Fortnightly blue bin collection not enough?

[the-e-dealer]

Tuesday is my day too I'm round the corner and they seem to be turning up on the right day.

[KidKruger]

Well I couldn't have had a collection 2 weeks ago then, no way I filled that blue bin in a week !!

[KidKruger]

Bins emptied now. 'bout time.

[treehugger]

Have to say, I think it's working well on Barry Rd - maybe because we are a main road...

[TheArtfulDogger]

strange thing, I was using a blue box and last week they not only emptied it but took it as well, as far as I can see they took all the blue boxes from my road, personally the blue bin is too big and an eyesore (2 bins was bad but three)

yet now I have no choice and despite emails to environmental team saying no to the blue bin here it is

madness especially as I heard a rumour that the new waste plant on the old Kent road, when operational can take mixed waste (recycling and household) and then sort it so potentially we may go back to a single bin (or two) in the near future

maybe James can update us on this rumour ?

[richfish]

It all seems to be working well on Hindmans. I asked for my blue bin to be returned as it was far too big and they very promptly came and collected it. Others are doing likewise as the blue monsters seem to have all but disappeared from this end of Hindmans. Certainly e-mail comms with LBS worked well. Two blue boxes work fine for me and they are always collected though whether that is weekly or fortnightly I am not sure. As a crusher I never seem to have a problem with them being over full.

The only suggestion for improvement from here is that the green food bags would be better if they were a little stronger. In my experience if they are anything more than half-full in the brown container then they split when you are getting them out

[James Barber]

Hi richfish,

do you think the little green food bags would be better with handles?

[DipDap]

I definitely preferred the little green food bags with handles - can tie them up much easier, and fill them up more therefore using less.

[Sue]

I would prefer them with handles as well, much easier to tie up and get them out of the kitchen bin, and as DipDap says, you can get more into them.

[Cassius]

DipDap Wrote:

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

> I definitely preferred the little green food bags

> with handles - can tie them up much easier, and

> fill them up more therefore using less.

Agreed.

[kelliem]

Even after compressing my recycling my recycling bin is still majorly overly by collection time. A weekly collection of the recycling bins would be more appropriate, considering that most packaging is recyclable nowadays and the fact that we are ultimately aiming to reduce our waste!

[richfish]

James, yes I think handles would be good and make them easier to use, but I still think the bags would benefit from being stronger. But that might just be me.

And I must retract my comment about the blue bins on hindmans north. They are everywhere! So quickly a part of the streetscape that they have become invisible? Surely not.

[The Minkey]

Have the newer lot of green food waste bags got no handles? The old design was good, handles are ideal for tying the bag up.

[Heart108]

do you think the little green food bags would be better with handles?

Great point - I appreciate you bringing this up.

The bags without handles have been driving me nuts - you get less in them, more difficult to tie up and easier to split when you try and lever them out of the container when they are full.

Please revert to the previous bags with handles - they dont need to be stronger...

PS On the subject of Blue Box collection, yes they need to be collected more often... even with crushing ours get too full ( family of 4)

[Trish]

Fortnightly blue bin collections aren't enough for us either.

[Chippy Minton]

A few of us pointed out the bags with handles issue to James back in the summer when the original food waste pilot was coming to an end (see http://www.eastdulwichforum.co.uk/forum/read.php?5,336529,page=57)

Five months later....we've all got bags with no handles and (I think) we've all been given enough of these to supposedly last us two years so I guess we're stuck with them.

[Sue]

Anybody else seen the blue bin on the front cover of this week's Southwark News? Maybe just in the Dulwich edition. With the headline "Bins too blue for Dulwich?" !!!

I was just wheeling my shopping out of Sainsbury's when I was stopped in my tracks!

My name is in it as well :-$ so I had to buy one :-$ I know that's very very sad :-$

James, did you give them the story?

[savage]

bring back the bags with handles and i think the blue suits Dulwich

[bloonoo]

the bags for the brown caddy aren't that good - i started to put 2 bags in at a time otherwise it splits when you take it out, and it usually splits anyway when i put the plastic bag around the bin lip.

[James Barber]

Hi Sue,

I was called last Wednesday asking about this issue - I think they read the forum. I gave a potted history which they largely seemed to use and told them about your question. Sorry if you didn't want that!

Hi savage, bloonoo,

I agree.

So I asked council officers who agreed to run an experiment. 2/4 of the Friern Road council blocks were given bags with handles and the other two without. They're due to report back whether it made a difference to food waste collections. As soon as I have that info I'll let you know.

Anecdotally for my household. No handles is making me consider buying my own bags with handles or giving up as I find it really fiddly and I'm a keen recycler. So I suspect many will have given up for collect food waste sparodically.

[Sue]

James Barber Wrote:

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

> Hi Sue,

> I was called last Wednesday asking about this

> issue - I think they read the forum. I gave a

> potted history which they largely seemed to use

> and told them about your question. Sorry if you

> didn't want that!

>

xxxxxxx

No, it's no problem, my name was in the records of the council meeting anyway so I guess it was already in the public domain.

I just wondered how they got the story.

[Chippy Minton]

The Council has already run a pilot which included using the bags with handles. However, when this pilot finished, James Barber admitted "In essense the pilot is being ignored and a new untested scheme introduced." see - http://www.eastdulwichforum.co.uk/forum/read.php?5,336529,page=57

It doesn't bode well for any "experiment" and subsequent reporting back - the Council will do what they want regardless!

[cbeebies]

we are a family of 5 and by the end of two weeks our blue wheely bin is full to bursting. Today we were told off by the recycling collection men that our bin was too full and we should put our recycling in our neighbours bin, when ours gets too full. I agree we should have weekly recycling collections, aren't they supposed to be encouraging us to recycle more not less?

[Timster]

Does anyone know if the dustmen were on strike today? Or is there some other reason our bin hasn't been emptied?

[Bellenden Jo]

Ours weren't emptied either - presume strike. Wonder when they'll catch up, I'm drowning in a sea of recycling!