Forum Topic

Bin collection

Having received a letter some days ago informing me my house was unsuitable for having a wheelie bin, I was completely unsurprised to come home tonight to a threatening note from the council. Apparently, they will no longer collect my rubbish unless it's placed in the bin l do not have. I think congratulations are in order.

Mark Gormley ● 3543d29 Comments

We wait in anticipation.You shouldn't have to go through this.  It would be interesting to know who is causing the problems here - the Council or the Contractor.  Where is the teamwork?

Philippa Bond ● 3532d

Update: Very polite and helpful chap from the council rang this afternoon to apologise and say he'll make sure my black sack is collected next week. I suspect Messers Lambert and Collins might have had some influence on what turned out to be a prompt response.

Mark Gormley ● 3535d

WLWA is not the same as LBH.This is about trying to bring the different boroughs' collections into line with each other.  You can't expect a company with a contract (signed last year or the year before) for the residual waste to have the incentive and enthusiasm to try to increase the recycling rates.

Philippa Bond ● 3535d

Bernard - "that combination of company’s sounds like a recipe  for disaster". You might say that but I could not possibly comment .....  without sounding like Malcolm Tucker.

Cllr Sam Hearn ● 3536d

not for long there going down the tubes in a few months time

Bernard Allen ● 3536d

SITA (aka SUEZ) have the contract with the West London Waste Authority for residual waste.

Philippa Bond ● 3536d

What a shambles.  Mark's original post says it all.

Philippa Bond ● 3536d

Sam I am not having a go at you, but, that combination of company’s sounds like a recipe  for disaster

Bernard Allen ● 3537d

I'll forward you my email to Mel Collins.

Mark Gormley ● 3537d

MarkI don't know where you live but if Mel is indeed your 'closet councillor' there are two others in the closet - myself and Myra Savin. Feel free etc.If you have a wheelie bin, or if you're assessed as being in line for one, your sack will not be collected as a matter of policy unless it lurks within a wheelie.

Guy Lambert ● 3537d

The collection of recyclable refuse will remain with private contractors. It is only the work currently done by SITA that will return in-house or more specifically to an associated company called Lampton 360 Ltd (that has never made a profit). The operatives will be transferred under the TUPE legislation but new management will be put in place.

Cllr Sam Hearn ● 3537d

Brentford must be a one off place for waste collectionI have heard and read the many complaints about recycling at both ends of the borough and there seems to be common policy as to how the waste in collected, although no doubt there is on paper.Were I live it would be very hard to find out who is recycling or not, as there are several large piles of black bags doted around in locations to make it easy for the operatives to collect. Although the other part of the recycling is still left out on the pavement in front of your property.I left 3 cardboard boxes flatten down and taped together this morning and it was collected with no problem. Do exactly the same at the other end of the borough and it wont be collected.I think Brentford is being targeted so hard is because the leader lives there. I don’t know why, as Sita loose the contract in 2016 so have nothing to prove, only how incompetent they are.I wonder how good the service is going to be when it goes back under the control of LBOH?

Bernard Allen ● 3537d

The man to email is Cllr Amrit Mann the Lead Member responsible for wheelie bins or Andrew Baker the officer responsible for the roll-out. www.amrit.mann@hounslow.gov.ukwww. Andrew.baker@hounslow.gov.uk

Cllr Sam Hearn ● 3537d

Not very much to my surprise, black sack remains uncollected this morning. Has note stuck to it describing how a wheelie bin works. I've emailed Mel Collins, who seems to be my closet Councillor, as well as the recycling people.

Mark Gormley ● 3537d

I'd be interested to know if there are different figures for recycling for different areas?  There should be.  I know that Ealing had some because they had a competition between different wards. We like most people who recycle have much more recycling than residual waste. On a zero waste mission we managed to last six months without putting black bag waste out for collection. (We use a small metal dustbin to protect the bag and put it out when it I full.)  It is people with nappies - both adults' and children's who will have the most residual waste even if they do recycle.Who exactly are they pandering to?

Philippa Bond ● 3542d

I have been through all of the same arguments with the Council to no avail. One or two person households in particular who recycle do not need such a massive bin. But yes, one of the stated purposes for these bins was to increase recycling rates although it is obvious that, in the majority of cases at least, this is not going to be the case as the two things don't equate. The other argument for the bins is that it stops foxes and cats from tearing open the bags. Apart from only ever having had this happen about ten times in thirty plus years, if you use the food waste bin, as good recyclers do, you are very unlikely to get this problem and even less so if you are a vegetarian household as mine is.What may increase recycling is for the Council to monitor those who don't recycle - this is much more readily visible than rifling in people's bins to see who has put out recyclables mixed in with general waste which I don't believe that the Council will be doing in any case despite Councillor Mann's warning letter of 24th November which states 'Our crews will be collecting non-recyclable waste from the wheelie bins tomorrow' which implies they will not collect it if it includes recyclables. I don't believe this for a minute - it will all get tipped straight into the back of the lorry.Despite my many contributions to these threads I would actually be much more accepting of the grey bin if I had ever seen the Council tackling non-recyclers of whom there are a few in my immediate area. I would also have been much more accepting of a mixed mode recycling bin which may indeed have encouraged some people to recycle. But not two bins, please!

Anne England ● 3542d

If the intention was to increase the recycling rate then the wheelie bins provided would have been half the size of what they are.  Along with bi-monthly collections this would have forced people to sort their rubbish as they would not have it picked up if it cannot fit in the bin.  In my household we recycle whatever is recyclable meaning we put out a refuse sack which is around half full once every two/three weeks. This does not merit having a mansize 140L bin blocking my front garden.The size of the bin is ridiculous and overkill.  I have just lost an appeal with the Council about having one of these bins and have been informed to take it up with my local Councillor. This happens to be Guy Lambert and knowing his views my appeal will fall on deaf ears.

Mark Skuse ● 3542d

too long

Anne England ● 3542d

I, for one, leave my recycling totally sorted and 'neat', it's just that I don't put anything out on the pavement as this is what I thought we weren't supposed to do. The fact that the operatives can not now see my recycling or have to move a wheelie bin to get at it is not my doing so to speak. I had all of these 'arguments' with the Council before the delivery of the bins and am waiting for a written reply as to whether it is okay to put recycling boxes etc on the pavement. I am certainly not going to put them directly outside my front door as a trip hazard as was suggested to me as a possible solution by the chap who answered the phone at the Council. Admittedly I only emailed for a written response three or so days ago so hopefully I will get a reply but not have to wait to long. I do agree though that some people could be more considerate in the way they 'present' their recycling. More than that though, I would like to see the Council taking measures to increase the rate of recycling as (this is the last time I will say it!) the same people around me are recycling and the same people are not so the wheelie bins in themselves have not increased the recycling rate which is what many of us argued from the start.

Anne England ● 3542d

Maybe they failed to put monitoring in the contract or maybe they failed/chose not to have anybody at the Council monitoring the contract.  They are not the only Council with a problem in this respect - although I thought some efforts were being made... I think we should complain if there is a mess, bins aren't emptied etc as unless we do the Council thinks that the contract is hunky-dory.  Quite honestly the state that some people put their recycling boxes out in leaves a lot to be desired. I pity the chaps sorting it. I think we all used to be more considerate but I suspect it works both ways - if they throw the bins back then we don't take as much care and vice versa. There is not much you can do with people that don't like their jobs which is what I suspect was the case of the operative I once remonstrated with for throwing a box around.  I think both the Contractor and Council should be monitoring.

Philippa Bond ● 3542d

I have more than once phoned the Council to ask why the 'engagement officers' have never been down the road to see who is/isn't recycling. Apart from telling me that the 'engagement officers' will 'educate' those people if I just tell them where and who they are, they do not apparently undertake the job of finding this out for themselves. I don't believe for a moment that the people concerned in my more immediate area need 'educating' - they are just choosing not to recycle, full stop. Neither do I believe that a knock on their door or a leaflet through the same will 'educate' them beyond the week or two they think they are being monitored should such a thing come about. So, what to do?(I suggested that Sita could have taken on the role of monitoring and reporting but was told they were a contractor so ... - I don't quite get this. I would have thought that the Council, as the employer, would be able to request that a contractor undertake a certain amount of this work, say monitoring a street or two for a couple of weeks at a time.)

Anne England ● 3542d

It is in the Council's interests (and Council Tax payers) that the recycling rate goes up and the landfill bill goes down. I'm not sure that it is in the Contractor's - is it?It is definitely in the Contractor's interests that they employ fewer operatives. Plenty of Councils in London have mandatory recycling of some recyclable items. H&F asked their residents who voted for this - if you can ever trust any of these consultations any more!  I can see that this can be more acceptable than denouncing particular neighbours which is what the Council seems to suggest.  (Better to leave that to when there is a big antisocial environmental problem.)

Philippa Bond ● 3543d

Kafka! Of course. A touch of Joseph Heller too.

Peter McGovern ● 3543d

The council could easily monitor households that rarely, if ever, put out a food waste bin or a plastic waste bag to see who might not be recycling correctly.

Reg Ghosh ● 3543d

I wrote a very polite email to the unfortunate public servant who has to sort out the mess created by the poorly thought out decisions of his or her political masters. I think it would be unfair- and pointless- to vent my frustrations on someone who is just doing their job. If LBH refuse to pick up my rubbish next week, I'l take it up with my local councillors. My tone might change a bit if they can't sort it out.

Mark Gormley ● 3543d

Mark, did you write a nasty letter to Wheeliebin@hounslow.gov.uk? If not - I suggest you do.

Alex Shpinkov ● 3543d

Meanwhile those who recycle continue to recycle (well I do) while those who don't do it at all or do it very minimally (paper only) continue to get their rubbish collected. Monitoring of who is not recycling has never been done, I can virtually swear to that, and I doubt very much indeed that there has ever been a knock on the door or that a 'threatening letter' has ever been put through the same.

Anne England ● 3543d

More like Kafka!!

Vanessa Smith ● 3543d

Tell me this is a Chekov play.

Peter McGovern ● 3543d