Just look at this mess.

[marsh man]

As already mentioned this is a problem that is only going to get worse , I don't no longer go down to our local tip , I say local but it is around five miles away , the last time I went down there I had just replaced  one of my fence panels and as we were going in that direction to a garden centre I thought I would break it up in neat pieces and drop it off when we went past , on entering the tip a bloke walked out in front of my motor and stopped me to ask what I have brought in , I told him we had replaced one fence panel and I was here to drop it off , after he called up on his walkie talkie he then said that will be £3.00 and you will need to go around again and pay before you can put it in the skip , after I told him I thought you were allowed to dispose of one panel he was a bit snotty and he said I don't make the rules I am only here to enforce them and it is £3 or take it back home , I had no intention  of paying and I did take it home like he said and put it straight in the Black rubbish bin and the bin men took it with no problems  .

[yates]

13 hours ago, ShootingEgg said:

It's not wonder people do when trying to do it right you get charged, now my garden waste is £50 a year, so basically I pay alot for council tax then an extra £50 for garden waste that I cannot compost, damn expensive sticker I bought, and now pingdemic means no collections for upto 6weeks... At the time of year is actually need it to be!!!

Same here. However the council have had to cancel garden waste collection due to having 45% staff sickness. 

[clangerman]

if you go to the tip in the rain you avoid ques and yellow jackets nosing what you have on board 

[TIGHTCHOKE]

4 minutes ago, clangerman said:

if you go to the tip in the rain you avoid ques and yellow jackets nosing what you have on board 

Good point.

And if you are carrying something they can make a quid out of they will empty it for you!

[mossy835]

at our tip. they are ok just go dump and gone, ask where to put it do it and gone,

[JohnfromUK]

Just now, mossy835 said:

at our tip. they are ok just go dump and gone, ask where to put it do it and gone,

Our was much like that, generally helpful, but I haven't been since you have to book in advance.  They were also helpful over a (small) quantity of asbestos - where I followed their instructions on wrapping and it was taken in with no problems.  We do have to pay for collection of bulky items - but I don't object to that.

Garden waste is a subscription extra and I don't do that as it is very expensive for the amount of bins I'd need for a large mature garden.  Bonfire on carefully chosen days (wind direction) for my garden waste that doesn't compost.

[mel b3]

Fly tipping is a disgrace , and I'd happily see fly tippers horse whipped. One of my permissions regularly has van loads of waste tipped , and although it gets tipped just on private property,  the council always take it away for the farmer.

During my time working for the local authority,  I've been involved in several fly tipping cases , and I can honestly say that the council did their level best to reclaim every penny in costs from the fly tippers that got caught,  and the bills were eye watering. 

I remember one guy that I caught fly tipping ( and his wife) , paid a bill of around £2,000 , and he turned up at our yard with a black eye , and a scratched and bleeding face, from his dragon of a Mrs who had told him not to dump it. Even the enforcement officer said that he felt sorry for him 😅.

I also remember clearing a load of fly tipped waste at 6 am one Sunday morning . The waste was very interesting,  as it contained a handbag containing a mobile phone , and a purse filled with cash . We'd just loaded the last bag of rubbish onto the truck , as a rather posh and panic stricken woman turned up in a pretty flash car . She just sat and looked at us , you could see that she was desperate to ask for her handbag , but couldn't say a word or she was caught 😅. My long passed mate was over the moon , as he'd never had a mobile phone before 😅.

The local authority that I work for , has pretty much no enforcement these days , so I wouldn't imagine that many people get caught these days.

The tip in the local authority area that I work , is privately run now . I visit there for work occasionally,  and the guys there are always pleasant and helpful . Anything in good working order , that others might want ( lawn mowers , furniture etc) , is placed in a separate area , and other tip users are welcome to take what they want . That's a damned good way of recycling in my book.

I recently visited the local tip where I live(also privately run now) . It's free( yes I know that I already pay for it) , but you have to pre book a time slot . I must be honest , it's great , you just turn up on time ,and drive straight in. The guys that work there are really helpful , and as long as you're putting the right waste in the right clearly signed bin (it has to be that way now to keep recycling costs down), I couldnt see why their would be any problems at all. 

One thing that I don't like , is that nothing is allowed to leave site , except in skips . I think that letting other tip users take reusable items , is a fantastic way to recycle,  and save money on tipping costs.

[Cranfield]

The people who fly tip, are the same people that wouldn't be bothered to go to the Council Tip.

The current appointment system at the Council Tips in our area is excellent, in within 2 - 5 days, no more queues, good job.

 -

[mel b3]

6 minutes ago, Cranfield said:

The people who fly tip, are the same people that wouldn't be bothered to go to the Council Tip.

The current appointment system at the Council Tips in our area is excellent, in within 2 - 5 days, no more queues, good job.

 -

Spot on , on both counts.

[Imperfection]

10 hours ago, TIGHTCHOKE said:

Some years ago Peterborough City Council tried to implement charging for collection of large items where previously two collections per year had been free.

 

Peterborough city council charge extra for homeowners to have their garden waste collected (via wheelie bin) so no surprising what gets flytipped most. I work in Peteboghorror amongst other places so know it intimately.  

[TIGHTCHOKE]

1 hour ago, Imperfection said:

Peterborough city council charge extra for homeowners to have their garden waste collected (via wheelie bin) so no surprising what gets flytipped most. I work in Peteboghorror amongst other places so know it intimately.  

Yes indeed, a few years ago we went from a wheelie bin emptied weekly as part of the Council Tax and overnight they were charging £49.

I had quite an argument with the head of the Environmental Department about it. He maintained it was never a free service!

I politely requested the Council arrange collection of my now redundant brown bin.

He stated it should stay with the house.

I countered that I would bring it to the town hall with several others and invite the local TV Stations.

He reluctantly agreed to arrange collection.

I now put all of my garden wast that I do not compost in the black bin which is currently included in the Council Tax charge.

[ShootingEgg]

1 hour ago, TIGHTCHOKE said:

 

I now put all of my garden waste that I do not compost in the black bin which is currently included in the Council Tax charge.

Our black bins have it printed on them that you cannot put electrical, DIY or garden waste in them ..  although any bags or pigeon post breasting etc go in if the food waste is full ...

[mel b3]

8 hours ago, TIGHTCHOKE said:

Yes indeed, a few years ago we went from a wheelie bin emptied weekly as part of the Council Tax and overnight they were charging £49.

I had quite an argument with the head of the Environmental Department about it. He maintained it was never a free service!

I politely requested the Council arrange collection of my now redundant brown bin.

He stated it should stay with the house.

I countered that I would bring it to the town hall with several others and invite the local TV Stations.

He reluctantly agreed to arrange collection.

I now put all of my garden wast that I do not compost in the black bin which is currently included in the Council Tax charge.

You should have said that you were now charging for storage of the redundant bin dave , and that storage had never been a free service 😊.

[TIGHTCHOKE]

3 minutes ago, mel b3 said:

You should have said that you were now charging for storage of the redundant bin dave , and that storage had never been a free service 😊.

Good morning Mel. I could have, but my approach worked.

Some years ago when the green bins came in it was possible to have a larger black bin for landfill if you had a large family. I politely enquired of the Council if I could have a larger green bin for the ever increasing amount of recycling. The answer was a resounding no, they had no plans to make larger green bins. I pointed out to the Council that as they wanted everyone to recycle more, it seemed crazy not to offer larger bins. Consequently now when my green bin is full, in between the fortnightly collections, I put the rubbish that is recyclable in to the black bin. It is far from ideal, but what choice do I have? The whole system is not fit for purpose!

[mel b3]

30 minutes ago, TIGHTCHOKE said:

Good morning Mel. I could have, but my approach worked.

Some years ago when the green bins came in it was possible to have a larger black bin for landfill if you had a large family. I politely enquired of the Council if I could have a larger green bin for the ever increasing amount of recycling. The answer was a resounding no, they had no plans to make larger green bins. I pointed out to the Council that as they wanted everyone to recycle more, it seemed crazy not to offer larger bins. Consequently now when my green bin is full, in between the fortnightly collections, I put the rubbish that is recyclable in to the black bin. It is far from ideal, but what choice do I have? The whole system is not fit for purpose!

They're getting the basics wrong dave , and,  it's easy to see where they've gone wrong , but not so easy to put right. They should have gone for the largest recycling bin , so that you have more than enough capacity.  

In fairness to the council , it's a pretty tough juggling act . Lots of residents complain that the bins aren't big enough , but lots also complain that the bins are too big , and they want a smaller one.

Every year , we point out to management,  that the green waste service is shut down too early,  it's closed at the beginning of November,  when many trees still have their leaves .  When these leaves do come off , they get bagged up and put into refuse bins , the local authority then has to pay to incinerate them with household refuse . The cost must be massive. 

The borough that I work for use bags for recycling,  and you can have as many of those bags as you want , it's a much better way of collecting waste as most of it is ready sorted for recycling,   but , it has the downside that it takes more human resources to collect it , and some of the public don't like the idea that they're doing the council's work for them.

[TIGHTCHOKE]

Oh I don't think it is easy for a minute, but like you I can see simple changes that would make things run better.

And as you say the shutting down of the garden waste service is far too early and must cause a lot to be placed in the black bins.

We are all aware of differing situations across the country, surely the best way would be to accept all recycling, collect it centrally and sort it at that facility.

Many people will not sort their recycling properly and it must be checked over.

Our crews will sticker, record and leave a bin that is not sorted properly, favourite one is textiles in the green bin. But that just means the recycling that would have gone in to a now full refused bin will just go in to the black bin.

[12gauge82]

Oh for simpler times of everything in black bags curbside. 

[Schnoo]

Our whole system of "waste" disposal is pretty broken. 

In Sweden they deal with it so well (recycling, burning to produce power, fixing broken items) that only 1% goes to landfill... 

Classic British beaurocracy 

[discobob]

On 08/08/2021 at 06:47, WalkedUp said:

Mother in law was furious...with ME! 🤣 for “bringing danger into our lives”. Was 100% worth it but can easily imagine a scenario in which I would lose my tickets or be the victim of arson etc. 

I get this off my wife all the time - my response - it will only get worse if nothing is done.

I was speaking with our councilor the other week out front of the house - when he went what are they doing - down the lane people were dumping their garden cuttings onto the verge in the long weeds. Yep - our council charges for the garden waste. I pay for it. We did have an extra bin between us and our neighbor because we cut the grass on the verges (more our neighbor than us - he is retired and loves doing it) around our properties - funny how we don't have dumping on the areas that are cut.....

I am doing a lot of digging out in our front garden, some turf has gone into the brown bin after being dried off and banged off - all the rest of the soil is being bagged at the side of the house and I am undecided whether to get a small skip for the ease or to do a number of runs to the local recycling center which is only a mile away

 

[mel b3]

9 hours ago, TIGHTCHOKE said:

Oh I don't think it is easy for a minute, but like you I can see simple changes that would make things run better.

And as you say the shutting down of the garden waste service is far too early and must cause a lot to be placed in the black bins.

We are all aware of differing situations across the country, surely the best way would be to accept all recycling, collect it centrally and sort it at that facility.

Many people will not sort their recycling properly and it must be checked over.

Our crews will sticker, record and leave a bin that is not sorted properly, favourite one is textiles in the green bin. But that just means the recycling that would have gone in to a now full refused bin will just go in to the black bin.

 

9 hours ago, 12gauge82 said:

Oh for simpler times of everything in black bags curbside. 

 

8 hours ago, Schnoo said:

Our whole system of "waste" disposal is pretty broken. 

In Sweden they deal with it so well (recycling, burning to produce power, fixing broken items) that only 1% goes to landfill... 

Classic British beaurocracy 

A lot of the problem , is that as a country , we just aren't used to recycling yet . A lot of people (like dave) are very much on board , and recycle just about every scrap of waste that they generate ( even though some local authorities still don't have facilities to recycle all waste) , and some people fight tooth and nail to avoid recycling the waste that they generate , because , it's the council's job to do it / I don't have time to do it/ I don't want the council making profit from my waste / I'm too lazy . The second set of people are the reason that councils have such seemingly daft recycling rules , it's to force these people to recycle , and recycle correctly.

Given time( i believe it takes a generation to get everyone on board) recycling will be the norm , and all local authorities will be operating similar services .

The difference between local authorities across the country is massive in many ways . I was talking to a couple of guys in Wales,  that do a similar job to me .  When the subject got to wages , I was too embarrassed to tell them that my earning are around double what they earn , but by the same token , I do around six times more work than they do.

I've just remembered something that one of my mates at work pointed out a few years ago . He noted that kids have grown up with recycling,  and are really good at it , but old people still think that it's ok to chuck asbestos in the rubbish bin 😅.

[Windswept]

Reading this thread it seems everyone has a better council than we do. Our local council has gradually increased the size of it's vehicles so they do not fit down many local roads. They expect people to leave their refuse and recycling at the end of the road, for me that's half a mile away. They also expect recycling to be put in flimsy bags and boxes which blow away so it makes recycling impossible. They are also removing virtually all the recycling facilities in super market car parks so basically forcing many to chuck everything in landfill. Luckily I compost all green waste as they don't even provide the option for me to pay for a bin. As for fly tipping, the council do a fair amount of that as they often drop cardboard, glass and plastic out the back of the recycling lorries.

[12gauge82]

4 hours ago, mel b3 said:

 

 

A lot of the problem , is that as a country , we just aren't used to recycling yet . A lot of people (like dave) are very much on board , and recycle just about every scrap of waste that they generate ( even though some local authorities still don't have facilities to recycle all waste) , and some people fight tooth and nail to avoid recycling the waste that they generate , because , it's the council's job to do it / I don't have time to do it/ I don't want the council making profit from my waste / I'm too lazy . The second set of people are the reason that councils have such seemingly daft recycling rules , it's to force these people to recycle , and recycle correctly.

Given time( i believe it takes a generation to get everyone on board) recycling will be the norm , and all local authorities will be operating similar services .

The difference between local authorities across the country is massive in many ways . I was talking to a couple of guys in Wales,  that do a similar job to me .  When the subject got to wages , I was too embarrassed to tell them that my earning are around double what they earn , but by the same token , I do around six times more work than they do.

I've just remembered something that one of my mates at work pointed out a few years ago . He noted that kids have grown up with recycling,  and are really good at it , but old people still think that it's ok to chuck asbestos in the rubbish bin 😅.

Totally get what your saying, I'm actually all for recycling, just miss the convenience of chucking everything in one bag. 

I've had property all over the country and I kid you not, one place I lived we had 4 or 5 different bins, I need a masters degree to put the right items in the correct bin 😂. 

Edited August 9, 2021 by 12gauge82

[Jim Neal]

18 hours ago, TIGHTCHOKE said:

Consequently now when my green bin is full, in between the fortnightly collections, I put the rubbish that is recyclable in to the black bin. It is far from ideal, but what choice do I have? The whole system is not fit for purpose!

Does your council not allow what ours call "side waste" which is, for example, a scrap cardboard box left next to your wheelie bin filled with other recyclables all destined for the same bin?   The bin men just pick up your side waste and fling it in the wagon.  Our standard size blue wheelie bin is for cardboard, paper, glass, metal & plastic so I have to use that option quite a lot!

2 hours ago, 12gauge82 said:

Totally get what your saying, I'm actually all for recycling, just miss the convenience of chucking everything in one bag. 

I've had property all over the country and I kid you not, one place I lived we had 4 or 5 different bins, I need a masters degree to put the right items in the correct bin 😂. 

I know what you mean, at one point we had black bin for landfill, grey bin for cardboard & compostable, tiny brown bin for food waste, red box for paper and blue box for metal, glass & plastic!!!  They've simplified it now than goodness cutting it down to three different wheelie bins and dropped the food waste collection AFAIK.

Edited August 9, 2021 by Jim Neal

[mel b3]

1 hour ago, Windswept said:

Reading this thread it seems everyone has a better council than we do. Our local council has gradually increased the size of it's vehicles so they do not fit down many local roads. They expect people to leave their refuse and recycling at the end of the road, for me that's half a mile away. They also expect recycling to be put in flimsy bags and boxes which blow away so it makes recycling impossible. They are also removing virtually all the recycling facilities in super market car parks so basically forcing many to chuck everything in landfill. Luckily I compost all green waste as they don't even provide the option for me to pay for a bin. As for fly tipping, the council do a fair amount of that as they often drop cardboard, glass and plastic out the back of the recycling lorries.

I can't speak for your local authority,  only the one that I work for.

Over my years working for the local authority , the amount of waste has grown massively , and the vehicles that collect it have also got much bigger to match . The local authority that I work for , operates a couple of smaller vehicles , to service the areas that can no longer be reached with the larger trucks (the massive increase in parked cars is also an issue). The downside , is that these smaller vehicles are extremely inefficient in comparison.  A large truck can empty approximately  2000 bins a day , but , the small trucks can only do approximately 400 . I can see a time when we'll be using articulated vehicles along big main roads , to keep up with the growing amount of waste produced.

We use no blow bags for the recycling , they're weighted bags that sit flat on the ground , and don't move unless the wind really blows hard.

My work has also removed the recycling skips from supermarkets,  the public are completely to blame for this . As soon as the first person is too lazy to put the waste in the skip , and drops their bag of recycling  on the floor , every following bag will just get dumped on top of it . Several times over the years , I've had to take a truck ,and loads tons of mixed refuse into the back of a lorry , and all its good for is landfill.  Some scruffy xxxxxxx will drop a whole van load of house/garden  clearance waste , on top of half a ton of glass that's been dumped on the floor , right next to an empty bottle bank .  You can't blame the council for not wanting to waste so much money clearing up every week. I've also seen plenty of recycling skips filled with just about everything except recyclable waste , and again , all its good for is landfill 

8 minutes ago, 12gauge82 said:

Totally get what your saying, I'm actually all for recycling, just miss the convenience of chucking everything in one bag. 

I've had property all over the country and I kid you not, one place I lived we had 4 or 5 different bins, I need a masters degree to put the right items in the correct bin 😂. 

I sat in a meeting , and the idea was passed around that each property should have eight bins , so that all waste can be recycled.  That bright idea came from someone that was earning around 80k at the time 😅.

[Windswept]

24 minutes ago, mel b3 said:

My work has also removed the recycling skips from supermarkets,  the public are completely to blame for this . As soon as the first person is too lazy to put the waste in the skip , and drops their bag of recycling  on the floor , every following bag will just get dumped on top of it .

It's interesting to hear the other side of things. I agree people do dump stuff next to the recycling containers down here but that's either people on holiday (there's no general refuse bins nearby in the supermarkets) or, far more often, down to the fact the recycling containers are left to overflow. Last time I went in the glass bank was removed for emptying and no replacement was left. I would say the council are to blame for these problems, especially as they are gradually withdrawing any meaningful recycling from people.

Domestic recycling involves putting paper in one plastic sack, cardboard in another plastic sack and plastic in a flimsy plastic crate. (Interesting to hear that weighted bags exist, our council don't use them). The result of which is loads of plastic, card and paper blown all over the roads when it's windy and we're in a windy part of the country.

I don't think our council is interested in recycling, all refuse goes to an incinerator so I expect, unofficially, they want all plastic, paper and card, to be chucked in to be burnt.

What I find most strange is each individual district has it's own refuse and recycling set-up and they're all very different.

Edited August 9, 2021 by Windswept