Rant Recycling and retarded councils

[Raven]

The local council, in their infinite wisdom, have decided to give us yet another recycling box. This time for food waste. We now have bins for food, paper, glass, plastic, tins, garden waste and household waste.

In the guide for the food waste it says we have to wrap everything in newspaper or buy wrapping from a "local retailer" ...What?

Firstly, we don't buy newspapers...ever and we don't get a local paper. Secondly, doesn't this defeat the object of paper recycling? Thirdly, we have to pay for wrapping if we don't use newspapers, so that they can send our food waste off to be turned into electricity, just so we can buy it back at stupid prices?

Refuse collection is covered by my taxes, I refuse to pay out even more so they can sell it to electricity generators.

Do people at local councils even think about what they do? They have the nerve to moan about pay and pensions when they pull this shit! Half the time they forget to pick the rubbish up anyway, it's supposed to be on a Friday but often they end up coming round on a Saturday so two days of the week the street is blighted by stinking rubbish bins and boxes of junk.

Fuck the lot of them, fuck them in the ear!

 

[Embattle]

We've got three with one waste food, card/paper and a plastic/tin then technically the rest as just waste.

 

[Zenith.UK]

Funny you should say this because I got a flyer this morning from the Environment Agency about our nearby landfill.

We're in a similar situation to you where we have separate containers for cardboard, plastic, garden cuttings, glass and food waste. The food waste isn't intrusive though. You get 2 boxes. A small grey box for in the house and a larger "lockable" box for outside. You also get compostible bags to put your food in before putting it in a box. You tip out waste food or plate scrapings into the box inside the house. After a day or two of this, you can lift the bag out, tie it up and put it in the box outside. If you run out, you can get in touch with the council environment dept for free replacements. The extra is that out council pick up food waste EVERY week, on "bin" weeks or "recycling" weeks.

Now you say we pay for refuse collection in our taxes, and that's fair enough. The big problem I see from the info on this flyer is that the Govt is currently charging £57 Landfill Tax per tonne of landfill. By 2014, that goes up to £80 per tonne. I understand it's all to drive recycling and lower the amount that goes to landfill, but there comes a point where you simply can't avoid sending residual waste to a big hole in the ground. So we're going to get "incentives" to recycle more and more and yet our Council Tax is still going to go up, just to cover the increased cost of dumping it in a hole.

Just to top it off, the Govt is saying to councils that they have a moral duty to keep Council Tax low. Councils are literally stuck between a rock and a hard place. They're going to get charged more for refuse dumping, but can't excessively raise Council Tax without incurring a cap from Govt. The whole way of financing local amenities is getting messed up.

 

[Ch3tan]

Our council also give us compostible bags for our food waste.

Seems like you are going to have to petition your council for a change Raven.

 

[Raven]

Yeah, going to write them a letter and ask them to sort their shit out.

Only last week they sent everyone in the village a letter to say our collection day was changing from a Monday to a Friday, despite the fact that it's been on a Friday for years. They really have no idea what they are doing.

 

[DaGaffer]

We now have bins for food, paper, glass, plastic, tins, garden waste and household waste.

How the hell do people cope with all that if they live in a flat? We have two bins, one for general recyclables and the other for food, and I keep a separate bin for glass, but (I use stacking bins from IKEA), but we can manage because we have a separate utility room and a short carry from internal bins to the two wheelie bins; but some of the stuff I see from councils in the UK is just insane and would take up half of your house.

Best system I've seen was when I lived in Shepherd's Bush (Hammersmith & Fulham); one bag, picked up every day, and their systems did the separation. There was another bag for garden waste, but you just called them up on the occasions you had one and they picked it on a separate collection cycle. They even had a free pick up service for bulky items. There were bad things about H&F council (unbelievably expensive parking permits for one), but I couldn't fault their refuse service.

 

[Raven]

It's a pain in the arse. We have a cottage garden, which my mum manages (she lives next door and is retired) the street is protected, we had to fuck around just to put up a satellite dish! Yet we have to have all these stupid plastic boxes all over the place. The closest thing to a utility room we have is a barn (more of a stone shed really) but that means I have to make room in there for all the recycling shit. I am certainly not having them in the house because there is simply no room.

I don't have a problem with recycling because land fill blights the local environment (I don't actually think its a cost effective way of saving us from alleged climate change) but it should be convenient and sensible.

 

[ECA]

It used to be much easier when families would have a pig to eat everything and then make bacon out of it.

Family pet, recycling unit and a delicious sandwich.

 

[Job]

Don't start me, we have big problem with fly tipping in the country lanes on the WAY to the tip..so the council hire afew people for 20 grand each to make another layer of bureaucracy, so now if you have a van or pickup, you have to apply online for a permit to dump waste, it takes two days and only covers what you list on the form , so now the fly tipping has gone through the roof and the lanes look like an extension to the tip.
If you turn uo with a van full of waste, no matter if it's the from your house or just garden cuttings without a form they tun you pack and as any nunfuck could guess it gets dumped around the corner...fucking muppets.

 

[- English -]

Be lucky you get your waste taken ;p. In Denmark the rubbish people come every week, and they will only take away your waste food which you have binned. Rules are strict in regards to putting other rubbish in your food waste. What do you do with all your other rubbish? take it to the tip yourself.

And yes we pay taxes, a lot more than you do in fact

Socialism eh

 

[- English -]

Don't start me, we have big problem with fly tipping in the country lanes on the WAY to the tip..so the council hire afew people for 20 grand each to make another layer of bureaucracy, so now if you have a van or pickup, you have to apply online for a permit to dump waste, it takes two days and only covers what you list on the form , so now the fly tipping has gone through the roof and the lanes look like an extension to the tip.
If you turn uo with a van full of waste, no matter if it's the from your house or just garden cuttings without a form they tun you pack and as any nunfuck could guess it gets dumped around the corner...fucking muppets.

I think going to the tip in a van has always been a case of you having to pay. Builders for example get charged to go the tip with building waste. A few years ago, I went about 50 times in a week in my car as it would save quite a bit of money than if the builders went in their van.

 

[old.Tohtori]

Everything goes in bag, bag goes in bin.

Stop listening to "rules".

 

[- English -]

/sends fine to Toth >

 

[Gwadien]

We have 2 bins, one for general waste, and one for recycling, they separate it their selves, (I think at least) we recently changed from having a green box, to having orange bags, which I thought made no sense, because they still have to make these orange bags, and we get through 20 a week (due to the increase of recyclable stuff apparently.)

And food waste/non recyclables go into the main waste. I know shit loads of people that don't recycle because of the 'effort', meh.

Then again, (I'm not sure if all councils do this) we have a firm called Biffa that does all our recycling and waste, I guess they're using their brains, and figured out that it'd be cheaper to hire a few blokes on a belt to pick through the recycling to make sure stuff goes to the right part, rather than hiring 4-5 pickup teams to pick up your teabags, then your grass(ha.), then your sandwich.

 

[Tom]

I use a composter, don't see why I should provide the council with free stuff.

 

[rynnor]

We have a similar setup to Raven - weirdly the council wont give us an extra recycling bin for cans (which we always overfill and which are worth £££s to them) so we have to stick our excess in the general rubbish.

 

[Appollo]

We have 3 wheelie bins

(London borough of harrow rox!)

 

[Moriath]

we hace 3 wheelie bins also in bracknell tho they threaten ing to charge up for garden waste pick up

They dont provide curbside glass collection so it goes to land fill and no food waste so that goes there also ..

just general, garden and tins plastic bottles and paper products int he third

 

[Job]

I think going to the tip in a van has always been a case of you having to pay.

Yes you have to pay if they think you're a tradesman, but anyone with even a small van can't take ANY waste to the tip without a permit, so now I go with the wife's car full of crap and my van stays at home.
I mean WTF, the permit has pictures of 'allowable' vehicles on it, so I just say 'Well I'll be back in the wifes car then with the same stuff'.
'OK mate..that's city hall for you.

 

[Scouse]

We now have bins for food, paper, glass, plastic, tins, garden waste and household waste.

You have seven bins?

 

[megadave]

Got 3 here, but we also have our own compost bin in the garden. I'm sure i saw on the news that one council has 12 bins or something ridiculous.

 

[Access Denied]

We have two bins and two boxes. Black bin for general waste, green bin for cardboard, a box for cans/plastic bottles and a box for paper. Glass bottles have to be taken down the bottle bank.

 

[sayward]

I have a waste disposal unit, it's wonderful. I can even put a chicken carcase down it. Tho it blew up all over me when I tried to put the top of a peneapple down it. And it won't do mango stones.

I separate my recycling, bottles, plastic, paper, cardboard, tins into plastic bags and take them to Tescos or wherever when I go shopping. Means I only generate about a carrier bag of rubbish weekly to go in the actual bin. Started doing this a few years ago when my downstairs neighbour was moaning about who put what in the bins and making rotas for putting the bins out. So i just opted out of the whole thing