Forum Topic

Green Wheelie Bins

The Green Wheelie Bins are about to be rolled out to all residents in the Borough as of November 2015.  Are there any residents on this forum who do not want a bin or don't have room to store one?  A letter from the Council indicates 73% of residents were happy with their Wheelie bins but quoting no 'source' for this result. Having queried the Council, LBH cannot provide a source of information with regards to the 'poll' that was conducted, by whom it was conducted, where it was conducted and what questions were asked to the residents.   It appears that the Council is imposing something upon its residents once again without prior consultation.

Mark Skuse ● 3584d22 Comments

No cards delivered here yet but you can download them from here:http://www.hounslow.gov.uk/index/environment_and_planning/recycling/collection_days.htmJL

Jim Linwood ● 3579d

Anne - life is too short to spend it talking to muppets!

Vanessa Smith ● 3579d

Phone Talha - he knows it all!

Anne England ● 3580d

Have the collection schedule cars been delivered yet? Ours ran out last month, or are they printing new ones with the fortnightly timings on them, hence the delay?

Vanessa Smith ● 3580d

So they are obviously not monitoring the collection.Do they think that by bringing it in-house it will be any different?If they really want to increase recycling then they have to give more respect to the residents who do so as not to dissuade them from doing so and deal with those that need help with the information on how to.

Philippa Bond ● 3580d

Talha is, I'm afraid, talking out of the part of his anatomy usually reserved for sitting on! I doubt this wise one ever leaves his desk, what would we know? We're only the idiots on the receiving end of this farce. Perhaps we'll film this next time - do you think he'll believe it then? Quite obviously another moron who thinks that if he says it isn't so, then it isn't!

Vanessa Smith ● 3580d

'Once again the bag was lifted out ...' - but Talha of Hounslow Council assures me that this will not happen!

Anne England ● 3580d

We know that councillors and officers "monitor" this forum and they know that we know and yet they will cherry pick on the odd occasion what they choose to respond to and would rather genuine issues like this would just go away and will do if simply ignored

Paul Fisher ● 3580d

Who is so interested in power and who is so interested in saving face?

Philippa Bond ● 3580d

Specifically watched the Wheelie collection this morning, yep! Once again the bag was lifted out and the bin knocked over in the effort, then my neighbour's bin was dragged to the lorry in the collector's other hand, what is the point? Also we have found the lids to the bins are always left up, so when it rains you get a bin with a considerable amount of water in it, a right pain.

Vanessa Smith ● 3580d

I've noticed that the bin men take black bags out of some of the wheelie-bins and place then in another which is then loaded into the lorry.In the questionnaire I complained that there was only one size bin and that we should have the option to choose smaller ones. I also said that I had not noticed any change in the litter problem.JL.

Jim Linwood ● 3580d

They should be encouraging people to recycle because people know they don't have to.It seems they went on the wrong course.  It should have read "How to MOTIVATE people" not how to demotivate people.And all because they didn't and presumably still don't have the cojones to tackle the real problems.Perhaps they should also get up early and watch the early collections along the red routes to see if the flats' recycling is going in the right lorry too. If they want the system to work they have to actually get out of the office and do something instead of just expecting the bins to do it for them. Now if they were to accept just one or two bags from an ordinary sized bin that fits under the front of a bay window.  What would be the problem with that?

Philippa Bond ● 3580d

Re your last sentence - precisely. The presence of an ugly plastic bin outside of one's house 365 days of the year is not going to make me recycle more, in fact I would find it extremely difficult to recycle any more than I already do so where's the benefit? Sorry to say that the bin's enforced presence may actually also have the opposite effect in many cases i.e. chuck it all in and be done with it.I'm intrigued to know which houses in my road/area have been exempted - we shall no doubt only know when the bins get delivered. While I could no doubt 'argue' with some of the exemptions (apart from disability related), as far as I'm concerned the greater the number of exemptions the better.

Anne England ● 3581d

"To my 'claim' that the bin men will probably only lift the one/two bag(s) out of the bin anyway, Talha said that they will absolutely not do this."Perhaps Talha should get his rear into gear and get up early to watch the refuse bods perform. I have seen them more often than not, do exactly what you describe, which rather begged the question why Wheelies then? In theory they shouldn't take plastic bags if they are left outside a Wheelie but they do that too. One of my neighbours who seems to have a lot of trouble with the concept of using the Wheelie and putting stuff out on the correct day usually rushes out with his black bag at the last minute, you really couldn't make it up.

Vanessa Smith ● 3581d

We can all complain to our local Councillors, for what its worth.  Our new Councillor for the Brentford ward should be championing the fact that as a community, he has witnessed the lengths that we go through to recycle. He just has to wander around our streets on collection days to see what we do.  We should not have to pay for deficiencies in other areas of the borough. However, he would be unlikely to upset the apple cart.

Mark Skuse ● 3581d

They've been brainwashed - and probably don't do any recycling or separation of waste themselves.I think that those who are just told to implement it together with those effing executives who just bark the orders and walk away should be taken to task and made to show that they can actually do the job themselves and know what they are doing.Wheelie bins don't do the recycling.  People do it.  So if people don't do it- it doesn't happen.  Which bit don't they understand?

Philippa Bond ● 3581d

Do you think that 'complaining' will get anywhere? From the circular conversation I just had with Talha of Hounslow Council, who told me that there was absolutely no reason why I shouldn't have a bin and that in his opinion I should have one, it would appear not. Talha says that it is to encourage recycling - which I have done over the years down to the nth degree. To my 'claim' that the bin men will probably only lift the one/two bag(s) out of the bin anyway, Talha said that they will absolutely not do this. I can't imagine that wheeling a bin to the truck, dealing with it and then returning it (we'll see about that) to the place in which it was found will be quicker than just grabbing one or two bags which I would generate in a fortnight and dealing with it as before.To be clear, I am not exactly opposed to fortnightly collections, just these unsightly bins and really can't see why small houses with, by and large, one or two occupants are going to be subjected to them. No doubt there are a few out there who disagree with me but I wouldn't mind betting that they are few and far between. Finally, for now at least, my concern about this is not just all about me - I am very concerned about the whole of the UK ending up looking like a dump.

Anne England ● 3581d

I am in no doubt that their poll would be based on the fact that 27% of residents complained about the wheelie bins so they are taking the 73% of non responders as positive, which is their usual tactic...

Kathy Riley ● 3581d

All because of a failure throughout the years to tackle the problem at source.Most people don't need them. Why can't they just do what they do elsewhere and walk a wheelie bin along the street and tip the contents of boxes or bags into it?

Philippa Bond ● 3581d

Those of us who do all the recycling we can will be rewarded with a wheelie bin sitting outside the front door 365 days of the year for it to be emptied a total of 26 times.I really can't imagine that too many people will be up to the job or bother to drag the bins through the house so wall to wall bins outside houses with very little frontage is how it will most likely be. Further, as my bin will contain - even after two weeks - two 20L bags at the most, it makes me wonder if the bags won't just be lifted out and the bin left in situ, particularly if parked cars make it a nuisance to get the bin through to the truck. I don't buy the argument about foxes etc. I have lived at my current address for 30 plus years and in all that time I have had to clear up from a torn bag only ten or so times and half of those were out the back of the house. What is the bigger eyesore - the occasional torn bag or plastic monstrosities parked permanently outside houses withvery little frontage?It seems that not everybody in my road is going to get a wheelie bin although (apart from disability) it seems that the Council can not give me a definitive list of what qualifies a house to be ruled exempt. One thing I have been told is that there is no maximum distance which a bin needs to be from a window or a door - I asked this as somebody on a thread elsewhere on the forum suggested that this may be the case.

Anne England ● 3581d

It all depends of where you shop, how many you have in your household, what you can put in each collection and how much you recycle.In our household we have more plastics than everything else.The food waste is collected weekly and will continue apparently to be collected weekly.If you recycle everything that the Council has listed on the website (which is what the bin is for and which is what you should be looking at) and take other stuff that can be reused elsewhere you should have very little waste for the residual waste bin.1 in 5 bags of food is thrown away they say.  The amount has gone down as some of us realise what marketing victims we are and start to change our ways and save money.Put your bin on a diet:http://www.therubbishdiet.org.uk/and learn some new tips and recipes.

Philippa Bond ● 3582d

I'd like to say how shocked I am - but unfortunately I couldn't even begin to say I was surprised at anything this lot do. Personally we like the Wheelies - but then we are able to store at the back of the house and just wheel out on collection day. Those of us used to Hounslow know full well they haven't a clue what engaging with local people entails, they have lots of fine policies, enough to paper a good sized house with - but these never translate into practical, on the ground consultations. Then when challenged they just get stroppy, they are like a load of playground bully boys (and girls). They don't care what we think, so convinced are they of their superiority, they obviously know what's best for us far better than any of us poor peasants do.

Vanessa Smith ● 3583d