Envirocrime Snoops

[Kymba]

Just read this in the "Mail On Sunday"
Ealing Council is paying Plain-clothes snoopers £30,000 a year to track down homeowners who put their rubbish out at the wrong time of week or in the wrong place.
The officers are employed to enforce enviromental regulations and have the power to Fine residents who offend.
Ealing council is spending nearly £150,000 on recruiting and employing four new enforcement patrollers to add to its 23 strong team that already monitors Waste disposal regulations.
Ealing council charges waht it calls ' envirocriminals' the most with £110 penalty notice. But if it is paid within Ten days it is reduced to £60.
Fixed penalties totalling more then £185,000 have been issued this year nationally to people who put their rubbish out for binmen too early.

What are WAB members views on this???

[thunder]

I'd be happier with it if you could guarantee that your rubbish was collected on the day that it was supposed to be. Often my rubbish has to stay out all week because they forget to pick it up!

I expect that £150,000 would actually be better spent improving the service!

henrya

[Paul mabbott]

If it stops people dumping rubbish and not recycling, good work!

Originally Posted by Kymba

Just read this in the "Mail On Sunday"
Ealing Council is paying Plain-clothes snoopers £30,000 a year to track down homeowners who put their rubbish out at the wrong time of week or in the wrong place.
The officers are employed to enforce enviromental regulations and have the power to Fine residents who offend.
Ealing council is spending nearly £150,000 on recruiting and employing four new enforcement patrollers to add to its 23 strong team that already monitors Waste disposal regulations.
Ealing council charges waht it calls ' envirocriminals' the most with £110 penalty notice. But if it is paid within Ten days it is reduced to £60.
Fixed penalties totalling more then £185,000 have been issued this year nationally to people who put their rubbish out for binmen too early.

What are WAB members views on this???

[Hornbeam]

It is just the wrong way to get the recycling message across. Sure - if these snoopers go around chasing up flytipping, but when it comes to domestic rubbish on the wrong day or the wrong sort of refuse in the wrong sort of bin.... there must be a better way.

Fornightly collections are bound to lead to more fly tipping so they are simply wasting more of our money in a different way. What they save on bin mens' wages they splurge on envirosnoopers' salaries. I used to work for a local authority and realised that the lunatics were in charge of that particular asylum a long time ago.

[demicav]

I get sick and tired of seeing rubbish dumped everywhere. We found it very difficult on the fortnightly collections, with a family of 5, including 3 children and also pets. Yet I would never dream of dumping rubbish, it goes against my beliefs. I can see how people struggle and understand their frustration but I'm still all for fining people who dump. We've now gone back to the weekly collections and I still recycle everything I can but I know some people who don't bother anymore as they don't see the need to.

[nightshade]

The surreal picture of people in gloves and disposable overalls greeted me
as I went out at 5am the other morning,they were opening bags of rubbish
put out the previous evening and checking the contents.They looked very
Sheepish,quickly tidied up and left
We now get Gulls, Rats and Foxes here on bin-bag day now they are not
protected by the lidded bin.
Did they learn nothing from the "Winter of Discontent" rubbish fiasco

[Gill Catton]

sometimes - particularly at this time of year I am away for bin day or even two or three days in the week so am forced to put it out early or not have it collected. Maybe I should just take it to the tip myself! Cut out the middlemen

[demicav]

Apparently they'll give you an extra bin if there are seven or more in a house. I think that's ridiculous, it should depend on a persons circumstances also, as a home with six people could produce more rubbish, depending on age of children ect. I think the bin debate will go on for a long time.

[thunder]

Originally Posted by demicav

Apparently they'll give you an extra bin if there are seven or more in a house. I think that's ridiculous, it should depend on a persons circumstances also, as a home with six people could produce more rubbish, depending on age of children ect. I think the bin debate will go on for a long time.

I think some councils may be more relaxed about bins - I've seen some houses with two or three and I'm pretty sure they don't have more than six people living there. Also they agreed without very much pushing to let me stay on sack collection!

henrya

[guineapig]

I wouldn't believe everything you read in The Mail

A few points I would like to add:

Fortnightly collections, according to the press, were brought in to save money. Not only is that a Good Thing (as council tax payers, surely that should concern us all) but they were also introduced to enable councils to reach their recycling targets. If people can't just throw their rubbish away to become someone else's problem they might be encouraged to do something with it or, heaven forbid, create less in the first place. The amount of packaging we produce and chuck away in our consumer driven society is obscene, and as a country we recycle less of our waste than most of the rest of Europe. Experience has shown that in every council where fortnightly collections have been introduced the amount of rubbish going to landfill has gone down.

[Kymba]

I have been giving this a lot of thought since i read the Article... Luckily medway council are sticking to weekly collections.. so wont be a problem here.. but a possible solution would be ......To do Weekly collections in the summer months when it is hot and rotton rubbish encourages maggots and bad smells and possible health hazzards.. Then fortnightly collections in the winter months... Not ideal but a possibility..

[thunder]

Better to raise the price of food, so people throw much less away!

henrya

[Kymba]

Originally Posted by thunder

Better to raise the price of food, so people throw much less away!

henrya

Or encourage and make it easier for people to grow their own Veg... councils are crying out for people to take on Allotments.. so many are not being used.. but how many people realise this??

[pressld2]

We are a family of four who rigourously recycle everything it's possible to recycle and still have a full wheelie bin every week. IMO fortnightly collections are simply not a practical option for even average sized families.

I lost my rag recently after reading an article about councils proposing to charge for refuse collection by weight. In it some clueless spokesperson was quoted as saying that "people will have to start paying to have their rubbish collected". Excuse me? I already pay, through the nose, to have my rubbish collected. It's called council tax. Charging by weight is a) just another stealth tax and b) guaranteed to lead to an increase in fly tipping.

BTW, every week cleaning out the Rabbit hutch results in two more bags going into the wheelie bin. Does anyone know why woodshavings and Rabbit poo are not compostable?

Dave P.

[Paul mabbott]

Rabbit droppings (and any other faeces) are compostable; wood-shavings and sawdust can be more of a problem because wood is slow to decompose. However, with a large compost heap and given time almost anything will decompose - we incorporate a lot of wood into our compost (hedge trimmings &c) and is incorporated after 6-9 months.

Not particularly addressed to you but ( ) we are an "average-sized family" and couldn't possibly fill our wheely bin up in a month - all that goes in there are plastic wrappings that are impossible to recycle and we avoid plastic wrapped stuff wherever possible. Perhaps the answer for those having insufficient space in their bins is to watch what they buy?

Originally Posted by pressld2

We are a family of four who rigourously recycle everything it's possible to recycle and still have a full wheelie bin every week. IMO fortnightly collections are simply not a practical option for even average sized families.

BTW, every week cleaning out the Rabbit hutch results in two more bags going into the wheelie bin. Does anyone know why woodshavings and Rabbit poo are not compostable?

Dave P.

[demicav]

We have to watch what we buy and recycle everything possible BUT fortnightly collections would still be a problem. What about nappies and animal waste, as already mentioned the contents of a hutch ? I'm doing everything in my power to cut back on waste. Now I think it's time that packaging was reduced by law. Most of the toys that are on sale for children today require the use of a chain saw to get in the box. Ok, not quite but not far off. It's up to EVERYONE to cut back where ever they can, that includes packaging, something that is out of our hands.