Bi weekly bin collections

[The Minkey]

According to the leaflet, the changes don't apply to blocks of flats.

[Siduhe]

Ah, thanks. We are still leafletless. So streets are are mixed flats/houses are going to have a fun time. Although if I ever need my recycling emptied weekly, I guess I can just put it out next door (kidding...!)

[Sue]

I don't really want the green wheelie bin now if virtually everything will be recycled, is it possible to have something smaller for non-recyclable rubbish?

I have very little space at the front of my house, and I don't want bins etc spilling over into the part reserved for plants after I specially had a bin recess built!

[Red_Cat]

Sue, I have noticed that some people have a smaller 'slimline' version of the green wheelie bin which might be more suitable, presumably we can just ask the council if we want to swap to this?

[sophiesofa]

Yes you can swap to a slimline bin, don't think they do anything smaller than that though.

I haven't received my leaflet yet but I'd like to know what the definition of street based as I'm in a convered house to 3 flats so we have minimal space already crammed with bins. I am happy to swap a green bin for a blue one (and if I'm honest it would increase the amount I recycle) but I don't think the other two flats would agree.

[James Barber]

Hi Sue,

Yo can have a smaller green wheelie bin. Te standard size is 240 litres but you can swap that for a 180 litre one.

Phone 020 7525 2000.

Or if you get one well with your neighbours share their green bin.

Regards james

[Sue]

James Barber Wrote:

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

> Hi Sue,

> Yo can have a smaller green wheelie bin. Te

> standard size is 240 litres but you can swap that

> for a 180 litre one.

> Phone 020 7525 2000.

>

> Or if you get one well with your neighbours share

> their green bin.

>

> Regards james

xxxxxxxx

Thanks James, that's very useful, yes sharing a bin would be a good idea though both sets of neighbours are moving (I'm trying not to take it personally :)) )

[Loz]

What would have been good is two half sized bins that take up roughly the same space as the present 240 litre one. That way, all of us who have a special space for the green bin could fit both in.

[Frankito]

I want a blue bin as I am fed up with the foxes mugging my blue boxes!

[Sue]

Frankito Wrote:

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> I want a blue bin as I am fed up with the foxes

> mugging my blue boxes!

xxxxxx

What on earth are you putting in the boxes?!

[The Minkey]

"What on earth are you putting in the boxes?!"

Or what aren't you rinsing out?

[Penguin68]

What on earth are you putting in the boxes?!

My experience suggests that fox cubs are happy to look for things to play with; balls, shoes etc. appear on my lawn regularly, so searching in recylcing boxes for things to amuse them doesn't surprise me. If it's adult foxes doing the disturbing then they are more likely to thinks there's something edible there. However you have to really scrub old fish cans (particularly sardines) to remove any scent, as far as animals with a very developed sense of smell are concerned.

[The Minkey]

I live in fox central, backing onto the Aquarius, and have never had an issue with foxes breaking into the blue box. Cubs do like to find things to play with, but they tend to nick such things as balls and gardening gloves which have been left out overnight.

If you happen to have a dishwasher, stick smelly items like fish cans in with the wash and make sure the lid is clipped onto the blue box securely - see if that works.

[Frankito]

Good point and yes, would probably explain why my boxes get mugged on a regular basis as my dog gets a can of tuna per day as part of her dinnertime treat and I must say I can be a bit lazy with my thorough clean...

Minkey, I live in Therapia which is close by. I am sure they use my garden as the main through-route to catch the 63, stopping off as they whiff the tuna.

[Greengod]

Recycling is a big con, it may help our UK landfills, but i dont feel good about dumping my rubbsih in third world countries

Waste plastics are routinely burned in the open air, giving off clouds of poison gas, while heavy metals and other toxic substances leak into waterways. Mrs Chare said: ?These are organised criminal gangs, who are out to make as much money as possible without any regard for the harm they are causing.

?It is very much a reputation issue for our country to have criminals dumping material in the developing world with appalling consequences for the local people and environment. It also damages the legitimate recycling industry in this country.?

In many cases local authorities and businesses collecting waste will subcontract parts of the process to third parties. Because of the increasing cost of disposing of toxic items legally, criminal gangs posing as legitimate businesses are able to undercut genuine firms by a large margin.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1358450/The-gangs-dumping-recycling-Third-World-All-effort-separating-rubbish-waste-time.html#ixzz1YPeYfQ3V

wate of time

[James Barber]

Hi Greengod,

Do you know for fact that Southwark waste contractor Veolia sub contracts in the way you've described?

If they did they'd be wiped out commercially when discovered.

No, I don't agree with how the Labour council are implementing fortnightly rubbish and recycling collections but I don't believe for a second the recycling is ending up in the 3rd world etc.

Your scare mongering can only deter people from proper recycling.

[Penguin68]

James

Where do you think the recycling is ending up then? There is virtually no market for recyled plastics, glass or paper in the UK (metals are a different matter, but e.g. heavy metals from computers and mobiles are much more cheaply collected in the far east, where in the main they are e-used for production of electronic kit). That such recyling massively reduces life-span is well known.

The cost of recyling paper and cardboard to anything like a high standard of finish is high, and the cost to the environment when you consider the necessary use of bleaches etc. higher. The use of renewed wood pulp in managed forests is actually much better for the environment - trees growing is generally a good thing, chemical processes to recyle paper less so.

If we assume (for the sake of argument) that (a) we have a lot of long-life rubbish and that (b) the south east is sinking into the sea as the land re-balances after the huge weight of the ice-age ice sheet disappearing is allowing Scotland and the North to tilt back up, then the obvious solution to both problems would be to construct sea defences along the North Sea and Channel coast with 'land fill' - apparently with a life of 100s of thousands of years - acting as the central core - the creation of such dykes would be a valuable capital investment to boost the economy, as well as solving 2 'environmental' problems with one stone, so to speak (one non bio-degradable plastic sack perhaps?)

The Netherlands seems happy enough with about a third of its land-mass being below sea level behind dykes; why shouldn't we?

[Banksy]

Close call on who is more bonkers - Greengod for believing the Daily Mail or Penguin68 for thinking that dumping bags of used nappies and food scraps into the Channel as a sea defence will rebalance the ice age thaw!

Most of Southwark's plastics actually get sent to a recycling plant in (not very) far-away Dagenham (www.closedlooprecycling.co.uk).

Metals (and glass) don't degrade when recycled - they retain the same properties as if produced from virgin materials (but require far less energy to process). The fibre strength of paper does reduce each time it is recycled (eg from office paper to newspaper to tissue paper or the inner layer of cardboard boxes) but still takes massively less energy than creating paper from a tree.

[Guest]

I got home yesterday to find blue wheelie bins being delivered in my road. My side of the street is all flats and they left one bin between two - we had to work this out as there was no information. We don't actually have room for the new bins and they can't stand where the old ones did due to the height difference, but after some investigation I found out you can ask them to take them away or get smaller ones (which we also don't have room for, having shared entrances.) They haven't, and are apparently not planning, to take away the old recycling bins and bags so the place looks even more like a bad trailer park now. And do the new bins really need to be such a bright blue they're visible from 500 yards away?

And in my road most people don't have large brown bins, we wouldn't have space for three bins each anyway, so presumably we're supposed to just leave the compostible bags of food waste out overnight for foxes, cats etc to rip into? Note that we are instructed to include meat, skin and bones, items you wouldn't put in a normal compost heap for fear of attracting rats, so I would assume this will lead to an increase in the rat population too.

I do think Southwark could have planned this more sensitively and also more efficiently. If you're going to allow people to choose to opt in/out of the blue bin system (the food waste doesn't appear to be optional), it would have been better to consult up front rather than foisting this mess on us and leaving it to those who care to sort it out. I'm sure plenty of people won't bother and will just leave the bins out all the time.

PS: I've put a separate thread in the For Sale/Offered section to see if anyone has a use for the old, unwanted recycling boxes/bags. Maybe they could be used by local schools, playgroups or allotments. Again, Southwark could have thought about this in advance.

[steveo]

Frankito Wrote:

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

as my dog gets

> a can of tuna per day as part of her dinnertime

> treat

My God no wonder there are no fish left

[James Barber]

Southwark's rubbish and recycling collections may be slightly disrupted this week due to an unofficial strike yesterday.

Any problems please let me know.

Certainly some of my reecycling was over the pavement when I reached home last night.

[The Minkey]

I plan on keeping my blue boxes (I somehow acquired two) as they work better stacked than a large blue bin for the space I've got.

Mrs B, you can request a brown bin specifically for food waste. It's much smaller than the big one, but larger than the kitchen caddy. Perhaps this would suit your purposes.

[ratty]

A laughably small brown thing arrived outside my house this morning.

[Loz]

There is a laughably smaller brown thing inside it, too.

[The Minkey]

Lol.. How much food waste do you expect to be producing and how large a bin do you want sitting on your kitchen countertop?