Recycling- tenants rights. Advice needed

Nick_C

stator wrote: »

This is the type of issue you should contact your local councillors about.

The Councils I have worked for had about 60 Councillors and about 2000 Officers (full time staff).

You really shouldn't be bothering your Councillor over a routine issue like this. Raise it with the waste team. If you are not satisfied with the response then make a formal complaint. Or write to the Head of Service or Director.

Most Councillors are part time and they are really there to set policies and scrutinise the administration. They are hard working. If you write to them about this, they will simply pass the enquiry onto the officers for their response.

Save your Councillor for really serious issues.

Nick_C

stator wrote: »

If it's an old block of flats there might not be room for 12 green wheelie bins alongside the other waste.

You don't need to double bin capacity to allow waste to be separated between mixed recycling and residual waste. The recommended additional capacity is 25%

A block of 12 two bedroomed flats should have refuse capacity of 2040 litres per week, which could be met by two * 1100 ltr Eurobins or nine * 240 litre wheelie bins, emptied on a weekly basis.

If you add a weekly collection of mixed recycling, the required weekly capacity would change to 1530 litres of refuse and 1020 litres of recycling. If using 240 litre wheels bins, you would need four or five for recycling and six or seven for residual waste. So 12 wheelie bins for twelve two bedroomed flats is sufficient if they are emptied weekly.

These recommendations are contained in British Standard BS5906:2005

Nick_C

deannatrois wrote: »

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.

This is bad practice. The Council should be providing local collection points on large housing estates. That's an issue that I would be escalating to my local Councillor if the Council was refusing to provide convenient facilities.

Exceptionally, I think the only reasonable excuse would be if the bins were being set on fire on a regular basis, and this was causing a danger to residents.

I've been involved in setting up communal recycling facilities in some of the most deprived parts of London, and we had facilities on all our council estates.

Recycling bins can be secured to locking posts away from properties. The lids should also be kept locked.

NeilCr

Davesnave wrote: »

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.

Aah.

We have communal bins and the council lorries do come in via the private road and clear them - unless some clown parks in such a way that they can’t.

As I said earlier while totally for recycling I can see why a managing agent may be reluctant given the mess residents make of the recycling bins.

custardy

unforeseen wrote: »

A recycle truck passes daily?

Lives next to the tip

Lauralou79

I used to live in private flats and we had just the big skip like bins. Emptied by the council. No recycling points nearby or provided.

FBaby

It seems that the issue here is that OP think that the LL is responsible for his choice to recycle and therefore pay for any fees associated to it.

It's not the case OP just like they are not paying your council tax. Contact the council and sort something out with them but if doing so comes at an additional cost, that's for you to pay, not your LL.

unforeseen

My thoughts on the matter.
At the beginning there may well have been a range of bins for the occupants to recycle their stuff. However people being people, they will have a tendency to put their rubbish in any bin that has space, so contaminating the recyclable stuff.
If that happens enough times then the flat management are going to get peed off with bins not being emptied and the council will be sending warning letters.

Simple answer all around and what has possibly happened here is that recycling has been withdrawn by the council for this block of flats due to constant contamination.

Nick_C

FBaby wrote: »

It seems that the issue here is that OP think that the LL is responsible for his choice to recycle and therefore pay for any fees associated to it.

It's not the case OP just like they are not paying your council tax. Contact the council and sort something out with them but if doing so comes at an additional cost, that's for you to pay, not your LL.

If the person blocking recycling is the landlord then that is true.

In the case of leasehold properties, it may not be that simple.

The council has a right to specify the number and types of bins to be used. But if the freeholder refuses to provide space for those bins, or refuses to pay a charge for hiring the bins, then the Council cannot simply impose a solution. One has to be agreed. That involves the representative for the freeholder.

agrinnall

The problem, as others have said, is irresponsible tenants who dump their waste in whichever bin is handiest. This was happening at a block where I lived a few years ago, the council were refusing to collect the recycling bins because the materials were always contaminated, and in the end they took the bins away completely, which was better as the uncollected contaminated recycling bins were becoming a hazard.