Forum Topic

Fortnightly rubbish collection

I await the detail but if approved that's  me finished with recycling.I am not going to leave food waste 'festering' for two weeks at a time and the rest of it will go in the wheelie bin in even more plastic.I can see it already "you are all recycling less, it's costing us more, so up the Council Tax"

Nigel Brooks ● 4179d36 Comments

I think the point is that you will be issued with a wheelie bin for the recycling which will be at least twice as large as the combined green box and white bag currently emptied weekly.Therefore no need to stop recycling.Personally, apart from not welcoming the visual blight of endless rows of large wheelie bins in people's front gardens I actually quite like the idea of two-weekly collections from large bins which have wheels on that ease moving them about.Wheelie bins are a much more sanitary arrangement and we have good experiences of them from when we used to live in Cambridge in the late 80s.Also - being able to dump all recycling into a single large wheelie bin will relieve the burden of recycling considerably in our house.  We currently have six bins in the kitchen - landfill, glass, paper & card, plastic, metal, and food waste.Being able to consolidate that down to two will be a major boon for our household.

Tony Colliver ● 4174d

We don't like the notion of fortnightly domestic refuse collection - hope it won't come to being in Ealing.

Gerry Tan ● 4174d

How will the elderly and infirm manage to move the wheelie bins to the front of their property for collection?I hope all those who voted Labour in the council elections are happy with this proposed change along with the charge to collect garden waste and the huge increase in resident parking permits and visitor vouchers etc.etc.!

Kevin Hemming ● 4175d

If this goes through I think that I shall just leave my rubbish in plastic bags on the steps of the Town Hall whenever I have a car load. I have no time for these idiots from all parties who keep telling me that what I am ACTUALLY THINK is... when I am thinking something else (as if I do not understand the words that I am using).

Neil F. Weber ● 4176d

Does anybody use the food waste bins?  They make a lot of difference.I am surprised that no provision was made in the original planning permission for conversion for space for bins.

Philippa Bond ● 4176d

The weekly rubbish collection operation works pretty well, at least the collection in our neighbourhood(around Walpole Park). Why change it? - and we don't see the need for "wheelie bins" - they look ugly imo and are rather cumbersome.

Gerry Tan ● 4177d

The news item on this site today says every one is to have two (unsightly) wheelie bins. With plastic bags going to cost 5p are all recyclables to be dumped in a bin unsorted? I note that at present we are one of the few local houses where recyclables are diligently sorted at present. Most people seem to throw things unsorted in the green box.

Graham Weeks ● 4177d

Also says for people without can continue to use black bags and clear plastic for recyclables..... with all the cost cutting I'd bet it all ends up in landfill either way!

Lee Page ● 4177d

I see we'll get two new shiny wheelie bins. Add the one for garden waste and that makes three (mathematical genius on display). I'm in a semi so could stash these things at the side of the house, but people with small front gardens in terraced houses won't have the space, particularly if they want a few shrubs.I think bigger communal bins make far more sense.

John Walker ● 4178d

"A plague on all their houses!"The irony wasn't wasted here :0) It was irony wasn't' it or did it just slip through?

Tony Wood ● 4178d

Absolutely, I have no space for 2 weeks recycling. I'll just stop

Simon Bell ● 4178d

The problem here is not necessarily fortnightly collection although some very valid issues have been raised on this thread.The problem is flytipping. It will get worse, much worse. At least now there's a presence of some sort each week on the streets to collect rubbish. If this is reduced, I foresee huge increases in flytipping. Currently it's very easy to get away with and if the envirocrime officers are also reduced as is being proposed, we're in for some very messy neighbourhoods very soon.

Sam Salisbury ● 4178d

The wheelie bin system has yet to start in Chiswick and is subject to a fair bit of keyboard warrior genteel protest from those who have no space for a wheelie bin. The council response has been "no wheelie bin, no rubbish collection" - nice. If I were a betting man I would put a pound on Ealing waiting to see the fall-out in Hounslow and, if it isn't too bad, ploughing ahead.

Nigel Brooks ● 4178d

If Chiswick is anything to go by, they don't. They don't even turn up !

Penny Crocker ● 4178d

On the Wheelie bin issue, how do the collectors get the bins from the pavement to the road when cars are parked in the way which don't allow for the width of a wheelie bin?

Lee Page ● 4178d

Quite right Rosa. Nor does everyone have a front/back garden. I'm with Nigel on this. I won't bother to recycle once the recycling bins are full. I'm very sceptical about its use anyway so I will just buy a plastic bin with a lid and shove it all in there.

Penny Crocker ● 4178d

It would appear that the intent is to follow the Commissars in Hounslow who simply ignored consultation feedback and introduced wheelie bins on a borough wide basis. It would take me weeks to fill a wheelie bin with non-recyclable waste but my recycles box and plastics bag are full on a weekly basis. I have no problem with a general waste collection each fortnight but is the whole scheme moves to a fortnightly cycle then into the general waste it all goes I'm sorry to say.

Nigel Brooks ● 4178d

Ben, the waste or rycicling from someone who lives alone or a small household of two/three people is infinately small compared with a family of five or six if not more. Shopping habits are different, and if you have that many mouths to feed most probably one will have to do their weekly shopping at a supermarket, where everything comes packed up. so the amount of 'rubbish' is double if not triple for these families and their weekly bins already gets full as it is. Where are they going to store the extra weekly 'rubbish'? And what about if you have a party or a family riunion or during the Christmas period, where we already have a disrupted collection as it is?Everyone need is different and for some it will be extremily difficult to cope with a fournight collection. Also do bear in mind not everyone has a car.

Rosa Popham ● 4178d

It's not a purpose built block. It's a conversion, and no, there is no provision. No bins, just the Green recycling boxes, so the black bags stay indoors until collection day

Simon Bell ● 4178d

I'm not so sure the idea should be dismissed just like that. Voluntarily, I have been experimenting sending my black bag out to landfill once a fortnight, alongside recycling my cardboard once a month. Tin, paper and glass all go out each week.What brought me to try? My family of three only fills half a black bag each week, so I thought it pointless sending a half filled black bag to landfill every week.  Why not wait until it's full?  One week's rubbish is kept in my dustbin in the back garden. Yes, it can be a bit smelly putting the rubbish out, but I'm only aware of it once a fortnight on the short walk between back garden and front garden. I have a huge bag for cardboard so in the same way I wait until that's full. I use the same bag over and over again. Not everyone has a back garden so a differentiated approach needs to be seriously looked at to accommodate everybody's needs. There is no reason why it can't be done for those who live in houses. I remember forty years ago how the dustman collected our dustbins every day -  well before the days of black bags. This clearly shows that we can absorb changes such as putting rubbish into black bags as well as the proposed changes. My only concern would be the food waste.However,  against this it is well known that the larger the property thehigher the recycling rate. The council will need to take into account that we have more packaging and more recycling than before. So lots of alternatives;  they could look at doing the recycling each week including food waste and do the black bags every fortnight.If dustbin collections can be moved from daily to a weekly basis then it clearly can be done

Ben Owen ● 4178d

I'm not so sure the idea should be dismissed just like that. Voluntarily, I have been experimenting sending my black bag out to landfill once a fortnight, alongside recycling my cardboard once a month. Tin, paper and glass all go out each week.What brought me to try? My family of three only fills half a black bag each week, so I thought it pointless sending a half filled black bag to landfill every week.  Why not wait until it's full?  One week's rubbish is kept in my dustbin in the back garden. Yes, it can be a bit smelly putting the rubbish out, but I'm only aware of it once a fortnight on the short walk between back garden and front garden. I have a huge bag for cardboard so in the same way I wait until that's full. I use the same bag over and over again. Not everyone has a back garden so a differentiated approach needs to be seriously looked at to accommodate everybody's needs. There is no reason why it can't be done for those who live in houses. I remember forty years ago how the dustman collected our dustbins every day -  well before the days of black bags. This clearly shows that we can absorb changes such as putting rubbish into black bags as well as the proposed changes. My only concern would be the food waste.However,  against this it is well known that the larger the property thehigher the recycling rate. The council will need to take into account that we have more packaging and more recycling than before. So lots of alternatives;  they could look at doing the recycling each week including food waste and do the black bags every fortnight.If dustbin collections can be moved from daily to a weekly basis then it clearly can be done

Ben Owen ● 4178d

I was going to say the same Rosa. In Spain communal recycling bins work perfectly. They aren't pretty but that's not important.

Penny Crocker ● 4178d

I was going to say the same Rosa. In Spain communal recycling bins work perfectly. They aren't pretty but that's not important.

Penny Crocker ● 4178d

SimonIs there really no outdoor bin space provided for your block of flats? The fact that you refer to it as being a "block" gives the impression that it is purpose built and I would have thought that solutions could be found.  The WRAP website is often good for ideas on trials that have been done in various sorts of properties.  They do say that there is NOT a one size fits all solution.  We are very behind in this country.  Wales and Scotland are better!

Philippa Bond ● 4178d

They still need to deal with the people who are not doing any sorting of waste at all.  When you start to look at what you are wasting then you are bound to end up saving yourself money by realising what you could save on by making less waste yourself. Using the food waste bin is the way to start.  Don't other Councils collect this weekly even when residual waste is collected fortnightly?  With the recycling that the Council offers there should be more recycling than residual waste.  We have a very comprehensive recycling service which is good as this should be seen as a resource and not landfilled or incinerated.  We are after all only a first sort when we separate.  More needs to be done when the recyclables are sent away.http://westlondonwaste.gov.uk/take-action/rubbish-diet/

Philippa Bond ● 4178d

Consultations are a sick joke.They just keep reissuing them until they get the answer they want anyway.Your opinion ceased to matter the moment the polls closed.A plague on all their houses!

Tony Colliver ● 4179d

it isn't that the council just wants to go for fortnightly collections, is also their idea of doing away with boxes and black bags and give us wheely  bins. These may be OK for those with gardens that have back gates but what about those residents who don't or only have small front gardens? where will they keep them? We already have the problem with keeping worms or maggots free kitchen waste in the summer months as it is. There are areas in London where rubbish is collected on a daily basis to stamp out vermins and rats. Why not try to copy the continental way of doing things whereby there are commercial bins every now and then on every street that are collected every day. when people leave their houses to go to work or shopping they just deposit their rubbish and recycling in them. The lorry comes, collected the full one and deposit an empty one in a matter of minutes.

Rosa Popham ● 4179d

We had a consultation in my area of Ealing about 18 months ago as to which method of containment for our rubbish. The majority including me voted for continuation of the black plastic sacks. Presumably for the same reason as myself, they are unsightly and those supplied over large and too big to fit down most sideways between semi-detached houses.What was the point in consulting us and spending the money on this exercise if the majority are to be over ruled such a short time later?

Martin C. Harris ● 4179d

It's rubbish isnt it?

Colin Goodman ● 4179d

I wish the Council would listen to the majority of residents and act accordingly.

Gerry Tan ● 4179d

Fortnightly rubbish collections?  Nah, the suggestion from the Council is just a cynical ploy to hoodwink the sheeple . . . so that when the real 'cost cutting option' is deployed - no matter how hideous - it will be accepted by the sheeple as sweet relief compared to the 'ditched' suggestion of fortnightly collections.

Andy Horridge ● 4179d

I agree completely. My finds in Shepherds Bush put all recycling into one bag.

Simon Bell ● 4179d

I can't see anyone who would be for this tbh, our recycling bins are always overflowing after a week.I still can't see why all card, glass and plastic can't be bagged together to be taken away then 'sorted' at the end point rather than sifted through at the roadside which causes delays to the whole collection and even more mess which in turn requires cleaners (often which come before the collection) to sweep up the roads.If the system of collecting was streamlined to be black bags and recycling bags (done in other boroughs) it would cut down on the amount of collectors and time spent, savings could easily be made.But hey that would involve someone thinking!

Lee Page ● 4179d

I'm completely against this. Where are those of us in small flats supposed to keep the rubbish? I already have recycling bins in my kitchen which are full after a week. We have no outside bins for our block of flats. We've already got mice, what next!!

Simon Bell ● 4179d

A big NO to this from me.

Sam Salisbury ● 4179d

Am sure a lot of us will feel the same. It's bad enough with these idiots who currently leave out black bags for the foxes/vermin

Simon Wycombe ● 4179d