weeks worth of recycling in this house is already hard enough to store.

[Fitzer]

"All the recycling, food waste and nappy bins are collected weekly, but the black bin is emptied only every four weeks"

[mikey4444]

Ummm....this is included in the DM link ::::

"All the recycling, food waste and nappy bins are collected weekly, but the black bin is emptied only every four weeks"

So it would seem that Conway residents will be better off than us, as our recycling is only done every two weeks, not every week.

So its only the non-recyclable stuff that has to wait 4 weeks. Again, according to the DM, there has already been a year-long trial, of 10,000 homes in the Borough

[Arrods]

I agree the DM headline is misleading. But what I don't understand is why there is such inconsistency between local authorities about the collection bins/bags. Our LA, which boasts one of the best recycling targets, collects non-recyclables (one bin) fortnightly, recyclables (bottles, tins, paper, cardboard - all in one bin) alternate fortnights and garden and food waste (again all in one bin) weekly.

[mikey4444]

Fitzer,,we crossed in the post !

This has all the hallmarks of a DM stitch-up article....headlines not following on from the facts.

[Deskdiary]

There is an irony that the very last people last should be running local government are local government employees. I would be surprised if councils would be quite so inefficient if they were operated by the private sector.

We have had a collection every other week for years, and even with the recycling this is just about doable. One collection a month is not. It just isn't. This would result in a trip to the local dump, akin to buying a dog and barking yourself.

[mikey4444]

Arrods....I would guess the answer to that is the priorities that various Councils give to different things.

The area that Conway covers has an awful lot of older, retired people, and presumably the Council has decided to prioritise those residents.

[ummmm]

A trip to the tip is fine if you have a car.

[Old_Geezer]

Since fortnightly isn't right and wasn't stopped from happening, then less frequent collections aren't going to be more acceptable.

[naomi24]

Mikey, you live alone. A family's rubbish and recycling amounts to rather more than yours.

//So its only the non-recyclable stuff that has to wait 4 weeks. //

Quite disgusting - especially in hot weather!

No, four weekly collections aren't acceptable.

[Togo]

The councils keep saying that they have to cut services because of economic pressures. i.e. they cannot afford to collect the rubbish with the money that they take from us in Council tax. The obvious answer is for the Councils to allow people who want to use private waste disposal companies to do so. These companies are subject to the same "environmental" regulationsas the Councils, indeed it is the Councils themselves who prosecute them for the slightest misdemeanour. Part of this opt out of course would entail that the Councils reduce the Council tax by the proportion that they claim to spend of our taxes on said waste disposal "services". The last time I checked, comparing business premises prices of weekly collection against what the Council claims to spend for staggered collections that entail, hours a week of my time, me doing the sorting, me taking the bins to a delivery point,they have to be there by 8am(collection at 12noon) and cannot be put out the night before, and me being liable to the petty punishment squad that they employ(but I pay), I worked out that private weekly collections would cost me half of what the Council purports to be spending. Of course when the question is asked the Councils go into a blind panic at the prospect of their little empire being eroded. They don't want the job, or it is too tasking for them, but they are petrified of anyone else having it.

[vortex]

Good post Togo.

I still have weekly collections for normal household waste and fortnightly for recycling.I cannot envisage collections four weekly,especially for a family.

[youngmafbog]

The underlying issue is the tax levied on landfill as forced on us by the EU with punitive fines from 2020. hopefully this will be one of the firt things stopped when we get out since it also impacts on the development of brownfield sites (something we must do given the swarms entering the country)

Having said that i am a great advocate of recycling. But we must use the carrot not the stick or recycling gets a bad name.