Rubbish disposal, government regs and local councils

[tim (moved to sweden)]

Yes they can, they can forget the farce of having different bins. This has the additional benefit of being able to have them in more places.

tim

[Steve Firth]

And when people like me see the council taking all the recycled rubbish and putting it in the same vehicle as the domestic refuse, we know it's all a con.

A contract I was working on recently scored a big pat on the back for recycling. For using up a previously unusable mountain of glass cullet as landfill.

Not only that, but *no* recycling scheme ever undergoes an audit to cost out if it has a positive or negative environmental impact. I for one don't believe that the gallons of water, soap, and fuel wasted in cleaning and transporting waste from consumer to recycling has any net positive effect.

[Huge]

Not as good as that. And not just *local* authorities.

[Andy Hall]

Does this mean that they'll all go bust in about 20 years time?

I do hope so.....

[Dave]

I've seen worse than that!

Wife works for local council and got involved in one of their fun days for the public. The park where it was held was stocked with a plentiful supply of various coloured bins, so that joe public could put glass in one, paper in another etc.

A few days later, I was at the same place, waiting to pick her up. In came the council's refuse contractors, who proceeded to empty every single bin into the same wagon.

It turns out that only domestic rubbish is recycled. Industrial and council waste is not paid for by the government, so they just bundle it all in the same place.

Dave

[NikV]

its now happened here (council promised that the second bin was not in preparation for a two weekly pick up), I now use a 4x2 clamped to the top of the large plastic bin a bottle jack & metal plate to compress the rubbish allowing it to last between collections - sometimes difficult to wheel this monstrosity to the perimeter, I have seen occasions where two 'refuse collection technicians' manhandled on to their lift. We still have a filled (uncompressed) 'recycle' waste bin on the other week (3-kids 2 adult family) and I compost my green/kitchen waste!!! (use the four woven backs for storage in the shed - waste not want not :-))

[Tim S]

British Leyland weren't *that* bad!

Our idiot council sprung once per fortnight collections on us.

They collect paper and garden waste (which is highly restrictive - turf and bits of soil are forbidden) on weeks alternate to the main rubbish.

I'd be more impressed if they collected glass and metal - the heavy bits.

I'd be even more impressed if metals were sorted at the processing centre. Hell, some processing centres were using electro magnets to pull out ferrous material back in the 70's. Linear motor technology according to Tomorrow's World a long while ago was supposed to be practical to take out different grades of non ferrous metals too.

I would have though that metals would be the most economically worthwile item to extract. Loads of iron in waste and electromagnets hanging over a conveyor are relatively cheap.

As for the fortnightly collection, doesn't work. Those of use with little sprogs for whom one bin/2 weeks is woefully inadequate just use our neighbour's spare capacity with their wholehearted permission.

As for recycling, I'm all for it in theory, but with a 11-12 hour working day plus X hours of various duties at home, pratting around going to various sets of bins in various places is pretty low on the list, especially when I hear rumours of some of our recycled materials going straight into landfill. Maybe when I've won the lottery or retired and have lots of time. Until then I expect the damn council to do the job I'm paying them for.

Anyway, what's with the landfill bollocks anyway. Incinerate the stuff and get some electricity off it. There's a fine plant that does exactly this next to Millwall FC stadium.

Bah.

Tim

[Bob Eager]

I'd love to see a picture of this setup!

[usenet]

It may affect them but I very much doubt if it effects them.

[Dave Liquorice]

Family of four, we have trouble filling a bag in two weeks, the recycling box (glass, paper and tins) is starting to get a bit full by then. Plastics, all bottles, films and bags go off to be recycled as part of a shopping trip, along with cartons. The major part of the our domestic waste now is metalised wrappings.

So what do you on your extra day off then? As, in theory, the working week should be no longer than 48hrs without very good reason.

[Tim S]

Our shopping's done in small batches on foot mostly. Your efforts are admirable, I don't have the time yet to get that organised. One day, maybe...

3+ hour round trip commute. Doesn't count against the directive, neither am I at home doing useful things like recycling! It's an itty bitty London commute, 20 mins driving, 40 mins on the train, 20 mins on tube, 10 minutes walking.

The 40 mins on the train is usefully used on the laptop to persue my hobby, other than that it's pretty much time wasted.

Yes, I do get weeekends off. No, I'm sorry, doing the council's job is not high on my list once I've done all the chores, etc and down to my last couple of hours. I'd rather pay extra on my tax for them to do it. Not very PC, but I've got more interesting things to do with my time!

Tim

[Andy Hall]

It certainly is a theory and there are numerous exceptions:

One is if the person has partly unmeasured work time.

For example, from the DTI site:

"Worker F has a managerial or professional role which allows him to decide how and when he works, chooses what is done, establishes priorities and determines the time and effort that are devoted to tasks. Time worked above F?s contracted hours will fall within the scope of this exception because he can determine the volume of his work."

I agree with Tim - I'd rather pay somebody else to deal with the waste problem where possible - I think that it's important, but not an area in which I want to invest time. It would be nice to think that the local authority operates proper disposal, but I am not naive either.

[Tim S]

can say that again:

"Councils are investigating what happens to their recycled rubbish after the BBC revealed 500 tons had been shipped unsorted to Indonesia.

Customs at Jakarta impounded containers holding mixed up paper, cardboard, plastics and cans from UK households."

[manatbandq]

Indeed. Local authorities can't even organise decent education these days.

MBQ

[Dave Liquorice]

Nearest shop is down in the village 1.5 miles away it carries bread, milk and a couple of dozen other longer life foods. The Co-op in the town is 2.5 miles away and has a reasonable range of fresh, frozen and other produce. Shelf area probably about the same as one side of one aisle in Tesco. The nearest large supermarkets are at least a 40min drive away, a "quick trip" to them is at least 3hrs and around

60miles. So the weekly shop with recyclables if required is just from practicality not good organisation.

True, move closer to your work place so you don't waste that 2+hrs every day.

But can't afford to move into London...

What do you do? Do you actually have to be physically at the work place to do your job. If it's "paper pushing" in an office that can be done just as well at home, on a connected computer. I'm not suggesting that every day should be worked at home. Just one or two per week would make your quality of life so much better, no more leaving the house before 0700 getting back after 1900. Nice day? Take an hour or two off and enjoy it, make the time up later on.

Working at home does take self disipline and preferably a room that can be given (not totaly) to that use. This helps to keep home and work seperate both in your own mind and with other members of the household.

Actually I hate it when my "days off" are forced onto the weekend, the shops are crowded and you can't do anything useful involving other workers 'cause they are all in the shops not working...

[Dave Liquorice]

Self scheduling, it is the "managers" own problem if he chooses to work longer than 48hrs/week. The Working Time Directive is to stop employers either directly or by coersion making their workers do long hours.

I'm in one of the few industries that has an "opt out", to allow employers to leggaly work their workers for more than 48hrs. Fortunately I'm also freelance and thus to some extent self scheduling, if I feel I've worked too hard I don't accept the job, an employee of the same company can't do that.

[Andy Luckman (AJL Electronics)]

That's why they "loose" money then. :-)

[usenet]

Absolutely true for lots of jobs, but you try to persuade employers.

Fortunately I have a 15 minute commute, and a flexible employer who will let me work from home occasionally. However lots and lots of people are not so lucky.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

I'm not sure this is strictly true Dave. Freemantle have started scheduling 'The Bill' at 48 hrs a week - including makeup and costume - after union pressure. They're also observing EU legislation on breaks - no matter what the production pressures may be.

Of course covering breaking news, etc, may rightfully be a different matter.

[Dave Liquorice]

The "opt out" still exists but the rumours are that it won't for much longer. Emmerdale are also bringing the working week down from 72 or

60 to 48(ish). I think there are a few contributary factors from the management finally getting the message that the crews are permenantly knackered and you don't get the best work or co-operation from tired and pissed of people and in the rumours that the opt out is going and a little bit of union pressure And you may as well jump rather than be pushed.

My view is that no matter the "story" it is only television, no body dies. Front line emergency workers or similar *essential* infra structure workers are another matter, but *only* in exceptional circumstances, like the local emergency plan being activated etc.