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A Load Of Rubbish


History dude

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The collection of household waste is now an hot topic for the man in the street. But I wreckon that sometimes we don't give credit to those hard working people who collect our rubbish. But sometimes there job isn't made better than those in charge. I mean who comes up with some of the schemes our refuse department has these days?

For example we now have the Blue Bin for metal cans and bottles and a box for paper. Well I can tell you now on our street it isn't working. On the collection days I'm amazed at how few bottle bins are put out and even less paper bins. Even when the lorry comes around (after 12pm most weeks) few bins have joined those waiting. When they first started the collection I noticed they had a special bin lorry that took both types of bins. However for several months now I have watched the binmen at work and they have a blackbin, which a guy puts the box waste in and the black bin is emptied in the truck. Which means that we could have been just given another standard bin for the bottles/can -perhaps a red bin- and saved on all the confusion and stickers put on blue bins. I wonder what happend to the dual bin truck? Did it keep breaking down? Hence why they do that?

The Black Bins are of course piled high to overflowing on those days and are all placed out!

Too make matters worse we have just got a green waste collection service. But not a green bin! It's a green sack service :blink: You can use any green sacks, and they are supplied at libraries and council offices free, but why? It's seems silly to me to spend money all the time on supplying green sacks, when one bin will do the job. Plus dealing with green sacks is like creating more waste than is needed. Added to that some areas still have Green Bin collections, in our case just a few streets away from us!

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We have just been introduced to the green bag service, I would be going out of

my way to collect the freebies so I have bought some green plastic bags.

I can imagine when the time comes which is someday next week that it will be left

behind because it's the wrong shade of green or something equally as stupid. I'll wait

and see.

When all these bags have been collected does anyone know what happens to the

garden rubbish and do they have someone at the other end ripping off all the bags?

if so it would be more economical to have a green bin as History dude said.

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We have just been introduced to the green bag service, I would be going out of

my way to collect the freebies so I have bought some green plastic bags.

I can imagine when the time comes which is someday next week that it will be left

behind because it's the wrong shade of green or something equally as stupid. I'll wait

and see.

When all these bags have been collected does anyone know what happens to the

garden rubbish and do they have someone at the other end ripping off all the bags?

if so it would be more economical to have a green bin as History dude said.

We have a large green bin for garden waste.

Emptied into a bin wagon like a normal bin, on a set schedule, more frequently in summer than in winter (that makes sense)

We are told that the garden waste is shredded and composted.

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The collection of household waste is now an hot topic for the man in the street. But I wreckon that sometimes we don't give credit to those hard working people who collect our rubbish. But sometimes there job isn't made better than those in charge. I mean who comes up with some of the schemes our refuse department has these days?

For example we now have the Blue Bin for metal cans and bottles and a box for paper. Well I can tell you now on our street it isn't working. On the collection days I'm amazed at how few bottle bins are put out and even less paper bins. Even when the lorry comes around (after 12pm most weeks) few bins have joined those waiting. When they first started the collection I noticed they had a special bin lorry that took both types of bins. However for several months now I have watched the binmen at work and they have a blackbin, which a guy puts the box waste in and the black bin is emptied in the truck. Which means that we could have been just given another standard bin for the bottles/can -perhaps a red bin- and saved on all the confusion and stickers put on blue bins. I wonder what happend to the dual bin truck? Did it keep breaking down? Hence why they do that?

We still get the dual bin wagon.

The blue bin containing glass, metal and plastic (I wouldn't want to have to sort that lot out as there are several grades and types of each of these 3 materials) is emptied in one side of the wagon, while the blue boxes are emptied into a black bin which the bin men carry with them on their rounds and when full the black bin, now containing only paper and card, is emptied into a seperate compartment on the wagon. They only transfer from blue boxes to black bin as the bin fits on the up and over emptying mechanism but the boxes, with their plastic waterproof hoods don't.

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The Black Bins are of course piled high to overflowing on those days and are all placed out!

That's because people are just putting everything in the black (general non-recyclable waste) bin and not bothering to sort stuff out for the other bins.

Their attitude may change when the next phase comes in.

It is planned to have wagons which weigh the black bins before emptying them and then each household will receive a seperate "waste disposal bill" based on how much non-recyclable rubbish they have thrown out.

So, the less there is in your black bin, the less you pay, and the more you put in it, the bigger the bill.

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We have just been introduced to the green bag service, I would be going out of

my way to collect the freebies so I have bought some green plastic bags.

I can imagine when the time comes which is someday next week that it will be left

behind because it's the wrong shade of green or something equally as stupid. I'll wait

and see.

When all these bags have been collected does anyone know what happens to the

garden rubbish and do they have someone at the other end ripping off all the bags?

if so it would be more economical to have a green bin as History dude said.

They empty the bags into the wagon as they go. They also check the contents, and if they don't fit the criteria they get left. In the booklet they've sent they say you can use your own bags, as long as they're green and strong enough to contain twiggy stuff, which is a bit of a cheek since the ones they supply are so thin you can almost see through them, and the smallest twig will poke a hole in them.

The stuff they do deign to collect is taken to recycling centres for composting, which is then sold.

The daftest part to me is the collection limit of 6 bags per month, whereas the limit used to be 12. My garden isn't massive but I can fill more than that, even with 4 compost bins. So what's happening is that people are distributing the extra ones outside neighbours' houses that either don't use the service or have fewer bags. Which in turn means they collect the same number of bags in total but have to make more stops.

I complained about the reduction to my councillor, and after lengthy investigation, he reckons the 6 bags limit was decided by Veolia and the new Council on an unofficial basis, based on that being how many free sacks you can collect at at time from the collection points!

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The stuff they do deign to collect is taken to recycling centres for composting, which is then sold.

So they must employ someone to undo all the plastic bags, cheaper to give us green bins

but then where do we put all these bins :blink:

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So they must employ someone to undo all the plastic bags, cheaper to give us green bins

but then where do we put all these bins

The bags are undone by the loaders with the collection lorry. They empty them into the truck and sometimes they'll leave you the empty bags to reuse,but not always. So I guess they employ the same number of loader swhether for bags or bins. Bins would be much quicker though!

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The bags are undone by the loaders with the collection lorry. They empty them into the truck and sometimes they'll leave you the empty bags to reuse,but not always. So I guess they employ the same number of loader swhether for bags or bins. Bins would be much quicker though!

3 bins in the frozen North, black - general rubbish, green - recycling - paper/plastic/tins + insert container for glass, brown - gardening waste - no complains, recycling bin sometimes beyond full - recycling centre/incinerator about 1.5 miles away.

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The bags are undone by the loaders with the collection lorry. They empty them into the truck and sometimes they'll leave you the empty bags to reuse,but not always. So I guess they employ the same number of loader swhether for bags or bins. Bins would be much quicker though!

We don't get amy sacks and garden waste goes in the green bin.

Surely then different areas of Sheffield, all served by the same council, are getting different levels of service.

Currently we get

Black Bin, general non-recyclable waste, weekly collection

Green Bin, garden waste weekly / fortnightly / monthly collection dependent on season.

Blue Bin, glass, metal and plastics, weekly collection

Blue Box, paper and card, weekly collection same time as blue bin.

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We don't get amy sacks and garden waste goes in the green bin.

Surely then different areas of Sheffield, all served by the same council, are getting different levels of service.

Currently we get

Black Bin, general non-recyclable waste, weekly collection

Green Bin, garden waste weekly / fortnightly / monthly collection dependent on season.

Blue Bin, glass, metal and plastics, weekly collection

Blue Box, paper and card, weekly collection same time as blue bin.

The green bins were a pilot scheme run in just a few areas some time ago, but it was never rolled out to the rest of the city. So we have a black bin emptied weekly, a blue bin and a blue box emptied fortnightly, and green sacks you collect from the library (when they have any!) which will be collected once a month (in a given week, not a specific day) and no more than 6 bags per collection.

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The green bins were a pilot scheme run in just a few areas some time ago, but it was never rolled out to the rest of the city. So we have a black bin emptied weekly, a blue bin and a blue box emptied fortnightly, and green sacks you collect from the library (when they have any!) which will be collected once a month (in a given week, not a specific day) and no more than 6 bags per collection.

Come to think of it, the blue bin and blue box collections are fortnightly now rather than weekly.

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That's because people are just putting everything in the black (general non-recyclable waste) bin and not bothering to sort stuff out for the other bins.

Their attitude may change when the next phase comes in.

It is planned to have wagons which weigh the black bins before emptying them and then each household will receive a seperate "waste disposal bill" based on how much non-recyclable rubbish they have thrown out.

So, the less there is in your black bin, the less you pay, and the more you put in it, the bigger the bill.

The result more dumped in parts of the city as soon as people work out they have to pay more :P

Plus some people will simply dump them into someone elses bin, when they are a sleep, out at work, or on holiday!

It won't work :rolleyes:

The only way that will work is if each bin is tagged with a chip like they do with pets!

Somebody will then come up with a bin that's clever! And will keep it's lid shut if you try and put something in that shouldn't go in. Maybe they will even tell you off! lol

So you come home from work have an argument with your better half, then have an argument with the kids and when you put out the rubbish at night have an argument with the bin lol lol

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We still get the dual bin wagon.

Yes we do. However the first lorry we had could actually take the Blue Box, the men just removed the cover, without transfering it to a black bin. That's the one that's vanished.

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The result more dumped in parts of the city as soon as people work out they have to pay more :P

Plus some people will simply dump them into someone elses bin, when they are a sleep, out at work, or on holiday!

It won't work :rolleyes:

Don't tell me History Dude,

Tell the council and the people like Capita, Veola and Onyx that these contracts get handed out to.

It isn't my idea and it has been suggested as the next phase in getting us to "green up" our act on refuse disposal.

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Don't tell me History Dude,

Tell the council and the people like Capita, Veola and Onyx that these contracts get handed out to.

It isn't my idea and it has been suggested as the next phase in getting us to "green up" our act on refuse disposal.

Not having a go at you Dave :)

The council stopped taking on the views of the public (if they ever did) after the budget cuts. They know such a scheme will increase revenues, the costs of problems transfered to other budgets or departments to sort out.

For example I spoke to a woman Labour Councilor once about the Black Bin service a few years after it was introduced. The Council were going on about the amount of rubbish appearing in the streets at that time. I said to her (she was a member of the committee dealing with refuse I believe) that the reason a great deal of general household waste was appearing in the streets, was entirely down the introduction of the Black Bin. More to the point the fact bins were collected from the street and not from a person's property. I explained to her that the public saw the street and cleaning it as a council workforce matter. So if a bin was knocked over by dogs or kids, plus as is often the case with a lid open, blowing rubbish into the street, then that such rubbish would not be picked up by the public, even if it was from thier bin. However if rubbish fell from the bin on the property of the person as it was being taken to the street (even by a binman), the resident would generally pick it up, but never from the street.

"Sorry we are not changing the policy back" she replied. End of consultation.

Another time in a meeting I can recall, the Parks Department were cutting shrubs and green spaces back and because they only had one truck to pick it all up, were leaving it around in piles. As a result residents would dump rubbish on the pile, knowing it would eventually be cleared away. Parks were unhappy with workers clearing away refuse and said they were not going to shift it, saying it was a Refuse Dept job. Equally Refuse were not going to clear it, because of budget problems - they didn't have a truck - is what they meant I think ;-) In the end Housing shiffted it all using a budget set aside for improvements, which the Residents Associations were not at all pleased about!

So there you have it ;-) Generally I found in my dealings with Sheffield Council that unless you can find a manager/councilors who believes in what you propose/suggest, then you haven't got a cat-in-hells-chance of getting it done :(

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Not having a go at you Dave :)

The council stopped taking on the views of the public (if they ever did) after the budget cuts. They know such a scheme will increase revenues, the costs of problems transfered to other budgets or departments to sort out.

For example I spoke to a woman Labour Councilor once about the Black Bin service a few years after it was introduced. The Council were going on about the amount of rubbish appearing in the streets at that time. I said to her (she was a member of the committee dealing with refuse I believe) that the reason a great deal of general household waste was appearing in the streets, was entirely down the introduction of the Black Bin. More to the point the fact bins were collected from the street and not from a person's property. I explained to her that the public saw the street and cleaning it as a council workforce matter. So if a bin was knocked over by dogs or kids, plus as is often the case with a lid open, blowing rubbish into the street, then that such rubbish would not be picked up by the public, even if it was from thier bin. However if rubbish fell from the bin on the property of the person as it was being taken to the street (even by a binman), the resident would generally pick it up, but never from the street.

I didn't take it that you were having a go at me History Dude, I think we actually agree on what we think about changes in refuse dispal in the City.

Your point about members of the public not picking up rubbish on the street but only on their own drive annoys me.

I am fed up, as I walk around Sheffield, of picking up those red elastic bands used to hold the Royal Mail together while the postman is on his delivery rounds with it. Why do some postmen think it acceptable to litter our streets, and our drives with them when they have taken them off the letters? Isn't it after all a criminal offence to drop litter in the street? Or doesn't that apply to the Royal Mail? Why can't they take the rubber bands back and reuse them (environmentally friendly) until they wear out?

Also, some people are too idle to pick even their own waste up. I know some people who moan at the extra effort and burdon placed on them by having 3 or 4 bins and having to sort the rubbish into the right bin for recycling. It's hardly a chore. What they really want is just one big bin to chuck everything into because it is a quick, easy, bone idle way out for them, and it passes the problem onto someone else.

Try telling them that if recycling is going to work we ALL have to do our bit and pull together.

They just can't be bothered with this most trivial of tasks so perhaps some people deserve to be charged.

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Somebody will then come up with a bin that's clever! And will keep it's lid shut if you try and put something in that shouldn't go in. Maybe they will even tell you off! lol

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But one mans rubbish is another mans treasure.

I have a friend who used to run a skip hire business, he reckoned that there were 2 types of people when it came to skips, - those who filled them up and those who emptied them again.

Those who filled them up

"Hey, somebody who lives 3 strees away has had a skip delivered onto their front drive, why don't we get all that old rubbish out of the shed, take it around there at the dead of night while they are asleep and dump it in their skip, - that will get rid of and clear the shed out"

Those who empty them again

"Hey, look at that in that skip over there on someones drive, - it's as good as new and a lot better than the one we've got. Fancy throwing that away, it's worth a bob or two that is. I'll come back tonight while they are asleep and help myself to that out of their skip, - I could use that"

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Fancy throwing that away, it's worth a bob or two that is. I'll come back tonight while they are asleep and help myself to that out of their skip

And that could be stealing :o I don't know if you caught the TV show Fake or Fortune the other week, but there was this bloke who found a painting on a tip, he took it along the Antiques Roadshow and the expert said it was worth a fortune, so this show followed up what became of the painting. However when the man and his daughter tried to sell it, the owner of the work stopped the auction and wanted it back. It seems even if you chuck something away then it can still be your property. In this case the police were even called in, saying the could be charged for handling stolen goods! It turns out the picture could have raised a million, but all the finder got was a long drawn out court case, lots of expense and nothing to show for it, in a case that I believe is still not closed.

So unless you can get the owner's permission never remove anything from a skip ;-)

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Your point about members of the public not picking up rubbish on the street but only on their own drive annoys me.

Your forgetting that an Englishman's home is his castle. So anything outside your boundary is somebody elses problem. Plus you are likely to have somebody who will find a problem with you picking up rubbish, unless you are doing so as part of an organised event. Just look at the mess you can get in for clearing snow ;-) Yet I know what you mean. I myself are guilty of doing the council's jobs from time to time. For instance a jennel near us keeps overgrowing with some prickly things. So I will go out and chop some of the worse offenders back, doing so a few weeks ago a passer by said, "get onto the Council to do it". Anyway we did and many weeks later it's still overgrown and nearly impassible. It's actually a busy route linking the tram to the estate, but even telling them that doesn't make a bit of difference. They are probably busy planting wildflowers somewhere or on a health and safety courses lol

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I don't know if you caught the TV show Fake or Fortune the other week, but there was this bloke who found a painting on a tip, he took it along the Antiques Roadshow and the expert said it was worth a fortune, so this show followed up what became of the painting. However when the man and his daughter tried to sell it, the owner of the work stopped the auction and wanted it back. It seems even if you chuck something away then it can still be your property. In this case the police were even called in, saying the could be charged for handling stolen goods! It turns out the picture could have raised a million, but all the finder got was a long drawn out court case, lots of expense and nothing to show for it, in a case that I believe is still not closed.

So unless you can get the owner's permission never remove anything from a skip ;-)

Didn't see that one History Dude but I did see another one, a documentary based upon a recent news item.

A branch of Tesco's had suffered a power cut and their freezers had started to defrost, so, as required by law for food health and safety they dumped their entire stock, £12,000 worth in a skip for disposal. However, as the skip was in an acceccible place before it could be disposed of all the local scroungers had come and helped themselves, claiming "there was nothing wrong with it" (meaning the food was still safe to eat) and that "it was a waste of good food" to justify their reasons for stealing it from the skip. Tesco saw it differently and accused these people of stealing their property, even though Tesco had thrown the stuff out. The Law was on the side of Tesco, as you have pointed out in the previous post with a similar incident. Fortunately none of these criminals got food poisoning from the food they took, - if they had a bit some of them would have had the audacity to try and sue Tesco's for trying to poison them! In practice I think Tesco would have written off the food as now unfit for human consumption and claimed on their insurance for the loss so it would technically be the insurers property. The food would probably have been reassessed and either destroyed or sold for animal feed depending on it's state.

After this incident a number of people, some of them quite well off and certainly not down and out tramps, appeared in this programme to brag about the fact that they take stuff from skips as though they were doing society a favour by getting rid of stuff that someone else didn't want.

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I have just sent the following to the Waste Management services regarding the Blue Box.

BOYCOTT THE BLUE BOX

Sometime ago I asked the department responsible for these boxes if we could switch from having a box to a wheeled bin. The reason being as these boxes are stupid and are easily blown over by the wind. The cover provides no protection at all. Worse of all having watched the bin men empty them, they are even more stupid than I thought. In that the box is emptied into a black wheeled bin and emptied in the lorry.
The department refused to change it.
Today a bin collection day saw a bin lorry come up our road and then down it without empty the bins, presumably because the snow was too slippy for them. Well if that's the attitude, when I can go to the shops and fetch grocery products without having the boots these blokes have on, then in future all that will be put out is the blue wheelie bin, which will be used for paper! The rest can go in the black bin including the stupid blue box!

I will also be telling my friends and neighbours to boycott the blue box, till you people see sense a give us a wheeled bin for cans and bottles.

Just feeling in a militant mood with them. Let you know what they say :P

Feel free to join the campaign! ;-) Send your e-mails below.

wastemanagement@sheffield.gov.uk

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