"Council" Tip policy?

[Mark S.]

Anyone and idea what the policy is on things taken to the "tip". The ones where they take your stuff if you can get under the barriers and it goes in x y z skips/containers, rubble/topsoil, scrap, wood, garden waste etc.

The one nearest me is run on behalf of the local council by a private firm from down south. I've not spoken to anyone there yet but it breaks my heart when I'm there taking bags of rubble, plaster etc. and I see some of the stuff people with more money than sense throw away.

Must be too many episodes of Steptoe and Son. :-)

I did see a guy the other lunchtime rumaging through the scrap skip but he might have been on a backhander or something. ;-)

Mark S.

[Mike Mitchell]

Where I live you can take stuff to the tip for free in a private car, but not in a pickup or van. Also, there is a *very* low height restriction. On Saturdays the height barrier is raised, but still no pickups or vans for free.

You are allowed to dump anything (not WMD). There are seperate containers for green waste, wood, general rubbish, and metal. There is also a place for batteries and a tank for old engine oil. I suppose the service is very good, really.

You are not allowed to take anything away, but the tip monitors (two or three beefy guys with flourescent jackets) salvage things like doors, lawn mowers, and so on, which you can pick up for a song. My front door several years ago cost eight quid from the tip and later on a bathroom sink in perfect condition cost just a few pounds.

But the rubbish that we accumulate! It's enormous! When I think of similar tips all over the country we must be chucking away thousands and thousands of tonnes of rubbish every year, a veritable mountain of rubbish.

MM

[Andrew Mawson]

"Mike Mitchell"

[Martin]

I believe the "stuff" they can sell for recycling goes to help the running costs, but then if you offer one of the guys a few bucks for something I don't think he'd refuse, specially on the wages they get!

[gaz]

I did see a guy the other lunchtime rumaging through the scrap skip

Was it just after the lottery results?

[MrCheerful]

I tried to take in some waste oil the other day, I had four five gallon drums. The jobsworth told me I could be prosecuted for carrying so much waste oil at one time and not to come with that much again.

MrCheerful

[BillR]

It varies very much from LA to LA even within London.

I've been known to come away with more than I went with :-) Like the time a nearby PC software outlet went bust and an employee was dumping loads of new unwrapped boxes in the skip..

They have "authorised salvagers" around here. If you want anything you can generally get it for free or next to nothing.

That sounds very much like commercial quantities and as such you should pay to have it disposed of. Why should the council tax payers subsidise your activities?

[Mike Mitchell]

I wonder how much they'd want for the JCB that comes by every now and then to compact the contents in the containers...

MM

[Mike Mitchell]

Bloody hell! 20 gallons! Are you scrapping one of the ghost ships?

MM

[Mike P]

For many years I had been taking garden waste in the back of my trailer where on arrival at the tip I could shovel it into the 'green garden waste skip', very quick & easy for me to dispose of. The Council have now classed this (along with household building rubble) as 'industrial waste; and put galvanised wire sheets at the 'shovelling end of the skip thus preventing shovelling, I now have to bag it all and walk down the catwalk to empty them, meaning that I get less on my trailer and the soil/rubble bags are very heavy.

On my first visit to the tip after the new rules I had loaded my trailer with bags of rubble from a job I was doing in MY house only to be told by the bombastic dictator tip attendant that I could not load the trailer full of bags and had to take it away, after very heated debates over the phone explaining the waste of time, effort & effect to the environment (exhaust emissions) doing numerous trips with only one bag in the boot of my car I got the rule changed to allow for a trailer loaded with bags.

The other week after digging my drive up I had to pay £105 for a skip when I could of taken it in my trailer over a couple of days but the thought of lifting that many half full heavy rubble bags put me off!

It still baffles me why I can't loose fill my trailer and shovel it out, after all it's going into the same skip and waste site?.

Mike P.

[Huge]

[21 lines snipped]

Because of the motto of "public" "services" everywhere; 'We've got your money and we don't give a shit'.

[Andy Dingley]

I use two tips; Bristol and Cwmbran.

Bristol has a height limit so low that estate cars have trouble with roofracks. As a result, everyone parks on the road outside (even in marked vans) and drags things in by hand. So instead of excluding "commercial" users, they've just created a litter problem.

No sale or exchange. Any suggestion of this is seen as tantamount to bank robbery.

There's an asbestos skip, and a large compound for fridges.

Cwmbran is smaller, and doesn't do asbestos (AFAIK). There's no height limit, and they're not paranoid over what sort of transport you use.

Punters aren't allowed in the skips, for safety reasons, but anything likely to be useful has already been segregated out by the local wombles and is on the ground outside. They're only too happy to sell this, with a printed receipt and everything. They have a particularly good range of propane cylinders (half full and empty) - my usual reason for shoppng there.

-- Die Gotterspammerung - Junkmail of the Gods

[Tony Williams]

Hmm.... BoF time. I remember Cwmbran when it was mostly green fields, before it became a new town. Just get lost around the place now.

[Andy Dingley]

18th century ? Cwmbran has become rather less built up, just in the time that I've known it. More houses now, but there's also much less industry.

-- Die Gotterspammerung - Junkmail of the Gods

[Andrew Gabriel]

They walk a tightrope of trying to reduce the waste, whilst not making it so painful people just dump it in the nearest pond or ditch, where it's very much more expensive to sort out.

Trouble is that like most government initiatives, it's completely misguided. Little of the waste you take to the tip is likely to be able to be reduced in volume, or it's things like garden waste where landfill really isn't harmfull anyway. The waste which should be reduced is the stuff which goes out for the dustmen, and that needs to be tackled at source (where it's designed/supplied) and not at the endpoint when you've finished with it -- it's too late to solve the issue if you're left with something you need to throw out.

[Mike Mitchell]

I agree, and what are the stupid jobsworths going to encourage? That's right, more fly tipping. We pay a ruddy fortune in council tax.

MM

[MrCheerful]

That has built up over about a year, apparently I can take in a gallon at a time without query, but over three gallons is regarded as being in need of a licence to transport waste !!

As far as I can establish any commercial oil pickups will only deal with several hundred gallons at a time. Also the tip get paid for the waste oil by recycling firms , so if anything I am subsidising the rate payers anyway.

MrCheerful

[Terry]

Seems to be a self defeating tactic? So people drive around the corner/into the country and, making sure there is nothing of a personal nature to identify them, in the trash, they dump it on the edge of the road hoping that the next municipal collection will take care of it???? Or it means you have to take the hand trolley or small wheelbarrow along with you in the car in order to get into the tip? In 2000 I noted UK was generally clean; but, travelling by train, there were quite a few backyards and gardens that could do with some clean up into the back of a truck. It's much the same here btw! But the low height barrier wouldn't work here. About every third to fifth family drives a pickup truck as personal and family transportation, to work, on weekends, to recreational activities, to carry a boat or canoe or a ATV (All Terrain Vehicle) etc. Pickups are somewhat tall; even our 2002 two wheel drive small Nissan. Even a regular land Rover would be too tall by the sound of it? Here many family owned 'pickups' are well equipped with air conditioning, cruise control, limited slip differentials and/or four wheel drive, CD players, even 'entertainment units for the children in the back seat! Some have three or four doors and in all respects are as useful/comfortable as a car for a family with two adults and say, three children. Plus the ability to tow a caravan, a camper unit, carry items for the weekend, pick up the occasional appliance; i.e. all round use. The first cost is on par with a car and cost the same to license and (for private use) insure. On our street there must be at least five pickups including two owned by people in their 70s. e.g. Later today I'll to pick up a used clothes dryer that we lent someone about 18 months ago (they are moving); if it is still in good shape it will come home for minor repairs in our garage; (our current dryer is 41+ years old!). If it's defunct I'll stop by the metal recyclers, they are often open until 6.00 PM, right next door to the municipal dump which closes at 5.00 PM and push it out the back of the pickup into the appropriate scrap pile. When it comes to dumping at the tip itself they note the vehicle plate number and if I tip more than six times in, I believe it's three months, I must buy the same permit required by a 'commercial' collector. It's handled pretty reasonably though. If, for example, one is doing a big d-i-y job and explain that you WILL be back with a few more loads before the job is finished and then won't be back again until spring or autumn clean up they'll be pretty lenient. Or you borrow someone else's pickup for half a day for that extra load! Those UK dips don't sound too user friendly? There's gotta be a better way????? Terry.

[StealthUK]

Where I am in North London we have a modern waste disposal centre (used to be just a wall you dumped everything against). Everything type of rubbish is marked out - concrete, wood etc separately. There is a height restriction and vans are only allowed by appointment. I wanted to dump some bricks from a garden wall and borrowed a mates van. I booked it all in advance. Upon arrival I was asked for my details and had to go to the office to confirm everything. While I'm dumping my stuff two other vans also turn up, drop their waste and leave yet they don't get asked anything at all. Nice to know things haven't changed at my local dump.

[Gary Cavie]

My pet subject!!

I took some mixed rubbish recently, some general junk, and some green waste. I offloaded the general, and was about to swing out, then back in agaoin to get to the green area, when I spied a green bin in amongst the general ones.

I started to offload my branches, grass etc, when up came one of the site guys, who told me that wasn't for my use. 'Who is it for?' I asked politely. 'That's for the people who aren't allowed to bring their vehicles on site - we put it nearer the entrance so they don't have so far to walk'. I suppose it makes sense to somebody...

I also got rapped for taking my trailer in - 'OI you - can't you read the notice about trailers?' came the delicate lilting voice. I looked at the notice to see 'Only single axle, unbraked trailers allowed on site' I looked at my trailer and saw only one axle and no brakes. 'What's the problem?' I asked. 'It's too big' came the reply. My trailer is 8' by 4'. Still couldn't see the problem. 'When we say single axle and unbraked, we mean the little camping trailers' 'Wouldn't it be better to state a size then, rather than some unconnected specification?' 'Get smart with me and I'll bar you from the site!'

Maybe I'm just living in the wrong time?

Gary