Recycling (The new warning system)

[Tea girl]

I had a knock at my door the other day from a council worker who wanted to talk to me about my recycling habits. They explained about the new sysyem that is being introduced. My recycling/rubbish will be monitored, and a series of warnings will be allocated before a fine is issued if I am found not to be recycling my glass,card, paper and plastic bottles. At the moment I have one blue box (my bag has gone missing) This gets filled in a few days and the collection people seem reluctant to touch any other bag/box that I put out. I really want to improve my recycling, but think that a little more support and encouragement from the Council could go a long way!

[SeanMacGabhann]

TG

I think many of us on here would agree. There seems to be a disconnect between what the council's targets are, what we want to achieve (similar) and how they set about achieving the aims

I have no doubt that an element of stick is required but the carrot is looking pretty mangy at the moment

[Tea girl]

A new bag would be a carrot at the moment, I'm not asking for much!

[Tom]

You can call the council and request extra blue boxes / bags. We run 2x bags for paper / plastic and 2x boxes for the wine bottles (we like a drink...!)

We also do our own runs to peckham rye recycling centre as i prefer to do it myself at the weekend (rather than the slops in the box pouring down the front of my suit during the week) - so have called the council who have made a note of this on their list against our house.

No more hassle + no more threats of fines.

easy

[ruffers]

This is in Southwark presumably , are we supposed to recycle plastic bottles? What do they go in?

[Tea girl]

Just had to double check this myself, see the info at the link below:

http://www.southwark.gov.uk/YourServices/environment/RecyclingPages/bluebox.html

There are no excuses for us now!

[Mogs]

I do runs to the peckham dump at the weekends too. Perhaps if I post here when I'm going down next I could take other peoples recycling.

[ed_pete]

Plastic bottles and plastic containers (the type mainly used by supermarkets for packaging food) can be put in your blue box. Check the Southwark page referred to by Tea Girl, extra boxes/bags can be ordered there.

[Tea girl]

Thanks for the offer Mogs, but have just been to the Southwark site to request another box and bag to get myself organised. This should make things more manageable.

TG;-)

[boomerang]

I am very much in favour of recycling - and am happy the council now does this - however, it needs improving!

A blue bag is not enough for the amount of paper I end up recycling - (I get a huge number of junk mail and read too many papers - and there are 5 adults in our large semi -detached household) - the same goes for that blue box - just aint big enough.... and yet we have a large brown wheelie bin that hardly gets used.

I'd rather have a large green wheelie bin (our existing ones) adding a divider in the middle one half for my plastics/cans/bottles et al the other half for paper.... and the council distributing black bins for all other rubbish.

They'd have to redivide their trucks to do this and just tip the bins over like they to the other rubbish. At the moment the guys rummage and separate stuff....

That?s my two pennies!! Is there any one from the council reading this??

[Ant]

I bet most of the stuff they collect from the blue boxes isn't properly sorted and ends up in landfill anyway. Not that they'll care what happens to the stuff as long as they meet their targets.

(In a cynical mood tonight.)

[Mark]

I printed a sticker that said:

No junk mail please

put it on the letter box and bingo, we get about 1 piece of junk mail a month.

[Ganapati]

I completely agree--we got the same visit. So this week, I put out all of my cardboard boxes in a neat pile. Did they take it? NO. Why? Because I hadn't cut the boxes down to fit into the blue bags. Bollox!

[louisiana]

I have had to get around 7 replacement bags over the last couple of years, and have always had a battle royal to maintain my two bags ("but why do you need two??"). Bin men generally leave them either in the roadway, or some way down the road, when they could as easily drop them into the garden. I've been on to the council a few times about this. They take the point, but seemingly are powerless to do much.

I also have a major problem with a neighbour dumping stuff into my bins. His unsocial visitors just chuck anything in there (mainly cans and bottles) and he dumps entire bags of stuff. I scrawled all over my containers in large print permanent marker. I moved my bins. But it makes no difference. I wouldn't mind (there's plenty of room - I barely use 10% of the bin space) but what they dump is often recyclable and then I get the blame (warning stickers on bins). If he doesn't buck up, I'm getting onto his freeholder.

[Clazza]

I must be lucky ordered 2 bags & a box over the internet came next day. Seperate plastic & glass with the separator in blue box. nice & easy. they leave the bags in the boxes back where I leave them and took the large box I could not fold down. So I think they are doing a great job.

[*Bob*]

You shouldn't refuse junk mail.

If I hadn't been receiving junk mail last year, I'd never have won ?46,000,000 in the 'Spanish Lottery'.

You can have as many blue boxes and paper bags as you like.

[snowboarder]

As Louisiana says - we get loads of random stuff dumped not only in our bin but yesterday a large clear bin bag full of rubbish just appeared outside of our house. So I'm going get fined for this am I? Great. Blue bag always goes missing - am on about my third. I found one last week in the middle of the street so am currently using that one.

Grr.

[Asset]

You can opt out of receiving junk mail if you go to mail preferencing.

I did it last year and it has massively reduced the amount of junk I get through the post. I also went for the phone preferencing which stops the unwanted double glazing sellers calling at 8pm.

I recommend it.

I think Southwark actually do a great job with recycling and the guys that collect from me have no objections to my plastic and cans being in a blue bag and not in the blue box (usually no room in there as filled with wine bottles).

[Brendan]

Am I the only one who is uncomfortable with the idea of the council being given another power to fine people for a transgression of rules which it has complete carte blanche over? Especially when inevitably these rules will end up being enforced in part by a private contractor who, surprise, surprise, will have targets to meet.

I?m all for recycling and increasing the amount that we do it but the free thinking dissident in me resents some authority flexing its muscles over an issue like this, especially when their motives are political and financial rather than moral.

(I?m normally a bit more diplomatic about things but I?m hungover and tired this morning and not happy about being at work)

[louisiana]

*Bob* Wrote:

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

>

> You can have as many blue boxes and paper bags as

> you like.

Of course. But your bags go missing one week, you call up to ask for two replacements and get the third degree, you wait up to four weeks for replacements, then they only deliver one replacement so you go through the whole thing again... And by that stage you have accumulated *a lot* of paper (or I have). Where do you put it? After a number of bag losses and waits for replacements, I now have an entire full-sized chest outside my front door stuffed to the gunnels with paper that I'm trying to get rid of. More than a cubic metre I reckon. As others have said, they won't take it away unless it's in a blue bag. And if you're away on a Monday (I'm frequently away on business) and leave the bags and boxes *out* and are unable to run outside to recover them immediately, the whole thing starts from square one again (bag goes missing).

I don't know for sure what happens to all these blue bags that go missing, but I suspect it's a little like socks :-S, or like number plates. With number plates, now people can't get them made, they nick them from other cars (number plate theft has rocketed). With bags and boxes, people don't bother getting them from the council, they take them from other people in their street. I believe my rogue neighbour has never, ever put a blue bag out since the scheme started, but is using all the bags he picks up for household storage (judging by the state his garden gets into, he's OCD - he only ever clears when the council pays him a visit threatening commercial third party clearance after all the neighbours write complaint letters).

There's now talk of marking both number plates and council waste containers with RFID technology...

[snorky]

thyese dont it in Holland fo a long time and it works - but then then again, Holland is not like the mena streets of SE22 is it ?

All you have to do to cut don your bag filling is to stop buying the henious and simpering Guardian on a saturday - apart from the Guide that is

[louisiana]

It would help if they collected regularly. Our collection day is a Monday, and then they don't collect: 2 bank holidays last month, one the one before. Occasionally they turn up later in the week (when you've given up hope and have taken all the boxes and bags back in), usually they don't. A cursory look down the street on a Monday morning reveals far fewer boxes and bags out than a year ago, and I think a lot of people are just not sure any more if it's all going to get picked up.

[Asset]

There are recycling facilites fairly widely available - if your paper is stacking up you could always pop it out to one yourself maybe.

I must be lucky - I've still got the original blue bag I was given a few years ago!

[Tom]

For large unwwanted items, like piles of cardboard boxes, fridges, in-laws, etc just call the council, they will quote you a day when they will collect, the eve before put it all out by the bins and hey presto - its all gone....

You lot are a bunch of numpties sometimes.

Do you normally have to ask how to wipe your arses too?

[snorky]

Tip -if you do find that your bins are overlowing, bag up a load of rubbish in a thick bag and leave it outside with one of those bogus " please give to charity/ help people in Eastern Europe " leaflets attached to it( as they tell you to ).

these wonderful people will actually come and collect you shiete and whisk it off, no questions asked. Fetid nappies seem to be especially apprciated by them