Recycling- tenants rights. Advice needed

Norman_Castle

Risnog wrote: »

The estate agents keep fobbing me off saying the council won't let them, but council workers have said I can. Now the estate agents have come back saying no because it attracts rats- we have normal bins though.

If its your council who collect your waste they should encourage you to recycle. Does the agent manage the whole block? What do the other residents want to do?

As items intended for recycling are expected to be clean they are much less likely to attract rats than general waste. I suspect whoever manages the property has assumed recycling will cause problems at the storage area.

NeilCr

Hmm

First up. I am all for recycling.

I live on a communal estate and am one of the directors. I am pleased to say we have communal recycling bins. That’s the good side. The bad side is what people, actually, put in them. In general, if some residents didn’t keep an eye on the bins they’d likely never be cleared. However much you put up notices and the council label the bins folks just lob what they want in the nearest bin. A few weeks back we had a deckchair in the plastic waste!

Davesnave

Have you checked whether the council vehicle could come onto your property if it's on a private road?

Our council do not allow collections from private roads, due to restrictions with insurance.

G_M

Waste collection, whether for landfll or recycling, is a matter for the council.

It iss nothing to for with your landlord, or the lettting agent. Stop hassling them about something that is outside their control!

Speak to the waste department at the council.

If a recycling truck passes daily, it is either a commercial collection from local businesses, or it is on a return route to a nearby recycling centre from weekly/fortnightly rounds in other areas. It is not doing a daily residential collection from your area.

Ms_Chocaholic

Do your neighbours recycle?

NeilCr

Davesnave wrote: »

Have you checked whether the council vehicle could come onto your property if it's on a private road?

Our council do not allow collections from private roads, due to restrictions with insurance.

OP says they have “normal bins” which I assume are general waste and are collected by the council. Is this so OP and do you have communal or individual bins?

It’s a good question about whether or not it is a private estate, though.

Davesnave

NeilCr wrote: »

OP says they have “normal bins” which I assume are general waste and are collected by the council. Is this so OP and do you have communal or individual bins?

It’s a good question about whether or not it is a private estate, though.

On the private estate I'm thinking of, all the 'normal' bins need to be taken at least 100m to the public road. Each household also has up to 4 other bins for sorted recycling, making a potential total of 75 bins to be moved!

In reality, that number of containers isn't achieved, but a considerable effort is still involved. One can see why a management might be reluctant to engage with recycling if access is an issue.

shortcrust

NeilCr wrote: »

Hmm

First up. I am all for recycling.

I live on a communal estate and am one of the directors. I am pleased to say we have communal recycling bins. That’s the good side. The bad side is what people, actually, put in them. In general, if some residents didn’t keep an eye on the bins they’d likely never be cleared. However much you put up notices and the council label the bins folks just lob what they want in the nearest bin. A few weeks back we had a deckchair in the plastic waste!

My bins are on the pavement outside my house and I get all sorts of stuff put in them. A child's pushchair was the latest. I once got a load of wet grass clippings. Not in a bag or anything. Just straight in the bin.:mad:

stator

This is the type of issue you should contact your local councillors about.
They will look into the issue, get real answers from the correct department at the council and they may contact the rental agency for real answers. You could even contact the local paper, if it's a slow news week. However you also have to consider whether stiring up trouble might get you kicked out when your tenancy ends.

If it's an old block of flats there might not be room for 12 green wheelie bins alongside the other waste.
Or it might be that due to some odd legacy issue the council don't collect waste from your property at all and the building management company have commercial waste collections instead that they pay for. This would be very different from a council collection because commercial recycling requires all items to be separated into specific containers for different materials, and if the materials are mixed up the collection company may charge extra fees. Plus they will charge for each recycling collection. So for the sake of 12 flats, the company may have decided that it's cheaper to just pay for the whole lot to go into general waste.

Do you know how your waste is collected? Does it get picked up by a commercial waste collection company or the council? Do all 12 flats put their rubbish into one of those large dumpsters, or do you each have wheelie bins?

[Deleted User]

I live on a council estate and we have communical 'put it all in here' bins. No ability to recycle at all. The previous estate I lived on was exactly the same. I don't think there is anything you can do to force the provision of recycling facilities. It shocked me at first too.

However there is nothing stopping you taking bottle/plastics/cardboard waste to your local collection point.