As Leeds City Council are forced to make cutbacks to services in a bid to save money, is refuse collection the right place to make these cuts?
I live in Middleton and the fortnightly bin collections are starting to become a big problem, with rubbish already piling up in the streets.
Leeds City Council tell us that the fortnightly collections are to encourage us to recycle more and thereby cut down on the amount going to landfill.
The trouble with their policy is that instead of putting on extra green bin collections, they have just cut in half the black bin collection. This means that when we fill our green bins with recyclable materials in the first week, we are then forced to start putting everything in the black bins, meaning we waste all the extra material that could be re-used.
It also means that every household with a family has excess bags on top of their wheelie bins, which the council are now trying to charge us for!
People are finding little orange stickers on top of the bins to tell them that they’ll receive a letter from the council about the extra bags, and then those bags are left in the streets for foxes and stray dogs to tear open. Does that sound like an efficient way to run our refuse services and keep our streets free from the litter that we’ve all tried hard to remove.
If the council really are interested in helping us to recycle and send less to landfill, then collect our green bins weekly and give us a chance.
Please show us that it’s not just another opportunistic attempt to fleece an already skint populace with something that we can not control.
It’s absolutely pathetic, I have a family of four and I do recycle but after a week my bin is full.
This article was written by Craig Sweaton using our Community Reporters website
You can obtain extra bins from the Council, or at least you could. It can take many weeks to get them, but they do come. I have two green bins and have had for the last 11 years. When there were monthly collections both of mine were always full and even though we are on fortnightly collections again sometimes both are full. People put bags and bins out the night before collection is due and by morning the foxes have been around and the street is littered. I personally do not think that fortnightly collections is the right way forward, just think of the smell in the hot weather, assuming that is that we get a summer.
Cheers
You can no longer get extra bins Wendy. If your bin is broken or stolen, the council now plans to charge you between £70-90 for a replacement.
I got an orange letter this morning saying my bin had excess bags which were not taken, and the letter talks about repeat offenders being fined (so it’s now an offence?) and that someone may visit my address to advise on effective recycling.
I do recycle but I need at very least twice as much space to put my refuse. I also have four children, 1 in nappies so as well as the warm weather bringing smells, it’ll attract stray dogs and possibly cause diseases.
Craig, the Council put out a press release to clarify what they called “misleading reports”:
“The council will continue to replace damaged or broken bins and provide bins to new properties free of charge.
“Residents already have one bin provided for each of the services they receive. If a resident requests an additional green or black bin, this will only be provided if residents meet certain criteria, for example, if they are a large family.”
The full press release is here: http://newsfeed.leedsvirtualnewsroom.co.uk/2014/01/leeds-city-council-clarifies-bin.html
Sounds like it’s worth at least asking for extra bins.
Thanks for this Jeremy and Steve.
I have called the council for more bins twice in the past but they were reluctant to send them out, and then just seemed to forget I’d made the request.
I will call them again and quote from the press release if they still seem reluctant to help
Thanks again.
Here’s what was said in the report (Waste Collection Service Policies to the Executive Board on 22 January 2014:
‘3.5. Replacement/extra containers
‘3.5.1. For each household receiving the relevant kerbside collection service, one wheeled bin will be provided for each waste stream (i.e. residual waste, mixed dry recyclables and garden waste). Exceptions are made to deal with various issues, for example including larger families and frail or disabled residents who may require alternative containers or collection methods to those provided as standard.
‘3.5.2. For households not in receipt of (or not about to receive) a fortnightly collection of mixed dry recyclables, an additional green bin may be requested.
‘3.5.3. The delivery of new/replacement bins costs approximately £600k per year with the Waste Management service currently arranging for the recycling, treatment or disposal to landfill of some 330,000 tonnes of household waste per annum, at a total annual cost of around £20 million. With the scale of activity and cost, a key aim of the Integrated Waste Management Strategy is to move waste management up the waste hierarchy with a particular focus on waste reduction, prior to recycling, treatment and then final disposal. Therefore, the proposed policy is not to provide replacement bins on demand.’