I say southwark - fortnightly bin collections

[The Nappy Lady]

sallyw - I'm confused as to why you think recycling our food waste into compost that can be used in this country is a bad thing? That is the only change to the existing recycling scheme.

Re the plastic & paper waste - do you know for sure that Southwark waste ends up in 3rd world countries (not arguing, just asking the question)?

I've been to see where our general waste (from the green bins - do wish they were not green sigh, so confusing) goes, and given that Southwark are charged by weight for disposing of it, which filters through to council taxes etc. I'd have thought we would all want to reduce that as much as possible.

As for landfill - well given that we live on an island I'm sure you don't think that is the answer either.

Sophiesofa - re the paper & other waste. Certainly those within the trial don't have to sort any of it any more, I don't know for the rest of you, but maybe James will be able to clarify?

James - would love to know where all our recycled paper, plastic etc. goes to before and after processing....if you happen to know?

[Bellenden Jo]

Excellent news re getting a blue bin instead of having 4 crates that don't really stack! I'm ordering mine now!

And I'm all for the new system, working well here so far.

[sallyw]

The nappy lady - by having less collections will encourage/ force more recycling. More recycling means more carbon. And the recycling process uses huge amount of energy. Not sure where metal and glass goes. But plastic goes to all the way to china where they discard not suitable plastic into their landfills or burn it. The recycled stuff comes all the way back here as plastic or in new products. Imagine what a fuss us British would make if other countries where dumping their rubbish here. Not cool

[sophiesofa]

Thanks Molly. I think it's probably just the pilot homes then, I thought I might have missed a leaflet or something.

I'm all for a new scheme (a sensible one) but I am very shallow and hate ugly bins/caddies etc. and I have to squeeze past them as it is to get to my door. I also have a very small kitchen and hate clutter. I don't know why I'm moaning about it though because it needs to happen and my shallowness shouldn't stop it! I hope after the pilot Southwark find a way of making it work for those in flats and no front gardens.

[James Barber]

Southwark Council website has some information on where its recyclnig goes/used:

http://www.southwark.gov.uk/info/200084/recycling_and_waste/463/what_happens_to_my_recycling

Hi Sophiesofa,

Many parts of Southwark have co mingled recyclnig collections - for those areas mixing up paper, metal, plastics is fine. Many parts are still on segregated recyclnig where you still need to keep putting paper in blue bags etc.

By the end of the summer all Southwar kwas meant to be comingled recyclnig but this has clearly not happened.

I'll find out which areas are on what and let everyone know.

[Siduhe]

James, would be very interested in finding out about whether we (College Ward) can co-mingle glass/tins/plastics and paper or whether paper still needs to be separated out. If so, we would definitely swap to using a single blue bin rather than a selection of blue crates and blue bags.

[charliecharlie]

[quote=I'm all for a new scheme (a sensible one) but I am very shallow and hate ugly bins/caddies etc. and I have to squeeze past them as it is to get to my door. I also have a very small kitchen and hate clutter. I don't know why I'm moaning about it though because it needs to happen and my shallowness shouldn't stop it! I hope after the pilot Southwark find a way of making it work for those in flats and no front gardens.

]

Complain away Sophiesofa!!! as a designer you well know that there is nothing less likely to help people improve their practices that bad design!!!

great principles + bad design do not = change

ps just put out my first food waste bag today... not sure if the carbon footprint of plastic in the bag outweighed my measly scraps, but hey ho!

[intexasatthe moment]

Re blue wheelie bins to replace crates and bags - just phoned to request blue wheelie bin . ( I am in pilot scheme )

The very helpful lady I spoke to didn't know anything about blue wheelie bins .

New blue boxes for mixed recyling are avai;lable - she couldn't tell me how they differed from old boxes or whether they were larger .

She spoke to her resoloutions manager re blue wheelie bins and the response was that they couldn't comment but would phone me back .

I'll PM this to James .

[cate]

I didn't get a new blue box and am in pilot scheme. I only received the food waste bags - no small brown bin to put them in. Are we meant to still use the newspaper bags? At the moment I use those and smallish old blue bin.

[The Nappy Lady]

Cate, you have to telephone to request the small brown kitchen caddy that the bags go with. The number is listed early on in this thread, or on the leaflet you got about the trial.

You can use the newspaper bags if you want, or the blue boxes, but you don't need to sort out all the plastic/paper/cans/glass any more you can just put it all together into the bag/blue box (or request a larger blue wheelie bin (as mentioned on page 5 of this thread), though at the moment the helpline don't seem to be clued up on this, so you may want to wait a day or so for the message to filter through.....

[hibbs]

intexasatthe moment Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> Re blue wheelie bins to replace crates and bags -

> just phoned to request blue wheelie bin . ( I am

> in pilot scheme )

> The very helpful lady I spoke to didn't know

> anything about blue wheelie bins .

> New blue boxes for mixed recyling are avai;lable -

> she couldn't tell me how they differed from old

> boxes or whether they were larger .

> She spoke to her resoloutions manager re blue

> wheelie bins and the response was that they

> couldn't comment but would phone me back .

> I'll PM this to James .

Same thing happened to me, nice lady said blue wheelie bins only available to peeps in blocks of flats not single dwellings :-(

[cate]

Thanks Molly. It's a bit odd that they deliver the bags and you have to request the bin. My neighbours have some sort of smallish sized brown bin sitting out in their front garden. It doesn't look like the one in your picture though. Their house is in two flats though.

[James Barber]

Hi cate,

Southwark have taken delivery of 1,000 brown caddy things and have another 2,000 on order. Hence why you have to ask as they don't have one for every household in the 10,000 home pilot.

Blue wheelie bins. I've order several for homes in the pilot area and it was clear to me they were available. Suspect this change in policy has'nt been passed to the call centre yet. That's the touble with rushing a pilot through with no consultation.

[Peckham native]

cate Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> Thanks Molly. It's a bit odd that they deliver

> the bags and you have to request the bin. My

> neighbours have some sort of smallish sized brown

> bin sitting out in their front garden. It doesn't

> look like the one in your picture though. Their

> house is in two flats though.

Your neighbours will have a smallish brown bin because there house is divided into flats. It seems Southwark, fairly sensibly, have delivered just bags to houses that are not divided into flats and have a large brown garden bin. So food waste can go into the large brown bin. Where houses are divided into flats or where there is no large brown bin they have left a small brown bin for food waste.

The kitchen caddy is about half the size of the small brown bin and does have to be ordered.

[cate]

Oh, I thought you were supposed to leave the bags inside the small bins outside on day of collection, not put into large brown bin. Seems bizarre to have a teeny tiny bag at the bottom of large brown bin. And am I also meant to throw garden waste on top of those bags?

[KestonKid]

The recycling men have been and taken everything away, two bags of paper, plastic stuff, tins and glass all being bunged in together. A separate lorry came later and took away a green bagful of garden refuse which was too big for our own compost bin, and two little bags of food waste from a 23lt brown box. Following my recent post here we have two spare kitchen caddies and a large number of spare compostable bags. Would anyone like them?

[cate]

Me. I would like a kitchen caddy! Are you in Keston Road? PM me your address and I could pick it up if you leave it outside.

[The Nappy Lady]

cate - yes, the garden waste and food waste all go together in the big brown bin. It will all will be composted (the food bags are degradable. It will all end up as lovely, top quality compost for some happy plants and worms to reside in!

[charliecharlie]

[quote name=cate - yes' date=' the garden waste and food waste all go together in the big brown bin. It will all will be composted (the food bags are degradable. It will all end up as lovely, top quality compost for some happy plants and worms to reside in!

]

ah ha the plot thickens Molly, when I called the dept. I was told that you could put garden waste in with the food waste (ie into you caddy or larger small brown bin) but you could not put food waste (even if it is in the small green food waste plastic bags) into you garden waste if you use brown paper bags, but you say that you can put food waste in the green plastic bags into the garden waste brown bins... that seems a bit contradictory... this is getting a bit like ground hog day

1 Brown wheelie bin

2 Green wheelie bin

3 Blue wheelie bin

4 small brown bin

5 smaller brown caddie

6 pale green small bio-plastic bags

7 Large brown paper bags

8 Turquoise blue pvc coated bags

9 Blue boxes (old style)

10 New style blue boxes

11 Green hessian garden waste bags (they were good... are they still going??)

12 and some sort of container for non recyclable waste... (what is recommended for this... I am using recycled plastic bags when I have any... is that acceptable???)

anyone else feel it's getting a wee bit confusing???

also James... I tried to find some sort of online questionnaire on the part of the Southwark site that cover the food waste pilot... Have I missed it??? Surely there must have a system to gather the views of those in the pilot scheme...

[cate]

I want a new blue box! charliecharlie, Container for non-recyclable waste - what kind of waste specifically?

[Peckhamgatecrasher]

I have a nice, new blue recycle bin but some bastard stole my brown bin today!

[The Nappy Lady]

Blimey....I don't know, I'm just doing what the leaflet told me to;

Keep existing brown garden waste bin, apply for kitchen caddy if you want one, put food waste in the bags Southwark are providing and then into the big brown bin with the garden waste.

All other recycling into blue boxes/bags.

Anything that's left after that - into the original green bin.

No idea why you can't put food into the paper bags with garden waste, but then I never use those bags...sorry.

I'm keeping it simple, and now have my fingers in my ears going "la, la, la not listening, not listening".....:))

[peterstorm1985]

Hi charliecharlie,

They're probably saying that you can't put food waste into the garden waste paper bags (ie not in brown bin) simply because those bags are much more likely to be ripped open by foxes and make a mess on the street. That makes total sense to me.

[James Barber]

Hi charliecharlie,

No questionairre created by council officers. Officers have told me that later on they'll seek views but no plans to ever end the pilot. So the term pilot a bit disengenuous. Officers told me no plans for further phases or rollouts but the council press officers have said it will be rolled out borough wide - shame the recyclnig officers haven't been told.

[James Barber]

Apologies.

Two EDF contributors asked if they could replace their numerous blue boxes and bags with a blue wheelie bin. Great idea to make recycling easier. I asked officers whether this was possible for residents in the 'pilot' area and the one in the 'pilot' received a blue wheelie bin and the one outside did not. I wrongly thought the policy had been changed to effect this.

I've now had a more senior council officer tell me the policy hasn't changed and the policy on blue wheelie bins has been explained as:

Residents can have a blue wheelie bin IF the property has been divided into flats. If a property merely recycles a lot then no they can't have a blue wheelie bin. If the property has many residents but is not subdivided into flats then no they can't have a blue wheelie bin. you also have to live in an area with comingled recycling - this was meant ot be everywhere by now but sadly the timetable for this has gone by the wayside and I've been unable to obtain an update to that.

All seems a bit bonkers to me - I've had a cold for three weeks now so pretty fed up and ratty!