Bin collection

We have already created "the time bomb" for our grandchildren . Is it just me that finds this all a bit hypocritical? That after a lifetime of throwing everything into landfill those of us who did exactly that should be the recycle /anti waste preachers . We had a perfectly good waste plant in our town . Closed down a few years ago now and replaced by what? A green bin or two ?

Landfill is really a dreadful antiquated system and a time bomb - for our granchildren.

Of course the old incinerators were crude and didn't have the necessary filters to avoid pollution. Modern ones, linked to heating system for communities or factories nearby is really the way to go. Yes, it will be expensive at first- but what on earth is the alternative???

We recycle to the max- but then what can't be recycled doesn't really worry me as I know it will be incinerated in a modern and efficient, non polluting way and provide energy. Win, win and more win.

If anyone puts out too many bags for landfill and isn't botheri g to recycle, the Council is supposed to come round and re-educate them. However, one of our neighbours doesn't recycle and I don't think he has been re-educated yet!
We pay extra for garden waste, bags which cost so much per annum and you pay per bag.

Auntieflo is your food waste only collected every three weeks?

Our recyclable waste is collected every week, the general waste every two weeks, but we have barely hakf a bagful of that.

I don't have any children to educate any longer, but I haven't asked for a discount on my council tax!

From what I can find out ( it is all very secretive) it was planned in 2014. My problem is not with the modernisation itself but the unnecessary waste of money on expensive furniture, light fittings, carpets etc when the existing ones were absolutely fine . Infact our little community centre bid for the "old" chairs and they are brand new. I am also suspicious of the reasons for trying to withhold the final costs which must mean it is hugely over budget or they would be bragging that the work was completed on target. I have no idea what state of the art tea and coffee making machines are?( wording extracted from our local newspaper) I can only assume they are expensive and over the top but hey in our council nothing is too good for the pen pushers . Bless them they even get free Pilates sessions ( my Pilates teacher takes them) 3 times a week. All courtesy of the council tax payers !

Is the town hall a listed building? If so, then the council may have found itself caught between a rock and a hard place as they will have been legally required to update it but also to a prescribed standard.

What's a state of the art coffee making machine btw? Not being sarky...just wondering what new way they've discovered to make undrinkable tea and coffee

When was it planned, gillybob?
If it was a few years ago, it would cost more to cancel it.
Has your council sold off any buildings to pay for it? That's what's happening in Durham.

Many of the essential services in our town have been cut to the bone or stopped, however the town hall is nearing the end of a massive modernization program which includes new central heating, new windows, desks, chairs, chandeliers, cafeteria, reception, partitioning, state of the art tea and coffee making machines .....etc it was estimated at the outset that this would cost in the region of £1.2 million however recent requests for a more up to date figure the tax payers alliance have been refused by the council on the grounds that the leader of the (Labour) council does not think the disclosure is in the public interest. I mean when it comes to bin collections or new chandeliers surely it's a no brainer. Chandeliers every time .

In the 1970s we3 lived in a town that had a district heating system. It was an excellent way to use up rubbish. Then the residents for some reason decided they didn't want to share the pipes and system with others. It coincided with a change from Labour to Tory MP.

problems related to rubbish disposal and fly tipping are international - so it doesn't matter where TriciaF lives. It happens in France, and yes, it even happens in Switzerland (but not to such an extent as in the UK thank goodness).

BTW all refuse is incinerated here, not landfill. The energy produced with the burning is used to heat a whole village near our local incineration plant.

Don't think TriciaF lives in the UK.

Brilliant, Tricia.
You do know about www.fixmystreet.com where you can report flytipping?

Where we live there's still some 'flytipping'going on.
In one village near us the Mayor checked the rubbish, found some evidence of address, and had the rubbish dumped back on the owner's garden!

What are you doing putting stuff in other people's bins?

What also bugs me is that even within a few miles and in the same county there are different coloured bins and different rules for what goes in them. Hence if we visit even locally I'm always having to check what goes in which bin of course woe betide if the wrong thing is binned. It's ludicrous! We're even told to bring the bins in again before midday after collection - easy when you're at work: not!!!

There is outrage in my village this morning! After previous warning tags about wrong items in recycling, this week they have refused to empty all bins with any inappropriate contents. Out of a row of 5 bins in my terrace, only mine was emptied (halo emoticon). On my walk around the village I was amazed at the number of new TV boxes put out! However, as most of them contained polystyrene packing they remain strewn over the verges. I always cut up large boxes with the bread knife so that they fit in the bin. Polystyrene and bubble plastic go for land fill. I hope this action will get the message across to the offenders!

We are starting a new bin collection timetable too. Landfill and recycling bins are each going to be collected every three weeks instead of fortnightly. This is fine, except that on some weeks, both are supposed to be emptied the same day, which would seem to suggest that the council will need more lorries and more employees for rubbish collection, because how else are they going to do a double load in one day?

Glass bottles and jars is four weekly though ours only needs emptied about three times a year, and the food composting bins are emptied weekly.

Goldengirl, austerity is a choice. All the government has to do is collect all the taxes owed to it, and there would be no austerity.

But Ana if there were communal bins you wouldn't have to take your heavy wheelie bins up a flight of steps. You could just take a small amount every time you go out.

Our council is having a 'consultation' on bin collections viz: either pay £70 per annum or the service stops!!! Our waste facility is a car ride away with limited opening hours so there are long queues now down the dual carriageway - what it would be like should this dictat come to pass..... Not everyone has a car - or space in their vehicle to carry rubbish and what about the food waste we're meant to put in out recycling bin? Especially in the summer? And why should we pay when our council has just had a brand new Council Chamber at our expense. Glitz is OK if there are plenty of funds but in these days of 'austerity' surely the basics should come first

I agree vq and dj. I think it's good if bins are collected less frequently as it has been shown to encourage recycling. As a society we throw away too much stuff and it all has to go into landfill, or be incinerated, (which people petitioned against here). Council can't win.

Well said, vampire. Time someone stood up for councils.
Newcastle are going to cut workers pay next year.
Not only has the government cut the amount of money they give to councils, but they have given them more responsibility, so they have to spread it out even thinner.

The councils have massive financial problems thanks to this and the last government. By 2020 they will have to survive on half the money they had in 2010.

Imagine that in 2010 you had an income of £20000 per year but by 2020 it's been reduced to £10000 per year. How would you manage on half the income you had 10 years previously? This is what the councils are having to contend with. So they cut the stuff that didn't hurt first. Then they cut the stuff that niggled but we could get by with. Now they have no choice but to cut things that we use regularly. It comes down to straight but unpopular decisions. Something has to be cut social care, libraries, education, parks and leisure, bin collections ..you name the council service. Money has be saved because it just isn't there.

So watch your rubbish. By unpackaged stuff when possible. Recycle, recycle and recycle some more. Crush cans etc. so they take up less space in the bins. And remember if they don't save money on the bins that something else will have to be cut.

We live in the country and have a fortnightly collection, blue bin and black box one week, green bin the next. It works pretty well by and large. We have a compost heap for kitchen waste which we use for the runner bean trench, and a bonfire for garden rubbish.

There has been a lot in the local paper recently about the increase in the volume of waste brought to the bins etc. Is it the same in the UK? Maybe granjura's system of pay by weight might have to be introduced.
Certainly we seem to have more cartons and packaging material than ever. We live in the country, so a tour by the 'binmen' would take ages. When we first came to this house we kept digging up buried rubbish from the garden, once even found a vacuum cleaner!