Bag's Rants

Waste Management A Wasted Opportunity?

Now I may be an old fart but I remember when the council services seemed to run without too many problems. Rates were not at the level they are now by a long way and they included water rates in there as well. Now we have split them out and both have shot up in cost and, in the councils case, a much reduced service as well. The say council rates alone have gone up 120+% in a decade. Legalised robbery.

In the waste disposal service I remember when they went from the old dustbins to the new wheelie bins. The only real impact for most was that they refused to collect the bins from your house but instead forced us to move the new bins out the front where, of course, we then had rules about that as well. Such as bins went out on the day of collection and not the night before or you got fined. For a 7:30 pickup as it is in my street that rule was quickly ignored but I understand some have been fined for it but not in our area. For most people putting bins out is not a big problem but what if you are away overnight. This isn't too much of a problem for me because I usually make alternative arrangements but for some it is.

Then we moved on to recycling. We are into our third year this year and I personally think it is a good idea as I used to recycle before it was compulsory. When the council said they were doing it my heart sank. Only because Government can't do anything right. They trialed it in our area so we got it over two years ago. We now have two plastic boxes, with lids for newspaper and cardboard waste, plastic sacks for tins, bottles and general plastics and a smaller wheelie bin for garden waste. Also as it is sold on as 'high quality' waste they want us to remove the paper labels and wash the tins, bottles and general plastics, again, under penalty of a very hefty fine. Err. I don't think so. I hate washing up and I am not putting tins in my dishwasher. Luckily a lot of tins now come preprinted on the tin itself. But those that don't have the label on. Perhaps when I am on a warning and the next time I am caught I get a fine I'll look at alternatives. They pick up the main waste one week and the recycling the next. That means I store my waste for up to a fortnight. Not including holiday times which also causes delays. My bins and boxes are usually full at the end of a fortnight. Now all the real local recycling centres are closed so if I want to take my own I have to travel several miles to what is called 'Your Local Recycling Centre' which also has council closing times. So 07:00 or 21:00 is out. And another thing that causes problems is the list of what can be recycled keeps changing it has been changed twice since it started and I can't recycle some things that were OK in the pre-council scheme. I just ignore the leaflets now and stick them straight in the newspaper recycling. Is it not ironic that a recycling scheme generates so much paper which is compulsory reading at every home. I just don't have the inclination so I don't bother.

Here is the part that made me write this. On Tuesday, (I've been trying to post this article since then), I went outside into my back yard and discovered that there were cardboard boxes all over the place. It appears that the lid had popped off my plastic box for the cardboard recycling. Not a big surprise because it was well and truly packed and compressed because no recycling has been picked up this year at all. So the biggest waste time of the year went without a recycling pickup. And let's face it most of the stuff at Xmas is probably boxes and wrapping. I've utilised cardboard boxes that Xmas presents came in as recycling boxes. Unfortunately, they are now soaked and near collapse so I'm hoping they are picked up when they come round for recycling, for the first time this year, later this week. I phoned the council and they said that 'Normal service has been resumed.' Which I took to mean 'Sod Off. You can wait till it's your proper turn.'

Finally, since the recycling was brought in there seems to be a lot more waste floating around our street. The whole area looks dirtier. It's usually bit of paper, crisp bags, plastic bottles or small cardboard boxes. I think it's down to two things. When the collectors open a box to put it in the lorry if something pops out because it is under pressure or the wind catches it they just leave it and when we put these boxes out ourselves they sometimes pop open and some gets blown away. My front garden usually has a few of these items trapped in among the bushes. I've got to the stage now where I couldn't care less and I just remove them from the bushes and throw them back into the street. Saves me trekking to the back to put it in the correct receptacle. You can call me apathetic, I just can't be bothered. I'm happy to moan and stir things up but can't be bothered to get active about it.

My conclusion is that the council, being forced by the EU to start recycling, decided to make some money out of it and limit their work and make us all work for them. This forced them to limit their ability to sort the items and rely on us. Because we are too lazy and/or stupid to sort out different types of plastic they took the easy route and chose the most profitable that could easily be sorted. This scheme could be so much more and if properly implemented then people, like me who put myself out on my own, would buy into it.

Government in action. More legislation, more cost and less service and satisfaction. A statement of the time.

posted by Bag @ 4:41 pm