Intimidating council bin collectors

jkelly90

Wow, what council do you come under? That's just insane.

I myself work in the waste department of a council, and can't understand how or why a council would send round cars of people to do something like that...on the collection side of our depot even the supervisors and operations manager are out on the trucks doing the work, and we as a council are a lot better off than many around the country.

Also, I would say that what those men said was complete scare mongering and not at all true. Recycling figures in general are much lower than they will tell you anyway so not everything you put into your boxes will be recycled anyway, and most recycling facilities will be able to cope with rogue items...for example, we can put all sorts in our metal bin as long as part of the item has metal on it.

I honestly can't understand why on earth something like this would happen. You have to complain to the council. It's unlikely the collectors were following correct procedures, and councils are terrified of complaints, they will bend over backwards to avoid them.

powerful_Rogue

We moved onto the new system last year.

Were allowed to put out 4 x purple bags of non recyclables every other week.

We have quite a few animals so the purple bags are often bulging with hay and sawdust. A month ago the council delivered a new set of purple bags which are about as thick as value tissue paper! We filled one up with used hay and saw dust which easily ripped the bag, causing mess everywhere. We decided to use a strong black bag instead. Outside we placed 2 x purple bags and 2 x black bags. Needless to say the council left the black bags and put a note through the door.

I phoned up and their advice was "Place the hay and saw dust in your strong black sack and then place the black sack into one of our purple bags" I questioned how this was environmentally friendly and also asked what difference it made what colour the bags were as long as there was no more then 4 out but was told that was the only option! Asked for that in writing as said im sure the local papers would love to hear this environmentally friendly advice but the officer declined. Shock horror the very next day we had a special delivery of the old style strong purple sacks!

maninthestreet

powerful_Rogue wrote: »

We moved onto the new system last year.

Were allowed to put out 4 x purple bags of non recyclables every other week.

We have quite a few animals so the purple bags are often bulging with hay and sawdust. A month ago the council delivered a new set of purple bags which are about as thick as value tissue paper! We filled one up with used hay and saw dust which easily ripped the bag, causing mess everywhere. We decided to use a strong black bag instead. Outside we placed 2 x purple bags and 2 x black bags. Needless to say the council left the black bags and put a note through the door.

I phoned up and their advice was "Place the hay and saw dust in your strong black sack and then place the black sack into one of our purple bags" I questioned how this was environmentally friendly and also asked what difference it made what colour the bags were as long as there was no more then 4 out but was told that was the only option! Asked for that in writing as said im sure the local papers would love to hear this environmentally friendly advice but the officer declined. Shock horror the very next day we had a special delivery of the old style strong purple sacks!

It is possible to buy biodegradeable black bags. However, surely the hay and sawdust could be taken to your local recycling centre, for composting?

JimmyTheWig

powerful_Rogue wrote: »

also asked what difference it made what colour the bags were as long as there was no more then 4 out

Is it a maximum of 4 per fortnight, or are you just allowed your quota per bag-roll-delivery?
I.e. if you forget to put them out one time, would you be allowed to put 6 out the time after? That would seem fair.
And if they only collect the purple ones then it is easy to police.

Alternatively it may be to ensure everyone's bags are the same size. Who's to stop you buying bigger and bigger sacks to put out each week?


In terms of the environmental impact, I would guess that you would get your delivery quota the same as everybody else regardless of how many you used. So you're not saving any purple sacks by not using them.

Incidentally, hay and sawdust go into landfill at our local tip.

powerful_Rogue

JimmyTheWig wrote: »

Is it a maximum of 4 per fortnight, or are you just allowed your quota per bag-roll-delivery?
I.e. if you forget to put them out one time, would you be allowed to put 6 out the time after? That would seem fair.
And if they only collect the purple ones then it is easy to police.

Alternatively it may be to ensure everyone's bags are the same size. Who's to stop you buying bigger and bigger sacks to put out each week?


In terms of the environmental impact, I would guess that you would get your delivery quota the same as everybody else regardless of how many you used. So you're not saving any purple sacks by not using them.

Incidentally, hay and sawdust go into landfill at our local tip.

Four purple bags every two weeks. If you forget to put them out then you can still only put four out in a fortnights time.

Im a bit confused by your last comment. If were only using two purple bags each fortnight, then the council wouldnt need to supply us with as many bags - Regardless, still seems a waste that we will have to use a black bag and then place it inside a purple bag.

Oh, the other option they mentioned was to put the hay and sawdust out in the thin purple bag, and they would send a street cleaner up afterwards to clean up where the bag had split.

Rules gone mad!

purple.sarah

Wayne3765 wrote: »

The bin men started to rummage through my bin a while back to check I wasn't putting recycling in with the waste , I never do but my daughter might.
I started collecting a few days worth of my dog's **** from the garden and left them on top of the rubbish on bin day.
Strangely enough they soon stopped looking in the bin and just emptied it

I didn't know they did that! We do recycle mostly but some recyclable items might end up in with the waste. TBH I'm depressed and struggle with staying on top of the housework so sometimes the priority is having a big clear out and chucking everything in the bin, not sorting it. I thought recycling was encouraged but not mandatory so long as you are not overfilling your waste bin. We have never had a problem with bin collectors searching our waste bin but then there are always a few bags of animal waste in there from the cats litter trays so that might put them off!

Azari

powerful_Rogue wrote: »

Four purple bags every two weeks. If you forget to put them out then you can still only put four out in a fortnights time.

I appreciate that councils cannot just allow a free for all when it comes to rubbish collections but sometimes they really don't think things through.

If the makey rules like the one above all that happens it that people leave their excess in public spots from which the council are obliged to clear them.

I know of one London borough which has some arcane rules (that sem to be made up by the bin men on an ad-hoc basis) and there is a very wide alley whose entrance is effectively a tip. Over three or four days it builds up and then they send someone to remove the accumulation. (It's all non-messy things that they won't take awy such as bits of old furniture and electronics). This has been going on for well over 20 years that I know of.

If they would just do the job they are supposed to do they would save both money and mess.

topsales

JimmyTheWig- google harpy?

shammyjack

Calderdale Council Contracters regularly miss collections that are only every 2 weeks to start with then leave bins that are overflowing and send you snotty letters saying you must not overfill your bins .

The next time it happens I shall take the bin and empty it on their office floor having previously arranged a mutual time with the Press !

fin7

If the lids a bit up you can tell the bin men are in a bad mood, good mood they'll take it, bad mood they won't :rotfl:

And we must have the filthiest specimen of a bin man here, he is absolutely filthy, his fluorescent jacket is black, his hands don't look like they've seen soap in a hell of a long time but what makes me feel physically sick is, he wanders down the road pulling wheelie bins with one hand and eating his sandwich with the other! If two hands are needed he stuffs the whole sandwich in his mouth, so he's either got sandwich hanging out his mouth or he's looking like a hamster!


Fin