I know places used to, but has paranoia taken over or are there islands of sense left?
(I'm talking about selling or otherwise disposing of to the general public stuff which has been dumped but is perfectly servicable)
Ones in Hampshire do.
Clive George wibbled on Thursday 06 May 2010 12:12
Mountfield (near Robertsbridge/Battle, East Sussex) do as well. The dump is a little one (tight row of RORO skips in a small yard opposite British Gypsum's mines). The dump boss is a fine chap - completely the opposite of the normal surly contractor you often get and keeps a tidy site. He's always helping ladies and the less firm and seems to take great pride in rescuing stuff for a stall area over one side. Sells stuff for a pound or two typically. Even had a wooden sunlounge for keeping the nicer stuff dry in and on display.
Petersfield does. As does Cambridge (Milton).
Though usually it's a case of finding someone in a dirty fluorescent jacket, saying 'how much', haggling and waving some cash at them. I haven't seen anywhere that does any kind of organised selling - though I believe newer recycling centres are planned to have covered areas for this sort of thing.
Though their standards can be annoyingly high - had to dump a selection of good condition chipboard furniture which they wouldn't take (being a rural area, there wasn't any local organisation or Freecycle it could have gone to).
Theo
Ours in Felixstowe used to. However on the last changeover/reorganisation they stopped doing this.
It does seem anti-recycling.
There was plenty of useful stuff in the wood section of our tip this morning. Some large birch faced ply offcuts and a fair amount of Ikea wooden furniture. Those bed slats come in handy. I think there's potential for selling stuff, especially as people are already there with their boots open. The mind boggles at the staff skulduggery that might ensue though.
Unfortunately a "supplier" has too many legal obligations to meet on safety of supplied goods.
The place I have worked as used to allow employees to take away certain items that were declared surplus (eg. Office chairs when offices were upgraded. It all had to stop)
Another example of well meaning initiatives colliding head on and cancelling each other out. Can't save the planet because of H&S.
John wibbled on Thursday 06 May 2010 17:34
I think that's down to your company inventing a policy. That practise has continued unabated all the places I've worked recently.
It's stopping the un-surplussed stuff going walkies that was more of a problem!
More like the Revenue having invented one. :o(
I think it should be made a requirement - I've certainly repaired a washing machine and a vacuum cleaner with parts scavanged from machines dumped at the tip. Both of these items were old and probably beyond economic repair if I'd had to buy spares.
In the past (before we had separate areas for electrical goods at our local tip), I always left anything that might be useful for someone next to one of the rubbish hatches rather than throwing them over.
If anything, they should use it as a sort of Freecycle system, allowing people to take what they want, but maybe noting their details, so that people can't make a business of cherry-picking large quantities of stuff for selling on.
SteveW
OT: I watched that Seaside Rescue last night with Duncan Bannatyne out of Dragons Den.
Never realised what a nice resort it was. I love the English seaside.
I used to think that deckchair attendants were there to guard the pile of deckchairs and ride operators were there to intimidate potential customers - contrast that with other countries. You don't have to do self service in Spain - or get into a dirty fairground ride in Orlando.
Litigation probably stops them .... if they sell you something, and you injure yourself with it, or house catches fire if it were electrical .... people would want to sue council.
Rick Hughes wibbled on Friday 07 May 2010 09:36
No, "fear of litigation" is what stops them. Plenty of places adopt a sensible approach and seem to manage fine without being sued into oblivion. Some, however, seem to imagine problems where there are none :-O
Yes.
MBQ
So what point are you trying to make? Many "council tips" sell stuff, end of.
MBQ
Some don't.
They claim H&S restricts them, but in reality they have sold 'picking rights' to an individual who is profitting quite nicely from it :-(
I've previously scavenged from my local tip, but it has been done surreptitiously and immediately from the boot of someone else car ("here mate, are you really dumping that? let's have it??") to mine, as (apparently, I'm told) the rubbish content of the vehicle becomes their property once ye drive through the gates of the compound, and not when the the items hit the ground of the tip.
And APNR cameras are watching :-(
How can that be? What if I forget to empty some of it, or change my mind and take it home again, am I stealing my own rubbish?
Adrian C wibbled on Friday 07 May 2010 13:23
If it's that silly, ask the bloke to meet you outside afterwards...
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