Brown bin collection - Council starting to charge?

[herne hilly]

I think there are a few things to note here:

1. Southwark council tax did increase quite a bit this year,between bands A-H it was anything from ?40 - ?115 increase.

So to be asked to stump up an additional ?25 makes it hard to swallow.

2. I only have front garden beds but I am over shadowed by numerous london plane trees on the pavement and come autumn, i used to fill up a few brown bins just in leaves, that fall into my garden. So I don't need the bins for my own use, i'm not prepared to pay for a bin to dispose of council leaves. is it legal to sweep them back into the pavement ;-) ?

3. The fact thats its one bin only is quite annoying if you do a lot of pruning, one bin can fill fast, so you'll have to wait to fill one bin each week.

4. There is the option of taking it to the old kent road dump - which is probably the option I will take, as it remains free .....for now !

On the council website, it says they will be collecting the brown bins a few weeks after June.

[Peckhamgatecrasher]

What's to stop unscrupulous peeps filling someone else's brown bin? Will Southwark provide locks?

Why did the Council send us all letters telling us we will be getting further letters?

[cella]

Sounds like nobody is clear about where the food waste goes so hopefully we will be notified at some point.

[herne hilly]

https://www.southwark.gov.uk/bins-and-recycling/garden-waste-collection-subscriptions?chapter=2

FAQ from the website, details about food waste.

[Penguin68]

For completeness - I have also posted the message below on James Cash's councillor thread, as I would like a local councilor's opinion on this:-

I have now had a chance of reading full details of the council's planned garden waste scheme. It appears that in future even for those paying the ?30 annual fee only a single brown bin of garden waste will be collected weekly. Any additional waste (in paid-for paper sacks) will have to be collected only by subsequent special arrangement with the council. My garden (and I'm not alone in this) gets 'blitzed' on a monthly basis March-December - and at some times - e.g. autumn - I generate far more green waste in such a blitz than I can reasonably compost ( most of my garden would become a compost heap). In the past I have had as many as 10 paper bags filled in addition to my brown bin. At the moment all the waste is collected at once, meaning that there is no need for an additional collection (with the costs that that entails). If residents are to either pay for sacks and/ or brown bin collection for garden waste surely the most efficient method of collection is to collect once a week from streets taking everything (which will have been paid for one way or another) at once. Otherwise my only conclusion is that the council is interested in reducing organic recycling - or encouraging people to e.g. pave or landscape more of their gardens away. Neither seem to me to be a 'green' approach.

We are being asked to pay for a service which was previously covered by Council Tax, and in paying for it, it is also being reduced. Taking away with one hand and then taking away with the other. And you wonder why we are cynical about politicians local and national?

[73jem]

Thank you for setting out this problem much more clearly than I did a few posts ago. I also occasionally have too much for my brown bin and add in a paper sack or two.

It would be ridiculous, and bad economics, to send for a special collection just for the occasional sack, and these surely should be collected with the general brown bin collection as one will have paid for the paper sacks anyway.

[gumshoe]

I requested a new brown bin at the weekend (we share ours with neighbours and as much as I?m unhappy with the charge and Southwark?s ludicrous reasoning behind it, I still want to continue green recycling) - turns out they won?t be supplying anymore until the charge is introduced.

[Dulwich Born And Bred]

What about our Christmas trees? Will we have to pay for that to be taken away?

[cella]

From the Southwark site it seems that the good waste bags continue to go into the big brown bins we already have. Thus surely means that the bin men have to look inside each bin to check which they don't have to now. Presumably if you don't subscribe but for whatever reason there is garden waste in there too none if it gets taken.

[trinidad]

would you get a refund if there is a missed collection by veolia?

[singalto]

Celia, as far as I understand, brown bins which have not been paid for will be removed. As the lorry will still have to drive up and down all roads emptying the brown bins and the food caddies, I struggle to see how it will save money.

[Penguin68]

I requested a new brown bin at the weekend (we share ours with neighbours and as much as I?m unhappy with the charge and Southwark?s ludicrous reasoning behind it, I still want to continue green recycling) - turns out they won?t be supplying anymore until the charge is introduced.

Loathe as I am to giving any credit to Tooley St., but it does make sense to hold up issuing 'new' brown bins until they have gone through the exercise of collecting lots of old ones (they assume) which they can then re-issue - that at least is a reasonable approach to cost saving.

[Penguin68]

As the lorry will still have to drive up and down all roads emptying the brown bins and the food caddies, I struggle to see how it will save money.

I don't think this is being prayed-in-aid as a cost saving exercise as such, but as a way of introducing charges to the (minority) of residents in Southwark with gardens. I have already argued that this will in fact probably lose money in the first year of operation (when the costs of large bin recovery and small bin issue are taken into account) and will have a minimal impact (taking account increased admin costs and the costs of sending out special bin lorries to collect paper sacks) going forward - at least at the initial ?30 p/a charge. [NB the large brown bins will originally have been costed in over their expected life-times - now to be substantially reduced by this early recovery].

I would however argue that this action (and others) are creating an environment when price hikes outside the normal community charge setting round (and outwith the controls and price cap on increasing community charges) will be only too possible.

[nxjen]

The government cuts are forcing even the most Labour of councils to behave like Tories.

[Penguin68]

The government cuts are forcing even the most Labour of councils to behave like Tories.

By stinging 'the rich'? - I think you'll find that's always been Labour policy - I think I recall the late and very much lamented Dennis Healey making reference to 'pips squeaking' - if memory serves.

https://wordhistories.net/2017/09/10/until-pips-squeak-origin/

https://socialistworker.co.uk/art/44473/Five+reasons+to+squeeze+the+rich+until+the+pips+squeak

[dresswaves]

cella Wrote:

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

> From the Southwark site it seems that the good

> waste bags continue to go into the big brown bins

> we already have. Thus surely means that the bin

> men have to look inside each bin to check which

> they don't have to now. Presumably if you don't

> subscribe but for whatever reason there is garden

> waste in there too none if it gets taken.

In the FAQ it clearly says that from 1st June food & garden waste must be separated. Food waste goes in the brown caddy. If you don?t already have one they can be ordered & a kitchen caddy will also be supplied.

https://www.southwark.gov.uk/bins-and-recycling/garden-waste-collection-subscriptions?chapter=2

[Penguin68]

If you don?t already have one they can be ordered & a kitchen caddy will also be supplied.

This is, of course, yet another costly policy insanity. Most people with brown bins already have kitchen caddies - it will be the kerb-side caddy they mainly don't have. Logistics would suggest that it would be far cheaper to deliver a kerb-side caddy to everyone who now has a large brown bin - and to collect at the same time those bins which are no longer required for garden waste. The costs of administering an 'individual order' scheme far outweigh the cost of inadvertently supplying an additional kerb-side caddy to someone who already has one with their large garden waste bin, particularly when the process will give most people a kitchen caddy they don't need (as they will already have one).

This process only makes sense after the big 'change-over' when new residents come in requiring new services - when issuing the two food caddies together would make sense.

If you are going to make a huge change having somebody (anybody) who understands process flow and costs would seem a first port of call. But not for the boys in Tooley St., evidently.

[kristymac1]

I have just posted the following on James McCash's Councillor thread:

James,

In relation to the upcoming changes to collection of garden/food waste please can you confirm whether Southwark Council combines garden waste and food waste once collected? (either at the curb side or back at the depot)

If so, it seems utterly ludicrous that when I choose to subscribe to the ?30/year brown bin collection that I will not be able to put food waste in there as well as garden waste (which is the system now), instead I will have to have ANOTHER plastic bin in my front garden just for food waste!

If the two compostable components are not combined at the curb side - does this really mean that Southwark will have 2 collection lorries attending the same property every week for the collection of compostable waste?

I am reasonably happy to pay the ?30/year charge for brown bin collection - I am certainly not happy at the seemingly ill-thought through process and a complete waste of resources providing additional food waste bins and separate lorry collections - seriously, this is proper 'back of a fag packet' stuff and is an embarrassingly obvious waste of much needed Council resources.

[Penguin68]

If the two compostable components are not combined at the curb side - does this really mean that Southwark will have 2 collection lorries attending the same property every week for the collection of compostable waste?

Reading between the lines, I suspect that the garden waste collection frequency will at some time drop from weekly to some longer period, and may even be withdrawn in the winter months. The Veolia people on brown bins (the actual collection guys) certainly believe at the moment that they will be making a joint collection of food and garden waste together, but that may change.

The one watchword I will not go for is 'trust the council to get it right.' The evidence is that they won't (based on their wholly flawed logistics so far).

The actual process they should have followed is (1) get people to sign-up, or not, for garden waste collection - (2) issue bin stickers (for the large bins remaining) and (3) automatically supply kerb side caddies to all - (4) Then, and only then, change the collection process and (5) then collect unneeded large brown bins (to make sure no one is left without an organic waste collection method. The chances of them getting this sequence right is, frankly, minimal, based on their current logistics approach.

There will be many (the elderly, the disengaged) who, despite the one letter so far received will find ali this change as a shock and surprise. There is no evidence that anything has been factored in for this.

Which will, as I and others have indicated, actually incur additional and unnecessary cost to add to the council's money problems before any revenues will even kick-in. I suspect that they hope that Veolia will be forced to pick up an additional cost burden on all this - but even that company, prepared, to get the contract, to put up with a lot, may baulk at bailing Tooley St. out.

[snoopy17]

Can uou pay cash for this service?

[singalto]

One of the brown bin collection guys said the new system would cause huge problems and he thought that the number of lorries would be cut due to ?a drop in usage?. I?m guessing the implication is job cuts.

[Penguin68]

Although if all the people who use the garden waste collection service continue, or a good number of them, the same work levels will operate.

[DulwichFox]

So people unable to get rid of garden waste will Pave over their back yards or deck them.

There will be less plants and flowers which will affect our wild life, Birds, Butterflies Bees and insects.

Drainage will be badly affected too.

[Penguin68]

Can uou pay cash for this service?

I imagine you can buy the paper sacks for cash from an outlet, but the council suggests you can only pay for the brown bin service via credit (and I suppose debit) card, although they are examining a direct debit option for the future.

[cella]

Ah, so the answer to the food waste is we put the bags in the tiny brown caddies and our large brown bins are taken away if we don't subscribe. Could not see that spelt out anywhere.