Can I chuck unused wheelie bins in a skip?

[Harry Bloomfield]

michael adams wrote on 17/01/2019 :

Leeds..

[Roger Hayter]

My understanding is that a 'delivery charge' is near universal among councils which wish to charge at all. It avoids all disputes about price and quality and it suits the council to remain the owner.

[Steve Walker]

Ours supplies compostable bags for their food waste collections. They used to carry a supply on the bin wagon and when you were running low, you indicated that you needed more by tying one to the bin handle on bin day and they'd leave a roll by the bin.

Now you have to phone them or use their website and they have them delivered by courier or send out a van!!!

SteveW

[Steve Walker]

Trafford charges £28 per bin or £97 for all four. This applies to lost, stolen or damaged bins or if you move into a house with no bins. The ONLY free replacement is if the bin wagon equipment damages the bin (assuming that the crew actually record the damage).

SteveW

[FMurtz]

Why?they are the most useful things around, give them away you will have no end of takers.

[Another John]

I agree! I rarely put the bin out without marvelling at its design: I would say that as a work of functional engineering art, it's perfect: a _fantastic_ invention.

John

[T i m]

There were ~10,000 new wheely bins in the local council yard recently and I watched them 'delivering' some to customers (inc us). ;-)

V large van pulls up and they slide a stack of bins out onto the road. They are leapt on by several guys, de-stacked, arranged side-by-side in the middle of the road axle side upwards. A wheel was pushed onto one end of the axle, axle threaded though bin and the other wheel thumped on. The bins were stood up and pulled 2 at a time to each house.

Rinse - repeat over the entire borough. ;-)

I understand the old bins are shredded and recycled (along with any new old-style / colour / phone number / logo bins that never got used).

Ironically, we generally use a large bin bag in our kitchen bin and then fill that with the smaller bins as needed when lifted out. We then put that bag in the wheely bin. It seems they often find it quicker / easier to just lift the bag out of the bin and throw it in the back of the truck (old skool stylee) than to wheel the bin out and hook it onto the lifting mech on the truck and put the bin back.

When out walking the fog it never fails to amaze us how many people really don't get the whole refuse / recycling thing. Bins overflowing with the lid open (they often won't collect such). Smaller plastics box overfilled with non-crushed large coke bottles or cans. Non flattened cardboard boxes stood by the cardboard bin.

A bugbear is people putting their (non green) rubbish in our green bin. OK, I'm glad they make the effort rather than just dropping it on the ground but that means we have to fish their rubbish out of an often otherwise empty (so deep) wheely bin to put it in the right place. ;-(

I wonder how many here clear litter from the street near our homes (between any Council cleaners)? A few of us round here do, 1) because it looks untidy and 2) if you don't it seems to invite others to add to it? ;-(

Cheers, T i m

[DerbyBorn]

It is a way of advertising that "Thick People Live Here". I once managed to get a Micra Tailgate into a bin and have also managed a dishwasher. Many struggle to cope with a cardboard box.

[T i m]

On Fri, 18 Jan 2019 09:54:40 GMT, DerbyBorn [e-mail] wrote: <snip>

Along with the 60" TV box stood outside their houses in one piece.

LOL!

So it seems. The worst I have seen was a complete near Eurobin sized cardboard box upside down inside the Eurobin for cardboard recycling, outside the Council Offices. I pulled it out, turned it over and put all my cardboard inside it.

I also understand the local council have also given up on bundling up plastic bottles for recycling because of just how much unwanted plastic is put with the wanted.

So whereas they used to get a good price per truckload of 'quality' plastic they now get next to nothing for a load of polluted stuff, simply because they don't have the staff to do what the households should do (properly) in the first place. ;-(

I think someone from every household should be expected to visit the local recycling / incinerator / landfill sites before they get given a bin. ;-)

Cheers, T i m

[Marland]

Well it is only a quiet village so I do and it ,usually on going to and from the allotments or walking one of the residents dogs if they need a hand. (We get the companionship without the bills). A couple of others I see pick up while walking by as well. That is in addition to a good twice a year community clean where a map of the vicinity is put on the village notice board with the local roads split into sections, you choose a section pick up one of the litter picker grabs and some bags and go along the chosen section. If you are happy it is done you put your name on the section meaning it has been done, if you haven?t cleared it you don?t mark it and hope someone else will complete. I tend to follow on the second day and as I have my own picker which is extra long* often reach items that others could not . Once done a crisp packet , coffee cup,bottle stand out but picking them up regularly keeps it under control . Crisps etc come from local kids who are generally quite good but let them escape from pockets, Coffee cups you can tell by the branding have been brought in at least 9 miles so probably from cars. And I?m sorry cyclists but far too many of you think that dressing in a replica team strip from the Tour de France etc entitles you to throw their empty water bottles into the verge as seen on those races , except here there is no clean up operation following them.

• Extra long because it was bought to reach fallen leaves in a largish pond or higher sprigs of elderflower that others can?t reach.

GH

[Marland]

For some especially fly tippers it should be a one way journey.

GH

[michael adams]

As you've clearly done a lot of research on this, can you explain why the Household Waste Recycling Centre in York is named after the pulchritudinous 1960's TV and film actress ("Dick and the Dutchess", Hammer Horrors, etc ) Hazel Court ?

Did she live in York at some point I wonder ? Or did she have a particular interest in Household Waste Recycling maybe ?

Whatever the answer, at least it's nice to know that she's not been forgotten.

michael adams

...

[T i m]

LOL, I like it!

Cheers, T i m

[T i m]

Nice.

Nice setup. Daughter has helped arrange similar in our local park.

Fair enough. Every little helps etc.

Show off. ;-)

I've often been impressed by the skill of our Council litter pickers watching them pickup a mostly flattened dog-end with little in the way of effort.

They could be trained to roll then tie them up in a knot. They take up less room in their pockets and the bin and are less likely to blow about, even if dropped.

My Mums house was about a small portion of chips away from the chippy and opposite a bus stop.

I can't say I've seen that but can believe it happens. ;-(

I'll have to look out for one of those, sounds very handy (even with my long arms). ;-).

Cheers, T i m

[Steve Walker]

<Snipped>

That has always been the way. Keeping an area clean is much less effort than cleaning it up once in a while.

Councils don't seem to understand that though. We used to have a street sweeper with a little yellow cart, but the council in its wisdom got rid of him and now use a small, roadgoing vehicle. The reult is that the area is not kept as clean (we do have a residents litter picking session every so often), which encourages more litter. The rotating brushes are also very good at throwing much of what is there into the hedges and bushes rather than collecting it.

Another by product of getting rid of the street sweeper is that he'll have lost his job and will probably be on benefits for life - he is deaf and dumb, so little chance of finding something else. Working out and about at least got him an income, a chance to feel he was doing something useful and a little interaction with people. He always had a smile for everyone.

SteveW

[Steve Walker]

One of the problems is that the bottles and caps are of different materials and the recyclers want the former, but not the latter. The trouble is that when you flatten bottles, they tend to partly spring back unless the cap is on to keep them collapsed by vacuum. What we really need is a requirement for the caps and bottles to be of compatible materials (not necessarily the same materials).

In the case of plastic bottles, it should be simple enough for automating cutting off 1" from the cap end of the bottles at the recycling plant if there is a cap on. Unscrewing it would be even better, but cutting is fast, reliable and simple.

Alterantively, I wonder if they can recycle shredded bottles? I'd be happy enough with a strong, hand-driven shredder. They'd take far less space then.

SteveW

[T i m]

<snip>

Understood.

I'll give you they can spring back a bit but ours generally stay pretty flat?

That would make a lot of sense.

Yup.

I guess that might be down to *all* plastic (drink type) bottles being made out of the same (or mixable) material and people only shredding those, not mixing them up with other stuff?

Given I've seen hard plastic toys in the box that should pretty well only be a small range of plastic bottles, I'd not want to trust 'most people' with such a decision (hey, that sounds familiar). ;-)

Cheers, T i m

[T i m]

Good to hear. Shame it's still not the case country-wide. ;-(

We still have both. The sweeper vehicle is pretty useless these days as most of the gutters are filled with cars, even during the day.

Yup. ;-(

Doh! ;-(

Might he mot have been transferred to a different role within the council, like one of the grass maintenance teams?

That IS a terrible shame. And if he was doing a good job, I wonder if 'the people' could afford to keep him on between them (like you see some areas hiring their own 'security' patrols)? There may even be some social support / grant for that out there?

Cheers, T i m

[Terry Casey]

If you look at the map on the page you linked to and examine the names of lots of the surrounding streets, I think you will find that you are barking up the wrong tree ...

[DerbyBorn]

Meanwhile - others don't give a stuff and hinder the processes.