Rant, but maybe it'll amuse some of you.

Naf

OK, I have mentioned this issue on another thread, but I kinda need to vent a little. Enjoy - the second letter is particularly scathing if you just want to skip ahead.

A fortnight ago the council didn't collect some of my waste. The bin I have is already not quite big enough to accommodate a full fortnight's waste (2 kids, one only in nappies at night, the other still in nappies all day), and so when I had quite a few deliveries, the packing materials (recyclable, but council don't offer facilities)! along with a clear out of the previous tenant's junk in the shed, meant I had two bags that did not fit at all. The council deemed these 'side waste' and left them there.
So I wrote to them:

Letter_to_Council wrote:

Dear Sir/Madam,
!!!!!!!!I am very displeased that I have to complain about this; matters of basic sanitation should be taken care of, not left to be chased and argued over.
My complaint is twofold:
Firstly, some of my rubbish was not collected this last week. My bin was already overflowing, so I had to leave two bags beside it, and these were just left by the kerb with a sticker on.
Secondly, when I called you to request a larger bin, I was told that you think the one I have is large enough for five people.
!!!!!!!!An extra amount of waste this past fortnight meant that I had two black bags which would not fit into my bin. I still need these to be disposed of, so naturally I left them out next to my bin. I was not at all happy to find that they were not collected.
It's none of your business, but let me tell you what the extra waste consists of;
Plastic packing material from received deliveries - recyclable.
Various plastic tubs and a bucket left by previous occupant - recyclable.
Glass (appear to be shelves from a fridge) left by previous occupant - recyclable
Plastic coated metal fridge shelves left by previous occupant - recyclable.
Worn out baby clothing due to a clear out in preparation for new birth in September.
Broken plastic tubs - recyclable.
Plastic packaging from toys & gifts - recyclable.
Clearly the overwhelming majority of this waste can be recycled - you just won't collect it in my recycling bins, so I am forced to include it in my general waste.
There was a sticker on one of the bags, indicating the reason it was not collected. The sticker claims that York Council want to reduce the waste produced by households, and that not collecting it accomplishes this. Can I point out that this is utter rubbish (no pun intended); refusing to collect it will most certainly reduce the numbers on your official figures for how much waste you collect; but the stuff still needs to be disposed of, and will ultimately find its way to landfill regardless. Especially when your telephone staff's response is to take it to the tip myself. The idea that by not collecting it, it will somehow go away of its own accord is ludicrous.
I have no transport that I could take this to the tip myself; and would not be prepared to even if I did. I pay council tax, and for that I expect to have my rubbish collected - but you seem incapable of even managing that efficiently.
!!!!!!!!Every fortnight, without fail, my black bin is overflowing. Fortunately up until last week it has been possible to squeeze it on top, just the lid does not close, and it has been collected. When I called to complain about my rubbish that had not been collected, I also asked for a larger bin. I was told that not only was my current bin considered the right size for my current family of four (definitely not true); but that it is also supposedly the right size for five people. This means that even when our new baby is born in September, you will still argue that I ought to be able to fit everything in. This policy is self-evidently crazy. I might!agree that this size of bin would be adequate for up to five adults, especially if some of them work and therefore are not home all day. But for a family which includes children, especially those in nappies, there needs to be some consideration for the additional waste this creates. At present the bin tends to be around 1/4 full with just nappies each fortnight: the new baby will easily double that. I would expect that each fortnight I will have one additional bag full of waste needing collection; and if you won't take anything that isn't in a bin, I will therefore require a larger bin. It really begs the question, who comes up with these arbitrary numbers for who 'needs' what size of bin.
!!!!!!!!I expect that next collection these additional bags will be taken along with my usual waste. I also expect someone to contact me regarding supplying me with a larger bin to fit my needs properly. Finally I would like to hear what the council is doing to ensure that policies like this are regularly checked to ensure they are still applicable and up to date, because I really do not think that this one is.

Naf

That letter didn't seem to make my point, I received a response as follows (although, this seems to have been more in relation to my telephone complaint than my letter)

Council_Response wrote:

I am in receipt of your recent complaint logged via our contact centre reference our policy regarding side-waste.

The council have a statutory obligation to reduce the amount of waste we send to landfill and in order to help achieve this obligation a strict no side waste policy exists. This policy is aimed at not only achieving our reduction in the tonnes of waste sent to landfill but also in further increasing the amount of recycling we collect.

Our collection crews are under strict operational instructions not to take any waste presented that is not contained within a wheeled bin in areas provided with such bins. Our crews are instructed to identify such bags by placing an advisory sticker on the bags which informs residents as to why the bags have been removed.

I have checked our container information relating to your street and can confirm the bins for landfill waste are larger than our policy allows for a family of four people and the size you currently have is considered suitable for a household of five people. We can provide additional containers for recycling to assist in reducing the amount of waste in your landfill bin and should you require any please call our customer centre who will order some.

Poor grammar etc. in original.

Naf

Those two leftover bags filled my bin entirely, so I now have two weeks of general waste that was stood next to my bin, and has not been collected. As anticipated. I called and got the same unsatisfactory response as the first time. Insisted that another complaint be raised. And wrote them again:

Letter_back_to_Council wrote:

I am extremely annoyed that I need to follow this up again. I appreciate that you may not have received the letter I delivered to follow up my telephone complaint, and so I enclose a copy. I sincerely hope that you short written response was not intended to answer my letter as well as my telephone call; if it was, it fell a long way short. After two weeks, I had hoped to have at least received a proper response.
This morning, again, as anticipated, my rubbish was not fully collected. The two leftover bags from a fortnight ago filled my bin completely, so all of my household waste was what you disgustingly term 'side waste'; in reality, of course, it is all general household waste in need of collection. Despite two bags being on the bin with the lid resting on them, these were removed and deposited at the kerbside alongside the existing bags.
In your letter you say that 'the council have a statutory obligation to reduce the amount of waste sent to landfill'; and go on to claim that not collecting waste helps to achieve this. I would ask you how? The fact that you ignored it has not made it magically disappear; believe me, I can see it. Give it a couple of days and I will be able to smell it. At the kerbside. Where it will be staying until you collect it. Your claim has no basis whatsoever - the only thing that not collecting waste will reduce is your figures for what waste you collect. Taking your argument to conclusion, by collecting no waste, you take none to landfill HURRAH! You see how ridiculous your claim is? It is compounded by your contact centres suggestion (apparently the standard line, the council's best!advice) that I should take it to somewhere-or-other myself, for it to be taken to landfill anyway. Firstly, this entire suggestion not only undermines your claim, it nukes it. It reduces your claim to such a fine powder that it would be hard to detect with an electron microscope. You claim is completely invalid. Secondly, HOW? Your official policy is that residents need to find a way to deal with their own 'side waste', but how do I dispose of it with no means of transporting it whatsoever?
Your other ludicrous claim is that my bin is 'big enough'. Have you visited my house? Have you seen my waste? Have you considered at all!that the waste produced by households varies dramatically? The answer to each of these questions is a clear and resounding NO! You insist that the size of my bin is considered 'adequate' not only for the four people currently living here, but in fact for up to five.!I would love to meet the hermit who dreamt up these ideas. Because they are clearly a complete fabrication from someone who knows nothing about household waste production. If I were a HMO of individual students, or workers, then it is possible this bin might meet the needs of five people; but as a family with small children still in nappies the amount and type of waste produced is a little different. Nappies currently account for almost a quarter of my fortnightly collection, and from September this will be considerably increased with a new baby expected. In addition there is a large amount of waste that we produce which is recyclable, but that you simply do not offer the facility to collect; plastic food containers & tetra-pak cartons being the largest portion. My existing bin is already only barely large enough for a typical fortnight's waste; just a relatively small amount extra has caused this current overflow situation (although the bin has always!been too full to properly close the lid), and the extra un-recyclable waste the new baby will bring is going to make this situation a permanent issue.
The existing waste is now too much to fit in my bin; but the space in the bin will be needed for the coming fortnight's waste anyway. I have nowhere I can store it, so it will remain next to the street until you deal with it.
This problem is not going to go away on its own, and therefore neither am I until it is resolved.

Katpin

I am not surprised this is the councils stance. My council seems to have better recycling collections than what you''re describing, however even with those they act like total numpties.

We are only a household of 2 so rarely fill our general waste bin, however because we moved fairly recently we had alot of cardboard boxes etc.. that wouldn't fit in our blue (recycling bin) - i thought surely if I leave the boxes all flatpacked next to the blue bin they'll take them... in short NO they didn't - same issue, same response of take it to the nearest recycling facility!!

I'd keep on at them until they, pick up your waste and give you a larger bin. What a ridiculous situation for them to put you in.

Naf

Oh, they'll quite happily take all the recycling I leave out alongside the boxes; just so long as I bag it up neatly.

dontone

They are useless sometimes aren't they?
Our binmen once refused to empty our bin because we had gale force winds and DH, to stop it blowing over (again) rested it against the fence about 5 inches into our garden. He even put the bin so the handles stuck out towards to road.
All they had to was move the thing 5 inches, but because it wasn't fully on the pavement :mad:, they left it :mad:. And they did that to several houses on our street, because we all had the same idea due to the high winds. They had quite an early finish that day.

BTW quick question. Do some areas have different rules as to what goes into which bin? Here, the green bin is for recycable cardboard & garden cuttings, and the blue bin is for newpapers, leaflets etc.

Helix

dontone wrote: »

They are useless sometimes aren't they?
Our binmen once refused to empty our bin because we had gale force winds and DH, to stop it blowing over (again) rested it against the fence about 5 inches into our garden. He even put the bin so the handles stuck out towards to road.
All they had to was move the thing 5 inches, but because it wasn't fully on the pavement :mad:, they left it :mad:. And they did that to several houses on our street, because we all had the same idea due to the high winds. They had quite an early finish that day.

BTW quick question. Do some areas have different rules as to what goes into which bin? Here, the green bin is for recycable cardboard & garden cuttings, and the blue bin is for newpapers, leaflets etc.

Most areas have different rules, we used to have separate boxes for Paper and Glass/Metal. They didn't take Plastic at all. Now we have a wheelie bin (Black with Blue Lid) which you can put Glass, Metal and Plastic in together with a separate box that fits in the top for paper. As well as a wheelie bin for landfill (Black) and one for Garden Waste/Cardboard (Brown)

Naf

dontone wrote: »

BTW quick question. Do some areas have different rules as to what goes into which bin? Here, the green bin is for recycable cardboard & garden cuttings, and the blue bin is for newpapers, leaflets etc.

we have black wheelie bin for general waste
Green wheelie bin for garden stuff
3large plastic boxes: 1 each for paper & card; plastic bottles (only bottles, no other plastics at all) & food tins/cans; glass bottles & jars.

Glossy magazines won't be taken, nor will envelopes with windows. Tetra-Pak drinks cartonsmare also a no-no. All the recyclable plastic food containers are unacceptable, just bottles.
Madness.

Forwandert

We have two full size normal bins (one was lost but we found it again after the second one was delivered) a brown bin, a blue bin and a very small grey bin about the size of a bread bin. Luckily we are still on weekly collections so nothing ever really gets too full.

arcon5

I'm betting dumping the rubbish in their reception area would get your point across -- and a big fine as well I guess

duchy

Naf wrote: »

and so when I had quite a few deliveries, the packing materials (recyclable, but council don't offer facilities)! along with a clear out of the previous tenant's junk in the shed, meant I had two bags that did not fit at all. The council deemed these 'side waste' and left them there.
So I wrote to them:

Naf wrote: »

Oh, they'll quite happily take all the recycling I leave out alongside the boxes; just so long as I bag it up neatly.

So your bin had recyclable packing in it which you put in there rather than tie it neatly next to the bin and now some poor sod at the council has to read all your ranting letters ...because you couldn't be bothered correctly bundling recycleables and putting them BY the bin ?

Okaaaaay -Here's a novel idea-instead of spending time writing not especially good complaining letters ....you could spend the time bundling your cardboard etc correctly and place it where it should go so there is room in your bin ..... or spend the time potty training so you have a normal amount of refuse so your bin isn't always overflowing even if you don't recycle correctly.