Bin collections

Peter Dolman · Bin collections

When the district councils disappear in June one of the decisions to be made by the new unitary authority is that of waste collections.

2 of the district councils operate a fortnightly bin collections and 2 weekly. This will need to be resolved so that there is a single policy for all.

The arguement is that in those areas where fortnightly collections take place recycling is far higher than those who have the weekly collection.

In 2009 the government will also be increasing the landfill tax to try to improve recycling rates across the country, so it will costs councils and ultimately you and me more to dispose of our waste.

The question therefore is, bearing in mind the above, would you be happy with fortnightly rubbish collection with a recycling (including food waste) on alternative weeks?

GTB

I live in the Kennet District and all my rubbish is collected fortnightly already. It does make you recycle more but in the summer months the wheelie bins attract flies and other vermin (mice, rats, cats, etc) with it's nasty aromas. The period just after Christmas is the worst because of all the packaging. The council also insist that your wheelie bin should be closed when ready for collection - not easy when stuffed full of rubbish.

Bear

I like to have my rubbish collected every week and this is the service I currently pay for. If this is changed to fortnightly I would expect to see a reduction in my poll tax to reflect the savings by the council.

Peter Dolman

In todays Daily Telegraph there is a report which claims infestations of rats in the country has increase by 15% in the year 2007/08. This is being attributed, in part, to the rise in fortnightly bin collections.

It is a story of popular myth but it seems now has some imperical fact.

Bear I am afraid that you will not have a reduction in council tax if north wilts goes to fortnightly collections as costs of waste disposal are increasing. Landfill tax is increasing, recycling is labour intensive and people have to be paid so the facts are we are all going to have to pay more especially if we keep the weekly collections!

Biggles

I am in an area where wheelie bins are not practical so we still are allowed 3 bin bags a week. If this council does go to fortnightly collections im guessing theyll double the allowance to 6 bags every fortnight. Where are we meant to store all this rubbish for a fortnight safely.

I am now having another worry over this, if we get another snow fall like weve just had anf they cancel the rounds again it will be a monthly collection and that will be 12 bags worth where is is meant to be kept till they bother to turn up. The countryside is gonna be littered with bags as people wont wont to keep that amount of refuse lieing about their houses.

If this council got their act together like most other normal councils and took plastics and cardboard in the black box collectiosn that would ease it a bit and make it easier to cope but there seems no signs of that happening in the foreseeable future and i cant see how 10000 residents of Calne driving to the recycling center to dump milk cartons and cardboard is "green" think of the carbon footprint that would cause

Chepfer

I can see a big increase in fly tipping too if this happens !

The government should be investing in the package companies themselves. Making them use less (though of course they wont) or using biodegradable products.

Local lass

there would be huge amounts of fly tipping going on.look at the flats in calne is it capaple of holding two weeks worth of waste.like bear said we pay for a weekly collection.
as forcing people to recycle by doing fortnighty is crap.like gtb said it wil attract more cats,rats and mice.

Peter Dolman

There is no statatory right for weekly bin collections and the district council (soon to be the Unitary Authority) will want to balance the need for recycling, waste collection and the increasing costs to the tax payer.
Lets not be under any illusion, I am not all that happy with the prospect of fortnightly collections, the politicians have little option but to consider the unthinkable sometimes.

Peter Dolman

chuck this is a question that will have to be resolved asap giving that half the county are already on fortnightly collections.

lets have your view and and how will you vote?

Biggles

Until this local council do doorstep recycling on everything (plastics, garden cardboard and food) like most normal councils across the country do theres no way they could even think about going fortnightly. I speak to loads of people online and none can believe how little we can put in the doorstep boxes (bottles cans and papers).

Chuck

it is Tory policy to keep weekly collections I am not too sure how the Unitary Authority is going to deal with this.

I WILL VOTE AGAINST AWCs Alternate weekly collections.

I may not win but there are quite a few who feel the same way as me and we need 49 or should I say 50 to be safe.

I have told already Jane Scott that is how I will vote and also that it is Tory policy to keep weekly collections I will continue in that mantra.

We will see what happnes but my name is already on the plate for this

Chepfer

I am hoping Wilts council will look into the facts in detail before they come to any quick decision.

In London (greenwich) they have been piloting a scheme that really seems to be working.

They offer alternative weekly collections. One week kitchen/garden waste is collected and the next general waste.

The idea is based around the fact that garden/kitchen waste makes up an average 37% of our bin waste .... although people like to think they compost everything .... the fact is .... they dont !.

I for one part fill my bin every week with grass cuttings and YES i do compost but just dont have the room to compost everything.

I think this is a great idea, it stops literally thousands of journeys to the tip in thousands of cars and the green waste is either used to make electricity or composted and sold back to us ..... in bio degradable bags.

Fortnightly just seems to cause as many problems as it solves.

Peter Dolman

chepfer I understand that is what is likely to be proposed and I would be in favour.
we do have to recycle more that should not be in doubt and the 2 district area's who have fortnightly collections do recycle considerably more that the 2 who don't.
we certainly need the council to recycle more that paper/cans/bottles on the door step.

of course the proposal will allow chuck to vote for it as it is still a weekly collection!

Biggles

we do need to recycle more yes, but 10000 cars from calne driving to basset because the council are still in the dark agesisnt the answer

the kerbside recycling in calne is shocking, thats even when they bother to empty your bin, the last 3 collections in london road theyve "forgot" by bin twice so gone straight in the landfill bin liners

GTB

I live in an area where fortnightly collections are already in place but we still struggle to get the lid down on our bin even though we recycle all our tins, bottles, paper and plastic milk containers. It's all well and good saying that we should recycle more but the problem remains at the source with excess packaging on products.

Peter Dolman

I agree GTB and we should all challenge our local supermarket about packaging. perhaps we should all take it back to them to recycle!
if the council continues to collect recyclable materials (will need to increase range) and compostable material one week and general waste the next week. it means they are still carrying out a weekly collection. whats wrong with that, especially if we recycle more as a result.
GTB if you have children, I have 3, do you want them to bringing up their own kids in a poluted world which at the moment is only the dream of science fiction writers or weido film producers. (a little far fetched but not that much)

sophy

Many other councils offer kerbside collections of plastic, cardboard, food waste and garden waste.

Why not here?

If fortnightly collections means the council collects more, and a higher recycling rate, then I'm all in favour of it.

If you cannot store it at home, then Sainsbury's car park has collection bins for cardboard and plastics, as well as the stuff that can go in the black box, so if you go to the supermarket you should get used to taking these with you at the same time.

And don't forget that cardboard can go on the compost heap.

We rarely have to visit the Dump now -- only to get rid of tetrapacks, which cannot be recycled with normal cardboard.

We are a family of 4 plus a dog, and we throw out less than one black bag of rubbish a week.

djq

No one seems to have mentioned the subsidised Green Cone offer. Rather than put your food waste on a big truck and dump it in a hole in the ground you can dump it in a hole in your own back garden. One of these combined with a regular compost bin means none of our kitchen waste goes in the household waste.

Where we used to live in Andover the kerbside collection would take cardboard and plastic, but not glass. I've yet to see anywhere that will take the full range of recyclables.

Local lass

i got the best food waste disposal unit going its called a dog.