Stupidness at the rubbish dump

[gazz]

Went to the rubbish dump (oops, sorry, recycling centre) today with 4 bags of broken tiles from the kitchen i had just dug up, i only have a small car, and am planning to get an even smaller one soon (a smart car) so in anticipation for the new smaller car i bought a small trailer,

so obviousely i dont want dusty bags of broken tiles in the boot of my car, i put them in the trailer, at the tip i had just emptied one of the bags into the hardcore skip when 3 staff came running over telling me to stop imediately,

i thought i had emptied the tiles into the wrong skip, but there were already tiles in there, smashed bogs, even soil despite the sign saying no soil.

No, my crime, i had brought 4 bags of rubble in a trailer!!!

they claim there's a 'law' that says i'm only allowed to take 3 bags of rubble a day to the tip.. fairysnuff i thought, stops the commercial tippers, but then they said they had to be in the boot of my car, no rubble allowed to be deposited at the tip from a trailer!!!!!

WTF is all that about, they said i got away with it this time, but next time the camera's will be up and i'll get a fine!

FFs this is getting daft, next year i'm getting rid of my 14 year old nissan micra, and replacing it with a 3 or 4 year old diesel smart car, the micra burns through a gallon of petrol in about 40 miles, the smart car goes through a gallon of diesel in about 85-90 miles, it also chucks out so much less CO2 than the micra that the road tax on the smart is zero,

But there will be no room in the back for rubbish i want to take to the tip, never mind that i dont want it in the back of any car i own, that's why i have a trailer, that can get shitted up and it dosent matter.

So when i get the smart car, how do a get rid of any rubble, do i have to join the thousands of others who dump it in layby's? unhitch the trailer at the side of the road and go into the tip with one bag at a time in the boot of the smart?

I had a similar 'telling off' last time i went to the tip, i'm replacing the kitchen in the bungalow, so last time i took down the manky old kitchen units, there was one row of 3 wall units, and 2 floor units and a bit of worktop, (still got the sink unit to take out) i was told i shouldent be taking kitchen units to their tip, it's classed as home improvments and i'm to hire a skip for that kind of work!!!

And that's supposed to be greener, a bloody great 30 ton clapped out skip truck to deliver a 100 quid skip and block up my drive so i can chuck a few kitchen cabinets in it, be easier for me to burn the damn things in the garden.

Just who the hell is meddeling with things that have worked so well for years and screwing them up? a few years ago the tip was a place to take anything you couldent put out for normal rubbish commections, we even used to nip into the tip with normal rubbish bags on the way to the shops to save having so many for the binmen, now we get told there's a limit on the number of times we can go to the tip in a week or they suspect we are traders with commercial waste,

They call it recycling, but ask to 'recycle' something you see dumped there and your told no way, it has to be destroyed, someone dumped an electric golf trolley the other week, just what i needed to make a powered mover for my trailer, but the miserable sods said it had to be recycled by them by destroying it, my way of recycling it would be a lot better, but they werent having any of it.

No wonder there are so many fly tippers about.

[Anita Palley]

We have extremely fussy binmen who turn their noses up at a significant proportion of what is left out on binday (this week wouldn't take a knackered plastic mop which had been bent to a third of its original length, either as recycling or for landfill). Luckily we live on a turning off a major shopping street. On that street it seems that the need to keep it clear overrides all other considerations and there the binmen take away whatever is left out. So whatever they reject on our front path gets carried round the corner to the main road to be picked up later in the day by the same binmen. It's probably technically fly-tipping, but it seems to keep everyone happy.

[The Natural Philosopher]

Dont even thik of using even a land rover defender to dump stuff at the tip either.

'Commercial vehicle mate'

I just hope a wave of common sense overtakes the country, and sweeps away the petty bureaucracy, windmills, and footling regulations, into the dustbin of history, where they can be recycled into toilet paper.

[Bill]

In message , gazz writes

Don't live in Bedford by any chance? They are getting a reputation for being Wan*ers like this.

[Stephen Howard]

Copy your post to your local council. Many tips these days are run by subcontractors, and to some extent they set their own policy - although there may also be some regional variations at council level. I believe 'refuse services' come under the auspices of the council tax, so if the system's not working for you then you surely have a right to complain.

It's well worth emphasizing the advantages of recycling goods by selling them the general public ( something of a business opportunity in waiting for the canny entrepreneur, by the looks of it ).

You're right about the fly-tippers, although in the last year or so I've noticed a distinct shift from household appliances to general domestic and light building rubbish...probably because anything metal gets snapped up by roaming totters.

Regards,

[gazz]

Naah, Nottingham, well the outskirts, it's the tip near ikea,

they are spending thousands on it at the monent, putting barriers, speed humps, cameras and all that crap in, it'll have more security than a bank, but then again that's how the councils make money nowadays it seems, fining people for putting the wrong stuff in the bins.

I darent read the book 'stasi land' anymore, it's just so similar to how england is becoming, the bright side is look how that ended up, there's no more GDR is there, wonder what england will be renamed after the revolution.

[somebody]

In message , gazz writes

[snip]

I have given up entirely at the local council 'recycling centre'. My "crime" is choosing to take it an old clapped out van I bought so as to not put the crap in my car... Oh, and I just happen to be doing a load of work on my own house.

If you ever get driven away from the tip for good you might have the misfortune to end up at commercial landfill where tipping soil into a hole in the ground incurs a landfill tax of approx 3 times what the landfill operator gets. I can only assume that tipping soil into a hole in the ground is so environmentally destructive that they've had to introduce this tax.

There is a waste transfer station not too far from me which actually tries to sort and recycle everything you tip. Unfortunately due to the vagaries of the landfill tax etc, it costs me more to take it there than it does to chuck it in a hole in the ground.

Personally, I think the whole thing is b***ocks.

[EricP]

Probably, that's the way the morons are driving us.

[Anna Kettle]

I probably dump my rubbish at the same tip as you (BSE) and I drive a white van. Now how much more of a commercial vehicle can you get than that? But I'm a girlie and so they dont question me. Maybe you should get your wife to do the tip run

On second thoughts I do have a strategy - They watch on cctv as you arrive so I go straight to the timber skip. Presumably recycled timber makes money because at that point they lose interest in watching. I then move on to any other skip of my choice

Anna

Lime plaster repair and conservation Freehand modelling in lime: overmantels, pargeting etc Tel:    (+44)  01359 230642 Mob:  (+44)  07976 649862 Please look at my website for examples of my work at:

 

[Adrian]

The Natural Philosopher gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying:

I've had that too.

...in a friggin' 2cv van...

[Grumps]

Ditto. Mine's a 206 van.

The "advice" I was given was "after 12:30 on a Saturday, or dump on a Sunday mate". I was there on a Saturday morning and had to go to the weighbridge and explain it was domestic waste. Still, it turned out to be far quicker than queuing with the others at the general refuse site. Annoying this was though, that I had a load of green waste that I wanted to stick with the rest of the green stuff, but after going through the weighbridge and onto the commercial area, it all went onto a big pile of stuff destined for landfill!

[Toby Sleigh]

I wonder what they'd say if I turned up on my bicycle with 3 bags of rubble in my bike trailer...

[robgraham]

Well can I suggest you all come and live in West Lothian where there is absolutely none of the troubles you talk about.

I've gone with a trailer and a van and been given nothing but helpful assistance. I don't know what their attitude is to commercial boys with vans though, but I suspect that within reason they are accepted on the basis that it is cheaper to deal with there off loads there than collect the fly tipping.

Rob

[dennis]

Comply with the letter of the law then.. take it from the trailer.. place it in the boot.. then chuck it.

Its all about stopping trades men from using the dumps for trade waste. If you write to the council they will probably give you permission to use the trailer assuming you aren't a trader.

That's a joke.. I have been driving a smart and I get nowhere near 80 mpg. The damn things a motorbike with a body and you know what happens on those as soon as you try and go fast.. the fuel consumption drops like a stone.

PS I do get 50 mpg out of my Astra so its not that I drive with a lead foot.

[David Hansen]

On Thu, 11 Sep 2008 23:54:31 +0100 someone who may be "gazz" wrote this:-

What does your councillor have to say about all this? I take it that you have contacted them to see if they can do something about it.

Things only "worked so well" for those people who didn't live near large holes in the ground. Even for those people it didn't work well as it encouraged "disposable" products and over-packaging. The film at highlights some problems.

Switched on councils have reuse cabins. However, many councils are not good at waste and only doing the minimum they think they can get away with.

One of the best examples of a council not being switched on was when they tried to prosecute someone campaigning to reduce waste for the "crime" of recovering four chairs from a landfill skip. The story at , an update at and a sort of conclusion at .

[dennis]

Its been done and gone bankrupt on many occasions. People don't want to pay for secondhand stuff. How much secondhand stuff do you have?

[Bob Mannix]

They have kind of reverted to that round my way as well (Oxfordshire). There was a period where you were limited to "3 large things" and trailers were frowned on but they seem to have given up on that as it was unworkable and stuff just got dumped anywhere or people just made extra journeys. More keen now that stuff goes in the right skip which is fair enough. They have even extended the opening hours (a lot of people go on the way to work) and rebuilt the whole recycling centre. Plenty of vans there as well.

Their official policy on DIY waste is still:

"DIY waste from householders is accepted at all eight Waste Recycling Centres. The first three items are free and subsequent items are charged at £1 each up to a maximum of £10 (i.e. 13 items in total). An item counts as a normal bin bag of waste, one door, one sink, one bath etc."

Which isn't too bad but I have NEVER seen anyone charged!

The council's problem is that they get a financial hit from the government if they dump more landfill so they want commercials to pay and householders to recycle.

[Kevin Poole]

If you're OK with crossing the border - I know many denizens of Notingham aren't - try Ilkeston or Loscoe. Both take trailers up to, iirc 8ft long, though neither have so far turned me away with my Ifor Williams 10ft. They have a 25kg limit for rubble, but don't actually weight it. Ilkeston is hard work for general rubbish - steep ramps to walk up. They're also fairly hot on their asbestos cement limit, and won't let you return even a couple of weeks later with more.

The real problem will be getting a towbar on a Smart. I believe they're new enough that towbars have to be of an approved type, and to be approved, they have to be fastened to mountings provided by the car maker. And Smart don't provide them, as Ford don't on the Ka.

[dennis]

Most "soil" going into landfill is contaminated. If yours is good soil, and you can prove it, you can sell the stuff. Otherwise it will be assumed to be contaminated and you will pay.

You pay for it if you dump it at the household site too, through the CT. Which is why they have their silly rules to stop traders dumping for free.

They also know that traders are trying to get around it by leaving the cr@p for the householder to get rid of, so they treat a lot of DIY waste as traders waste and may ask for proof if they don't like the look of you.

[dennis]

The mans a bit of an idiot though..

he thinks it should be "not in the publics interest".. if they did that then that is saying "we think you are guilty and you will have a police record showing such".

Where they have made the decision that he may well have broken the law but its stupid and a waste of their time so they will dump the case.

He can always appeal if he wants a record as he is actually guilty.