Weekly bin collections will not return, councils say (From Bucks Free Press)
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Weekly bin collections will not return, councils say
3:47pm Monday 19th July 2010 in News By Oliver Evans
Weekly bin collections will not return, councils say
CONSERVATIVE councils are refusing to back a Tory election pledge to bring back weekly bin collections – but glass collection could be coming to Wycombe.
The party pledged to ‘work with councils to bring back proper weekly rubbish collections’ the month before the May 6 poll.
Minister Caroline Spelman said: “This is a clear choice at this election: Conservatives who will help bring back weekly collections, Labour who imposed fortnightly collections, or Liberal Democrats who are already forcing through monthly bin collections.”
But Wycombe and South Bucks district councils have ruled this out – while Chiltern wants only weekly collections for food waste. It would have three boxes, two bins and a bucket.
Weekly collections disappeared in the hope that residents will have no choice but to separate their waste into different recycling boxes and bins, avoiding landfill taxes for councils.
Wycombe District Council is looking to keep its alternate fortnightly collection of green and black bins for garden/food and general waste respectively.
It hopes to also pick up glass if a joint deal is struck, to begin in autumn next year.
This could see it collected in one bin with paper, plastic and tin, currently picked up in two boxes. But an extra box is also an option, a move that would give homes five receptacles.
Yet Councillor Clive Harriss, responsible for recycling, ruled out weekly collections.
He said: “The residual amount of waste we have is very low so it doesn’t warrant collecting more often, “Waste being put out is dwindling because of the recession. People are also being more efficient with their recycling.”
He said charging for garden waste was an option under the ‘joint waste project’ scheme, but he was resisting this.
Labour councillor Mohammed Rafiq said: “It was said on a number of occasions before the election.
“You only have to go around the urban areas to see the mess it creates. There is litter overflowing from the bins.
“I am strongly in favour of weekly collections.”
What do you think? Leave your comments below.
In Chiltern and South Bucks, residents have a box for paper and a box for cans and glass.
Some homes have a bin for green waste and another for general waste, collected fortnightly.
Yet others get a black sack, collected weekly, instead of the two bins.
Chiltern is supporting a system that would see three fortnightly collections and one weekly food collection.
Fortnightly collections would be three boxes, including cardboard and plastic bottles, a green waste bucket for £35 a year and a bin for all other waste.
Deputy leader Cllr Michael Smith echoed Wycombe's hope that different recyclables could be put in one bin.
And he said of weekly collections: "People were concerned about not having weekly collections for food waste. They were worried about it sitting there, rotting away.
"This should alleviate their concerns."
Cllr Bill Lidgate, cabinet member for environment at South Bucks, said no firm plans were on the table for SBDC, but were unlikely to involve weekly collections.
He said: “If you are going to say we are going to collect all of that stuff every week, that could double collection costs.”
Major pressure was being put on councils to cut costs, he said, though SBDC, the smallest of the four authorities, might not join the project.
He said: “It has to give us the savings we have now.”
A similar project, where councils were to merge office-based departments such as HR, infamously fell apart earlier this year, costing taxpayers £1.2m.
The four have put £142,000 into the waste plan, which would need to go through a tendering process to find a firm to run the new service.
Unions warned a private provider would be ‘based on maximising profits’ and could not ‘find any evidence whatsoever of the development or appraisal of an in-house option’.
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Comments(20)
chris740
says...
4:11pm Mon 19 Jul 10
then the council will be run fair
Slimster
says...
4:57pm Mon 19 Jul 10
+
Our binmen take the plastic/tin box and the paper/card box and put them into the same refuse truck together. So much for separating, it appears they get separated again anyway...
wayneo
says...
6:07pm Mon 19 Jul 10
You aint going to have any choice you pompous prats
LoggedOn
says...
6:09pm Mon 19 Jul 10
Ive got 6 in my household and the bin lid is closed properly every week on collection day, and I dont need to put out extra bags. It doesnt smell if foodwaste is placed in corn starch bags ot wrapped in paper as advised - and the bin washed out from time to time.
It seems Wycome is rife with lazy professional moaners when it comes to rubbish collections.
u r what
says...
6:12pm Mon 19 Jul 10
demoness
says...
6:45pm Mon 19 Jul 10
So why can they do it and WDC can't?
readerabc
says...
7:05pm Mon 19 Jul 10
apart from being a good price they have one recycling bin into which we can put glass, card/paper, cans and plastic bottles
now if they can do it, why cant the councils?
ah yes becuase grundon is a commercial company that has to compete and be good at what they do
councils just like wasting money
MCarey
says...
7:57pm Mon 19 Jul 10
wayneo
says...
9:56pm Mon 19 Jul 10
LoggedOn wrote:Err no, they just want value for money.
I think the system works well and dont think there is any need for weekly collections IF the householders bothered to recycle properly and at special times of the year ie christmas, took a little more care and maybe went to local recycle stations with excess instead of littering the streets and moaning at the state of the pavements. Even bin men are entitled to bank holidays off!! Ive got 6 in my household and the bin lid is closed properly every week on collection day, and I dont need to put out extra bags. It doesnt smell if foodwaste is placed in corn starch bags ot wrapped in paper as advised - and the bin washed out from time to time. It seems Wycome is rife with lazy professional moaners when it comes to rubbish collections.
deecee01
says...
9:57pm Mon 19 Jul 10
The only additional service I would like to see is weekly emptying of the green wheelie bin in the summer months, not because of food rotting, but mainly because I can fill it weekly with gardening waste ie. hedge clippings.
Stop moaning and learn to re-cycle and your bin will never overflow.
rooneytheking
says...
10:00pm Mon 19 Jul 10
maharaja47
says...
11:51pm Mon 19 Jul 10
rooneytheking wrote:I completely agree.
I think fortnightly collections are more than adequate, granted there are only two of us in my household but we still hardly even half fill the grey bin every fortnight because we recycle as much as possible - weekly collection would be a waste of council money!
There is only one in my household and the grey bin serves my normal needs. I take my wine bottles to the recycling site, likewise with cans, beer and baked beans for the most part. Garden waste to High Heavens and anything out of the ordinary, like motor cars, washing machines, fridges etc, are my responsibility, not part of our welfare state.
What on earth is this nonsense about food waste? Peelings can be composted and the birds and other wildlife will scavange, much to their advantage and survival.
Seems to me that our nanny-state philosophy has taken away any sort of initiative, passing the responsibility to the local authority.
People moan about the state of the roads, with the potholes etc. but how many of these whining twerps would take their disabled neighbours' stuff to a bottle bank on their way to work in, say, Wendover, from Downley?
We are currently in the deepest recession in my lifetime and so to waste energy on complaining about these trivial matters is utterly pointless. Far better to think of how to do things that can make a POSITIVE contribution instead of knocking those that are doing their best to try to balance the budget.
My views are entirely personal, with no axe to grind.
maharaja47
says...
11:51pm Mon 19 Jul 10
rooneytheking wrote:I completely agree.
I think fortnightly collections are more than adequate, granted there are only two of us in my household but we still hardly even half fill the grey bin every fortnight because we recycle as much as possible - weekly collection would be a waste of council money!
There is only one in my household and the grey bin serves my normal needs. I take my wine bottles to the recycling site, likewise with cans, beer and baked beans for the most part. Garden waste to High Heavens and anything out of the ordinary, like motor cars, washing machines, fridges etc, are my responsibility, not part of our welfare state.
What on earth is this nonsense about food waste? Peelings can be composted and the birds and other wildlife will scavange, much to their advantage and survival.
Seems to me that our nanny-state philosophy has taken away any sort of initiative, passing the responsibility to the local authority.
People moan about the state of the roads, with the potholes etc. but how many of these whining twerps would take their disabled neighbours' stuff to a bottle bank on their way to work in, say, Wendover, from Downley?
We are currently in the deepest recession in my lifetime and so to waste energy on complaining about these trivial matters is utterly pointless. Far better to think of how to do things that can make a POSITIVE contribution instead of knocking those that are doing their best to try to balance the budget.
My views are entirely personal, with no axe to grind.
Plus ça change...
says...
8:30am Tue 20 Jul 10
There is still lots to do to reduce extreme levels of packaging that is still sold to us.
Some packaging is so intricate and complex we should perhaps keep it and throw away the contents it is protecting.
Oops. I mean 'recycle' the contents!
Mutley
says...
9:22am Tue 20 Jul 10
And by only cooking what we can eat and then eating it all, the only food "waste" we have is created in food preparation (peelings etc.) which goes into the garden compost bin. I know kids won't always eat their meals but there are ways of using the left-overs, not just binning them.
Mrs DaPoint
says...
11:03am Tue 20 Jul 10
I might write to WDC to suggest this.
sparky49
says...
11:40am Tue 20 Jul 10
wayneo
says...
3:19pm Tue 20 Jul 10
deecee01 wrote:Evidently some of the holier than though people are too thick to realise that their recycling is in vain. Do some research deecee01 and learn as to what happens to all of your rubbish before chastising others.
People who moan about the fortnightly bin collection are just too lazy to do proper re-cycling, there are 4 people in my household, and we manage to re-cycle nearly everything, so the grey bin is very rarely full to the top even at Christmas. The only additional service I would like to see is weekly emptying of the green wheelie bin in the summer months, not because of food rotting, but mainly because I can fill it weekly with gardening waste ie. hedge clippings. Stop moaning and learn to re-cycle and your bin will never overflow.
norma stitz
says...
9:04pm Tue 20 Jul 10
Your'e just bone idle, and can't be bothered with sorting your own waste.
Never mind that it helps the enviroment and stops land fill.
You won't be satisfied untill the whole country is just one big cess pit.
Come to think of it much of it is.
Wycombe?
miccles says...
4:01pm Mon 19 Jul 10
“You only have to go around the urban areas to see the mess it creates. There is litter overflowing from the bins.
“I am strongly in favour of weekly collections.”
I couldn't agree more, leaving food for a fortnight, its just disgusting, and they wonder why there are pigeons in the town.
Public bins are not emptied regularly, recycling bins are not emptied regularly, the amount of times you go to the recycling centre and the bins are overflowing on to the ground, its just disgusting, there is no way at all we are getting value for money from this council.
roll on may 2011