Forum Topic

Recycling Collections This Morning - livid!!!

This morning, I was woken at 0645 to the sound of the recycling lorries crashing around outside and the sound of smashing bottles, crates being thrown onto concrete and operatives not giving a hoot that it may be a tad early. Not a great start to the day!!I'm just about to go onto the Ealing website to see if I can find some info about the acceptable start times, but surely, this is not right ? Anyone have thoughts / experiences with this ?

Bud Richards ● 4205d30 Comments

So what's new?  There has always been rubbish communication!And who do you expect will pay for any new communication?  The word 'liaise' between Enterprise and Ealing Council doesn't seem to appear to be in their contract so one wonders if any mention was ever made of these long projected works in Southall.  Interesting too, because starting in the summer holidays you would expect there to be fewer collections.There is no question that taking every advantage of the recycling and waste service that the Council offers is the best value for money.  Taking the food waste out and putting it in the lockable food waste bin makes such a difference.  Some people spray their black sacks.  I prefer to be able to use an ordinary sized bin tied to the boundary wall to safeguard it overnight until collected in the morning.  Only the less there is - the easier it is to deal with.

Philippa Bond ● 4199d

take responsibility for the rubbish communication for not disseminating an update to the tax payerThank you Ben, that is exactly the point here, communication is key.

Debbie Edwards ● 4199d

My black bag was collected today at 6.34am. I spoke to the driver. He explained that they had been told TO START picking up black bags from 6am due to the road closures at Southall Broadway and Popes Lane. According to him, it has meant that they have been forced to start earlier to finish the rounds. Who told Enterprise to tell the drivers? Enterprise themselves or the council? I don't know.The early collections will continue until the works are fully completed. "Would I rather my black bag was collected at 6am or 6pm?" he said. Fair point. He is just as peeved off that residents are having a go at him, as we are at not being told the reason behind it.Someone needs to take responsibility for the rubbish communication for not disseminating an update to the tax payer! The next step is to contact the council to ensure that steps are taken to let us all know, or be getting onto Enterprise.

Ben Owen ● 4199d

I wonder what would happen if the driver had an accident before 7 am would he be covered by insurance

Jack Ryan ● 4199d

Well that is what you say you are doing now aren't you?As Phil has said you can complain about the time they are arriving.  There are foxes on all our streets, we see them every night and they used to wake us up emptying the black bags - but they were only interested in the ones with food - or unrinsed food packaging which can now be recycled - in them.If anybody is repeatedly leaving their bags out too early you should complain about those too.What on earth would you do if you had to go away for a week and missed the collection?

Philippa Bond ● 4199d

No it isn't.  As I've already explained, with neighbours who are only interested in something if they can drink it or bet on it, Foxy comes a sniffing, opens each and every bag.The service is advertised as starting at 7AM, that indicates the bin lorry will arrive after 7AM, not 45 minutes earlier.What happens in other councils is not my concern, it is what happens (or not) in Ealing that is being discussed.BTW The easy life would be to put everything in a sack.I'm not the OP, just pointed out that they arrived early last week too.

Debbie Edwards ● 4199d

But Debbie IT IS.Foxes are interested in FOOD so using the food waste bin practically always eliminates the problem.  IF you have nappies in the black bag then you might also have a problem but using an ordinary sized dustbin to protect the bag overnight would also solve the problem.  The bags of split open rubbish I've walked through in the street have been filled with food.For an easy life and to keep your blood pressure down it is worthwhile taking advantage of and using all the recycling facilities that the Council provides you with for your Council Tax.BTW Quite a few Councils now have mandatory recycling and others are opting for a three-weekly collection of residual waste.

Philippa Bond ● 4199d

This isn't a question of if I separate anything for recycling Philippa, this is a question of a service that is paid for and hasn't been delivered.  Again to use the train analogy, if you had bought a ticket for a train that was advertised to depart at 7AM, you wouldn't be best pleased to discover it had actually left at 6AM and no-one told you.  If there have been changes then we need to know, communication is key here.

Debbie Edwards ● 4199d

Are you separating anything for recycling Debbie?

Philippa Bond ● 4200d

Thanks Phil, I was ready for them this week and they took away three bags.My neighbours appear to be a sandwich short of a picnic.

Debbie Edwards ● 4200d

Debbie,The best thing to do is to complain.  020 8825 6000.  They will most likely talk to the crew and it should sort itself out.  Call it in as a missed collection and tell them what happened.  Maybe get a couple of your neighbours to complain too.

Phil Taylor ● 4200d

If we've paid for a weekly service, we should expect a weekly service?Its not "painful", but if bags are put out the night before, Foxy goes scavenging and the contents strewn over the road which does create a bigger problem.  We're told they start at 7, but really they start earlier.As the start time seems to have changed now, maybe the routes have too?

Debbie Edwards ● 4200d

Just because it is a weekly collection doesn't mean you have to put all your recycling out each week.  Initially we were told only to put it out when we had a boxful.  So if there are only a couple of things I don't bother with the box. Then other things were added eg liquid food and drink cartons, bagged batteries and cardboard.  Then plastics (first in another green box) then a bag and a food waste bin were added.For me it is a priority to get rid of any food waste although it isn't dire if I miss a week or two. I presumed I was near the end of a round because they used to smash up the glass as there wasn't enough room in the compartment/s.  I have also had to have food waste collected by a separate vehicle presumably because the food compartment was full.  There used to be a map of the routes on the LBE website (or maybe it came with a change in collection).I used to work overlooking the street so could see what was going on.You could possibly make the situation less painful for yourself by altering what you do.  The less waste you make the easier it is to deal with.  There is always a bigger picture.

Philippa Bond ● 4200d

Do you put it out every week? - YesAre you at the start of their collection round? - Er, I am told to put the sack out by 7AM, how the truck gets there isn't really my concern.  Do you know the route the rubbish truck takes from depot to your home?

Debbie Edwards ● 4200d

I missed the first part of this because like everybody I have other things to do...  but I may yet sign up for a tour.http://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/visitmuseum/Plan_your_visit/exhibitions/rubbish_collection.aspx

Philippa Bond ● 4200d

Do you put it out every week?I tend to put the locked food waste bin out the night before because it is the one thing which I really prefer to have collected weekly. I've only once had trouble when I placed it too near to the edge of a step and it had been tipped off and spilt by the morning.  Only once in all the years the system has been going.  Imagine if it was a fortnightly collection and you missed it!I fill the green box the night before if I think it is worth putting out and it sits on a top step.  I move it down in the morning (although they have been known to take it down - or rather the ball of squashed aluminium trays/cereal packet full of card out of it themselves).  The plastics bag I sometimes leave just inside until first thing and then put it out but I haven't had problems when I've put it out the night before.  (I just don't like bringing a wet bag back inside.) I don't do this every week either.There isn't enough rubbish for a black sack.  The dustbin sits at the boundary but I don't put a black sack in it until there is enough to make it worthwhile.  So much of our waste is now recyclable kerbside.  And plastic bags (not carriers because I hardly ever have any) go to a supermarket recycling bin.  http://www.therubbishdiet.org.uk/welcome-to-the-rubbish-diet/However I don't remember ever having a 6.45 collection.  Are you at the start of their collection round?

Philippa Bond ● 4200d

The point is we are told to put the bags out by 7AM, that's no good if they have been and gone by 7AM.  You wouldn't get on the 7AM train at 6, would you?

Debbie Edwards ● 4200d

We don't mind early collections - the roads aren't as busy in the early mornings - its the mess they sometimes make that's annoying.

Gerry Tan ● 4200d

Bags collected at 6.15 this week.Recycling at 6.40.Still, it shows they are keen.

Debbie Edwards ● 4200d

I recently remonstrated with them when I found them throwing the boxes and bins about.  Apparently WE show no respect for them by not keeping our bins and boxes clean.  It seems to me to be six of one and half a dozen of the other.  I know there are some filthy smelly boxes (and some of us could do more to make sure they weren't as bad - rinse those food cans and don't keep your food waste bin in the sun if possible) but it's not our fault if they don't like their jobs and throwing our bins around does not help the situation.  So we could probably all do better.

Philippa Bond ● 4204d

We sometimes have the opposite problem. Collection is sometimes a day late.

Graham Weeks ● 4204d

I had the very same problem last year. Instead of complaining to the council I warned the driver that if it was to happen again I world be making a complaint against him. They all know that collections must not start before 7am.He recognised that it was better for him not to have a complaint made, and so it stopped. It was easier for me to have nipped it in the bud (pun intended!) this way alongside feeling good that I didn't need to make a complaint against the driver.I suggest you do the same.

Ben Owen ● 4204d

Why can they not line the bases of the containers with some thing soft like newspaper or some sort of liner.I stayed with my folks in ealing last week and was awoken by an almighty din at 7am sharp and it went on for ages.If it were neighbours or contractors they would be dealt with so what's going on?In Hounslow when a similar thin happened they took the glass recycling to industrial sites and main roads first to minimise residential noise too early.As for blocking whole streets consecutively on Mondays in Northfields and South Ealing, who thought that up?

Anthony Waller ● 4205d

Also why do they also seem to collect on busy main roads during morning rush hour !! always on Boston Road, Monday morning between 8-9, same time for Greenford Avenue on a Wednesday, also the same for Northfeilds Ave.All it does is create  and at times dangerous for, the staff, drivers, bikes and pedestrians.

Declan Devine ● 4205d

Thanks Phil - was the answer I was looking for. On the website, it says, "Please place your recycling out for collection by 7am on your collection day."

Bud Richards ● 4205d

Bud,They are not meant to start until 7am. 

Phil Taylor ● 4205d

We used to get our black bags collected just after 6.30 a.m., but this has recently changed - collection seems pretty random, and even as late as 6.00 p.m. On the other hand, some of the recycling happens earlier than before - before 10.00 a.m. The early noise may be somewhat irritating but considerably less so than the idiots who use our one-way road as a rat run and hoot constantly because they are irritated by having to wait for the garbage truck to move on.

Sue Rowe ● 4205d

Very early starts are not uncommon - it allows the early start workers to finish in the early a'noon, so many can do another job in one day if they want to. A nice earner for some.

Gerry Tan ● 4205d

Appreciated Gerry but there has to be a limit to when this noise can start

Bud Richards ● 4205d

Same thing happened earlier this week, bin lorry turned up at 6.40, my black bag didn't make it this week.Still there are worse things that happen.

Debbie Edwards ● 4205d