Charging for rubbish collections, right or wrong?

[Kathyan]

Seeing as I already pay Council Tax for the removing of my rubbish, I think this is a bad idea. Until ALL re-cyclables are collected by All councils then it just won't work. Why should I pay extra for re-cyclables that the council won't re-cycle to be taken away?

[Skreecheeboy]

I agree with Rev, the supermarket chains should do the recycling, that's where most of the rubbish comes from. i'd happily give my recyclables back to them whenever I pick up my weekly shop. In fact a better idea would be they collect when they drop off my shopping. Makes perfect sense.

[shaneystar2]

If the system was more consistent across the board I don't think people would mind so much .But they are too picky about what they will and won't accept for recycling because they don't have the plant in place to deal with it .
For example my local council won't accept shredded paper in the green bin . My argument is that paper is paper ! They won't accept glass so you pollute more by driving to the tip or supermarket to dispose of it .They will accept plastic but not the plastic bottle tops .How ridiculous .
It clogs their machines according to the nice man at the Town Hall .I can only shove so much in the composter so it goes in the household rubbish .They need to put a consistent policy in place and the big supermarkets should be held to account for the mass of packaging they have on everything you buy which the consumer then has to dispose of somehow.

[jake-the-peg]

The system is inconsistant and we are way behind places like Germany but it's nothing like as bad as some people here are pretending.

Here are some actual figures:
http://www.defra.gov.uk/environment/statistics /waste/kf/wrkf07.htm

Pretty much every region manages 30% and one gets above 50%.

I don't see how I'm accused of being in cloud cuckoo land when I seem to be the only one with figures!

[Gromit]

"They will accept plastic but not the plastic bottle tops "
You can recycle the tops. They just ask you to remove them from the bottle before you bin them so they can be crushed and more plastic can be put in the bin and bin wagon.

[wendilla]

what if the majority of us take our own rubbish to tip if they are near one .I would gladly give the council back their bins and take it myself as I am not far from tip but before you all start having a go I know it wont work but its a thought.

[Goodsoulette]

All schools collect the plastic bottle tops I think! Its like a collection for guide dogs thing, used to be foil and is now plastic tops.

I dont mind paying for my rubbish but then I barely have any. I would like to ee all recycling vans pick up plastic though, at the moment I have to take mine to the supermarket with me which is a pain in the bum seeing as I dfont drive.

[shaneystar2]

Jake you are not the one in cloud cuckoo land !
However the people who are in charge of this fiasco are.Higher recycling targets could be met if they had had the foresight years ago to get their act together on waste management by getting the plant in place ,organising a country wide consistent system and sticking to it .
As it is it's too bitty .We wash tins ,fiddle about sorting junk mail and spud peelings and then a lot of it is shipped out in containers to China which causes more pollution.
It's a case of shutting the door after the horse has bolted I'm afraid and we have to pay for it .

[LoftyLottie]

Believe it or not Jake, figures can be fiddled! Our local council have been praised for their efforts!!!

Gromit. Shaney is right. We too are asked to remove bottle tops, and not to put them in the recycle bin after removal, but to put them in with household waste. I would gladly give them to schools to recycle if I had a school near me, but am not using petrol to do this. Apart from not being able to afford to run about the countryside in my car dealing with my waste, surely using petrol in this way is not doing our planet much good.

So many plastics are labelled as recyclable by the manufacturers, but we are unable to recycle them unless we go into another county, of course!!!!

Fly tipping has definitely increased in our area - we are very rural and people do not have the finance or the transport to dispose of their rubbish according to council instructions. How can a rural pensioner without transport dispose of glass bottles, jars etc when they are unable to use the domestic waste bin?

[shaneystar2]

Gromit... I just found up my list from my local council ..Norfolk area
It says ...Plastic
Soft drinks bottles ,washing up liquid bottles ,shampoo bottles etc..Please rinse out first .Remove the tops .These must not go in the green recycling bin.Put them in the grey bin.
So ..into the grey bin they go !
On querying this with the nice man at the Town Hall ..I was told that the tops clog his machines as does my shredded paper .And the glue and any cellophane windows on my envelopes are not acceptable either .So I have to cut those bits off before putting them in the green bin. Yeah ..right ....

[Gromit]

The UK collects around 15,000 tonnes of recyclable plastic from households compared to 600,000 in Germany.

[LoftyLottie]

I believe it's Germany too where all supermarkets have facilities for people to recycle their packaging.

[LoftyLottie]

When we moved into our very old house we found a tip on our land where successive generations had buried all their glass bottles, old saucepans, etc. etc. I seriously think that people in rural areas might well go back to doing this if the councils don't get their recycling sorted out pdq.

[Kathyan]

Our council (Rotherham) do collect certain things like garden waste, cardboard, paper, glass and cans. But they could do more. What I am suggesting (and have done so to David Milliband) is that there should be a National re-cycling scheme where every council collects everything that can be re-cycled. If it all went in one bin, jobs could be created to sort it. It is then collected and taken to a local plant to be sorted. Then every so often it could be collected from there and taken to the appropriate plant to be recycled. I received a letter back from Mr Miliband who told me that the government have left it up to each individual council as to what they re-cycle. In my view this is not good enough. Now they tell uis that if we don't re-cycle what the councils won't accept to re-cycle, then we will be charged! It's totally insane!

[LoftyLottie]

Funnily enough Kathyan, we have also suggested your idea to our local council. It would seem to make perfect sense to put all recyclables into one bin and create jobs for operatives to sort correctly (They seem to be able to create a lot of totally useless highly paid positions!) but, of course, our council hasn't even got the necessary plant to recycle properly, as I have said before.

You are quite right, it is totally insane and some brainless individuals have been specifically employed on high salaries to come up with such a stupid system. How on earth can any scheme work when there is virtually nothing in place to support it!!

[Ethel]

The only things that I put in my rubbish for the dustmen is plastic and meat and fish bones, such as chicken carcass.

My council does not recylce plastic, and the nearest plastic recycling bin is 35 miles away, in a place I have no other reason to visit.

I live in the industrial West Midlands, not in a remote rural hamlet.

It's a ridiculous situation.

[LoftyLottie]

Considering that plastic is one of the major problems in waste disposal and contamination, it seems ridiculous that it is not given priority by a lot of councils, especially since most plastics are graded as recyclable by manufacturers. Paper and cardboard do not cause major problems and are biodegradeable.

My recycling bin is emptied fortnightly and is usually about half full - a few cans, some (topless) bottles, junk mail and and the odd magazine or newspaper. It's not for the want of trying my best to recycle.

[Postdog]

Following on from the last answer, when I first got a wheelie bin (before it was sacks in the roadside) I never got the same bin back twice, so using microchips in your allocated bin would just be wrong. As a single occupant with one bag a week, I could end up getting charged for a family of four.

[shaneystar2]

Post dog ..our wheelies already have the microchips in them ! And we got wheelies two years ago .
Forward planning by someone !!
I daresay yours has too.
Just lift the lid and feel under the rim on the left hand side .

As for this plastic mountain why can't the supermarkets replace all those silly plastic bags that you can never get open when buying loose fruit and veg with paper bags .At least they would be seen to be doing something positive .

[sandbach99]

Huge increase in sales of home CCTV cameras trained on bins to prove who has put rubbish in a bin