Brown bin collection - Council starting to charge?

[cella]

spider69 Wrote:

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

> Cella wrote.

>

> Nobody is a mug for subscribing and paying as

> requested and from the info you've provided it's

> being sorted after an initial delay. Forcing the

> Council to issue warnings etc will only add to the

> overall costs so not sure why you're encouraging

> this.

>

> Perhaps it would have been better to have

> everything in place before it was rolled out?

Indeed - perhaps read message in full?

[jonnywalker]

This is a classic EDF post. A lot of irate people on here. Well calculated by Southwark to start this scheme during the summer when flora are growing fast and need continual cutting. FYI a lot of other London boroughs are already charging for garden waste collection, some have been mentioned by others on here. IMO the additional charge is not too bad, Havering where my mother lives charges ?70 P/A which is a bit steep especially as they make no reduction for low income or elderly households. If you're worried about others using your brown bin and you have a back garden maybe keep it there. If you've already paid welldone for being proactive. Enjoy the summer

[TonyQuinn]

I've missed this completely.

Can someone just provide me a step-by-step explanation of what's going on and what I need to do carry on getting food waste and garden waste collected as now. Currently we have a big brown bin into which both garden and food waste are deposited.

Many thanks in advance.

[intexasatthe moment]

tony - https://www.southwark.gov.uk/bins-and-recycling/garden-waste-collection-subscriptions

[redpost]

Nice find which nails it on the head, because so few people will subscribe for the service then the running costs of the scheme will be shared by fewer subscribers. The running costs must be quite considerable: staff to answer queries, stickers, website, processing payments etc etc. Expect the cost to rise to ?60+ as charged by other boroughs and see even more people drop out and stick the waste at the bottom of the green bin.

It's simply more economic overall to provide this service funded from council tax (as may be mandatory in 2024 anyway) - just stick a quid or two on council tax.

The nasty side-effect is that recycling rates drop - london already has some of the worst rates in the country.

rollflick Wrote:

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> Defra, the bit of the government that covers waste

> policy, has just consulted on a new national

> approach to dealing with waste. Rather than

> explain Southwark's plans for garden waste, it

> raises fundamental questions about them: see

> pp26-31 in

> https://consult.defra.gov.uk/environmental-quality

> /consultation-on-consistency-in-household-and-busi

> n/

>

>

> First Defra suggests that "each household should

> be supplied with a fortnightly collection service

> for garden waste and that this service should be

> free of charge". Surely it's crazy for Southwark

> go through the hassle of introducing garden waste

> charges if the government is about to require it

> NOT to charge?!?

>

> "Given the dispersal of subscribers across an

> authority, collection services for charged

> collections may be more inefficient and represent

> a higher cost per household serviced than when

> there is high participation in a free service.

> This is because vehicles might have further to

> travel between pickups and collect less material

> overall. In addition, monitoring of garden waste

> capture rates across the various disposal and

> recycling routes suggests that following the

> introduction of charging, large proportions of

> garden waste may be entering the residual waste

> stream.

> ... Our estimates are that if every householder

> with a garden had access to a free garden waste

> collection service then overall household

> recycling rates would increase by 6% points

> compared to their current levels, reducing the

> risk of this material ending up in landfill."

> While that 6% figure is likely to be less in an

> inner London borough with many flats, there's

> still likely to be a net negative impact on the

> borough's recycling rate, which has been

> stagnating recently.

>

>

> Second on food waste: "We therefore propose to

> require that from 2023, all local authorities

> offer all households separate weekly food waste

> collection. Generally food waste should be

> presented separately from garden waste, so that

> the food waste can ideally be sent to anaerobic

> digestion" (AD)

>

> This is suggested because:

> "When collected with garden waste, food waste

> cannot be sent to AD and is sent to in-vessel

> composting. Unlike AD, in-vessel composting does

> not produce biofuel for energy generation and is a

> comparatively more expensive waste treatment

> option. On the other hand, mixed food and garden

> waste collections can be more convenient as it

> does not require separate arrangements for

> collection of food and garden waste...

> Technologies like in-vessel composting (IVC) and

> mechanical biological treatment (MBT) require

> mixed organic feedstocks with some amount of food

> waste to work optimally, and it is possible that

> separate collection of food waste may compromise

> the viability of these technologies....Where

> practicable, we would expect authorities that

> normally use IVC treatment for mixed food and

> garden waste to allow householders to present food

> waste separately and then to have this mixed with

> garden waste at kerbside, transfer station or

> treatment facility to meet long term contractual

> commitments to in-vessel composting facilities"

>

> Are separate collections really practical for the

> whole borough though?

> Southwark could simply collect food waste

> separately (e.g.flats in north of borough) from

> those areas where most homes have gardens, hence

> combined garden & food waste (e.g. ED and further

> south). Southwark is locked into a waste contract

> to 2033 with Veolia. The hassle and cost

> (financial and also environmental) of separate

> collection of garden & food waste, remixing the

> contents of our bins outside our front doors etc.

> is unlikely to outweigh the benefits, especially

> if food waste can be reduced through behaviour

> change campaigns. So surely worth waiting what the

> govt decides, rather than sending out lots of

> separate food caddies?

>

> All in all seems Southwark's waste & cleansing

> department has made an almighty mess! Who will

> clear things up?

[edcam]

Completely agree. This is not a progressive step.

redpost Wrote:

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

> Nice find which nails it on the head, because so

> few people will subscribe for the service then the

> running costs of the scheme will be shared by

> fewer subscribers. The running costs must be quite

> considerable: staff to answer queries, stickers,

> website, processing payments etc etc. Expect the

> cost to rise to ?60+ as charged by other boroughs

> and see even more people drop out and stick the

> waste at the bottom of the green bin.

>

> It's simply more economic overall to provide this

> service funded from council tax (as may be

> mandatory in 2024 anyway) - just stick a quid or

> two on council tax.

>

> The nasty side-effect is that recycling rates drop

> - london already has some of the worst rates in

> the country.

>

>

>

[ed_pete]

This is dreadful from Southwark on Instagram.

Advertising the Garden Waste service as ?only ?25? like it?s a supermarket bargain of the week. Firstly it?s only ?25 for the first year and secondly how many of those ?25?s have paid for this advert ?

 

[Jennys]

This ad also comes up many times on Facebook

[cella]

It's not so much the advert but the insistence that time is running out for residents when actually the whole service has not been rolled out effectively!

[first mate]

I'm not sure the 'service' has been rolled out at all.

[KidKruger]

Does this new ?service? mean that Southwark residents are supposed to NOT put the food waste in the green bin any longer?

If so, isn?t that basically saying that it is mandatory to get a brown bin sticker to enable food waste to be collected (legitimately) ?!

[Countrlass22]

Read Councillor reply earlier in thread kruher u have all wrong.

[cella]

Don't think you were ever supposed to put food waste in your green bin...

[anchor]

The staff at the Devon Street centre are expecting a huge increase in traffic going there with garden waste in the near future as users have let them know the charge is not popular. At the moment having garden waste collected (and paid for out of council tax) is simple, convenient and helps protect against flytipping. This extra traffic is a problem, and we will still have the same lorries going up the same streets that we have now picking up the stickered bins. Followed by more lorries to collect the food caddies.

[singalto]

KK you were supposed to put food waste into the brown bin but,under the new system, it will go in a caddie which you need to order if you don?t have one.

[RichH]

I received my brown bin sticker just now. Someone asked in one of the threads whether the sticker includes your name. I'm happy to report that it doesn't, it just has a subscription number, your address and a valid until date of 31st. March 2020.

[DulwichFox]

RichH Wrote:

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> I received my brown bin sticker just now. Someone

> asked in one of the threads whether the sticker

> includes your name. I'm happy to report that it

> doesn't, it just has a subscription number, your

> address and a valid until date of 31st. March

> 2020.

That's really good news Will keep an eye open for the Postie.

DulwichFox

[Penguin68]

Mine has arrived as well. My Veolia source (great binman) tells me that only 5000 of 25000 households have requested garden waste collection, mainly in the South of the Borough. (I.E. Borough of Camberwell as was). But then, that's where the larger private gardens are.

[DulwichFox]

Sticker has arrived

Fixed to Brown Bin..

BE CAREFUL It's very sticky. Mine went on a bit crooked but could not unstick it.

Time to do some Garden clearing.

Foxy

[DulwichFox]

So I now have a Brown Bin for my Garden Waste BUT where do I put my Food Waste ??

Foxy

[singalto]

You need to order a big food caddie. I still don?t have my sticker though.

[DulwichFox]

singalto Wrote:

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> You need to order a big food caddie. I still don?t

> have my sticker though.

I did order a Caddie when I paid back in May.

I'm hope you get your sticker soon. They probably are being sent out in batches.

Foxy

[seenbeen]

DulwichFox Wrote:

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

> Sticker has arrived

>

> Fixed to Brown Bin..

>

> BE CAREFUL It's very sticky. Mine went on a bit

> crooked but could not unstick it.

>

> Time to do some Garden clearing.

>

> Foxy

Thanks for the heads up re: the stickiness.

Got my sticker but no food waste caddy as yet

[elloriac]

I've received my sticker but still no big brown bin to attach it to. Anyone had a bin delivered yet?

[gumshoe]

Does anyone know how to order a new brown bin? There?s absolutely no way I can see to do it on the Southwark website and they (of course) don?t note any contact email addresses online!

(Our sticker has arrived (and is being paid for by the leaseholder for our building).We did have a brown bin outside but it went walkabouts two or so weeks ago. The only way I can see online to request a new bin is to register for the service again and weirdly, I don?t fancy this!)

EDIT: found the Environmental email address ([email protected]) and requested one this way.