Forum Topic

New recycling containers

Has anyone had these delivered, because I haven't and the new collections are supposed to start this week?

Susan Kelly ● 2992d35 Comments

We do not know what is being collected next week, we can guess but have not had clear instructions as to what to expect.

Sarah Felstead ● 2960d

Hi Tim, the other pleasant surprise might be that your neighbours have spotted the space in your bin, and kindly filled it for you...;)Son says the bin in College road, beside the bench seat, is stuffed and over flowing with bags of rubbish.  A few kicks from the school children will spread it all around.

Sarah Felstead ● 2961d

Could not the council look and see what is done in Germany as they are usually right.

Nicholas Beard ● 2961d

Re marking the bins. I bought a white paint sample from Wickes, complete with brush, and painted my house number on. That's not going to wash off.The new compostible bags provided by the Council are worse than useless, in that they disintegrate after a couple of days. I shall stick to using the Tesco ones I've been using for the past few years and hope the Council will stop wasting my Council Tax on this cheap rubbish they've bought.

Susan Kelly ● 2962d

..but this has never happened before ..."Everything went today and I came home to a lovely neat pile of boxes inside each other and the food waste caddy sitting inside the top box.  Absolutely perfect.  Nothing strewn or thrown over the pavement."

Sarah Felstead ● 2962d

I'm assuming the worst and the new system starts from 10th July (and that week is coloured brown on my "collection calendar" indicating it is a "garden waste bin collection week"). So after today's collection, I'm expecting my next collection in the "black wheelie bin collection week" on the following Tuesday 18th July.Nevertheless, I'll probably pop my small bag of stuff in the wheelie bin for next week 11th July and I might get a pleasant surprise to find it emptied !

Tim Henderson ● 2962d

Worked out the stacking bins received last week and have been filling them all week.  Still had a trip to the dump with odds and ends of household stuff from clearing out the shed plus the small piece of hardboard which failed the 'bag everything up in plastic bags inside the wheelie bin' inspection last week.I quite like the box system as long as they don't blow over.  So far everyone who has commented thinks that they will blow over so I have put the glass in the bottom container, paper next as it gets some shelter from the rain and plastics on the top.Everything went today and I came home to a lovely neat pile of boxes inside each other and the food waste caddy sitting inside the top box.  Absolutely perfect.  Nothing strewn or thrown over the pavement.It was garden waste week so the bags were emptied as well.Attached to the handle of the household wheelie bin was a leaflet.'Black wheelie bins collection calendar'.  Well in case you ask, we have gotten over the fact the wheelie bins are grey, as have our neighbours.  Starting from the 17th July it gives our collection dates for garden waste and household.  So, next week it reads it is garden waste again, and the household grey bin will be picked up the following week.  Neighbour not happy as this mucks up his two weekly lawn cutting schedule but he will cope.Postman has just been and delivered another leaflet.'Fortnightly collection of your black wheelie bin starts 10th July, houses only'.Forgive me, but this suggests a collection next week then fortnightly after that, does it not?'Welcome to the new service' it says inside and reinforces the same notion with 'From 10 July rubbish will be collected from your black wheelie bin every 2 weeks'.Also reinforced on the next page (this is a proper leaflet) 'collection calendars will be hooked to the handle of your wheelie bin during the week commencing 10 July'.  I checked the date and today is neither 1st April nor 10th July.Now, reading this leaflet it suggests there will be a collection of grey wheelie bins next week.  If everyone takes note of this then they too will probably have that shed clear out and fill their bin, happy that the bin will be collected next week and then go to fortnightly?  An unhappy household will be one with a full bin put out for pick up next week when they have another week to wait for their collection ...A note attached to the handle saying 'Your next grey wheelie bin collection will be on ...' would be very helpful.  No confusion. X

Sarah Felstead ● 2962d

God help us - will this never end? According to the latest missive from L.B.H.  in this area 'collection calendars will be hooked to the handles of your wheelie during week commencing 10 July'. So why is it that some people on the other side of our road had them attached today and the rest of us didn't? The $64,000 question is will they do it next week? Also does anyone know what we are supposed to do with batteries now? No information in the leaflet. I love all the dire warnings about "Failure to comply to all of the above(DO NOT LEAVE EXTRA RUUBISH OUT FOR COLLECTION and the lid must be fully down)is likely to lead to enforcement action against you." That's without the threat on the back page about how "YOU are required to sort your waste into the right containers" What about returning the right bins to the right house and not dropping stuff all over the place, and actually ensuring that everyone has got the bins and is getting garden waste they've paid for collected??

Vanessa Smith ● 2962d

Sometimes underneath the top collar there is a little hole to take a disc. You can buy a tracking device for use with a smartphone. I read people are buying them for bikes cars and all manner of items as they are now so cheap.

Nicholas Beard ● 2966d

Ok.  What is your secret to clearly number your containers that doesn't keep wearing off?  The 'permanent' markers I use keep wearing off in the sunshine.I heard from somebody who had put some thought into this after her wheelie bin disappeared and a neighbour suddenly had 2 but the numbers had been washed off, that it is important to put your details or mark on the underside too as they are less likely to see them there and you stand a chance of reclaiming the bin ...

Sarah Felstead ● 2967d

Just saw a team of Hounslow people in the street so I asked what they were about.  They are here to ask if we have received the new boxes, which we haven't, and whether we know what to do with them.  Anyhow.  I hope they come back when we have received them as I might want to ask something.  I am really pleased that the plastic is going to be picked up weekly but I am unhappy at the shape and size of the household bins.  We seem to have lots of paper and cardboard and I wonder if there will be enough space in the boxes we are going to be given.I took the opportunity to ask if they could call in the rubbish along Northumberland Avenue up by the Sky car park.  The street cleaner was up there yesterday but in the sunshine he must have not been able to see the rubbish in the gutters and under the hedgerows up there.  The orange bags are piled up further along and the area near the wall is absolutely covered in debris which looks like it has been thrown out of cars.  That seems to be the new 'thing' ... take the rubbish out with you in the car and drop it into the gutter where you park.

Sarah Felstead ● 2975d

Yes. Red and blue boxes were left on Wednesday. I live on Brook Lane North

Janet Gracey ● 2980d

I am sure when we were in Wales earlier this year that the boxes were stacked on a trolley so you wheeled them around and didn't have to pick them up.  No trolley mentioned in the leaflet.

Sarah Felstead ● 2981d

Why do the new containers have to be so large?  As many have said most households don't have space to store them and won't use them so it does absolutely nothing to encourage recycling!And what are we supposed to do now with plastic bags and packaging which are no longer allowed?

Reg Ghosh ● 2981d

There should be national recycling standards, with these new boxes stuff I used to recycle now isn't acceptable, and as for this net! Do you see our collectors faffing around with them? The chances are you'll never see them again if you put them out, I foresee lots of plastic being strewn along the roads. The whole thing is a complete b*lls up.

Vanessa Smith ● 2981d

I do not understand why we don't have a national recycling scheme with the same coloured boxes or bins.  Family living elsewhere don't have to wash their plastic and find it really funny when we visit them and rinse the plastic.  Could get a better price on supply of the bins/ boxes too....I prefer to rinse the plastic, by the way ...Epsom and Ewell, which one of our local Cllrs stood as MP for, last week, have square general rubbish wheelie bins which do not blow over.  It would be nice to have more choices to suit different needs or size of front garden rather than this fixed rigid approach of Hounslow.

Sarah Felstead ● 2981d

Like so many Lego bricks - 'We're gonna build a wall'. Seriously, I find separating cardboard and paper into bags but leaving glass and tins loose all in the same (green) box adequate for my purposes. Further, the amount I generate and dispose of in that manner only needs to be collected every two to three weeks. Admittedly plastics and food waste are another matter.Meanwhile, I would love to know whether those who obviously recycle nothing, at least not through the pick-up trucks, have ever had a visit from the Council. I have at least two such households near enough on my doorstep.

Anne England ● 2981d

"Recycling and waste is about having a dialogue with the community, once again you don’t care to do so and pursue a one policy fits all solution for the borough."Very well said Paul. Unfortunately we all face another example of "bureaucrats know better" approach.

Alex Shpinkov ● 2981d

My email to recycling@hounslow.gov.uk and amrit.mann@hounslow.gov.ukDear recyclingI came out of the house today in Lateward Road to find that two more recycling boxes had been put on my doorstep but I saw the chaps who had been delivering them and gave the boxes back to them.Why do you think that throwing more containers at the problem is going to solve it?We don’t need another recycling box, one is sufficient for myself and my wife. Where are we going to put two more boxes anyway?Do you think everyone who has a house has the space to put two more huge boxes somewhere? At the moment we recycle a green box about once every month, plastic about every three months and paper too. There is no need for us to have any more boxes. What you are doing in effect is recycling waste which mostly comes as packaging from supermarkets. Why should Boroughs be recycling THEIR waste anyway?We should all be doing what I do and leave all supermarket packaging behind in the supermarket. They would produce a lot less waste if we all dumped it on their doorstep. You should be giving supermarkets a hard time not cleaning up the problem they are creating for the public.Oh - and I noticed in the back of your leaflet your little blackmail note ;“ Important- this constitutes notice that under section 46 of the Environmental Protection Act 1990 you are rquired to sort your waste into the right containers”and on your website “ If you place the wrong items in the wrong box, we will not collect your recycling” The colour of the box is immaterial, the collectors are intelligent enough to know what’s inside just by looking. It’s just the same kind of blackmail we were given about wheelie bins, that only rubbish put in wheelie bins would be collected. Collectors going up our street have no problem fishing into the wheelie bins to get out the rubbish sacks. Those of us without wheelie bins have our bags colected without problem.Recycling and waste is about having a dialogue with the community, once again you don’t care to do so and pursue a one policy fits all solution for the borough.Just how much has the borough spent on wheelie bins and plastic boxes? Is someone at the council getting a kickback from this?Yours sincerely Paul Slattery

Paul Slattery ● 2982d

This is a very useful website that gives lots of info including what happens with a lot of your recycling - especially informative is what happens to food recycling as well as an answer to your question about carrier bags.Remember that although there are moves to try and create more of a uniform recycling collection across areas as facilities increase each local authority does have its own particular kerbside collection - so you need to check the website.  LBH:  www.hounslow.gov.uk - and the West London Waste Authority of which Hounslow is one member and where there is also some info.https://www.hounslow.gov.uk/info/20128/household_recycling_and_waste_collections/1597/plastic_recycling_in_your_red_box 

Philippa Bond ● 2986d

Contaminating the plastic waste, Derrick?  Tsk tsk tsk.

Sarah Felstead ● 2987d

What do we do with plastic carrier bags, bung them in the wheelie bin? Can't they be recycled? And cling film too? Food wrapping? Until now, I've put any soft plastic in a plastic carrier bag and stuffed it in the white sack. Nobody complained.

Derrick White ● 2987d

The Recycling Team will be at Green Days at the Bedford Park Festival.  You can check out the other events here.

Philippa Bond ● 2988d

I've always kept my green box outside on its side.  I used to keep the plastics bag and garden waste bag rolled up inside it.  Now that I have a fortnightly collection I keep plastics in a shopping bag and empty it into the box on collection day.  Flattening plastic milk bottles saves a lot of space.I found it important to dismantle all small card boxes eg biscuits and pies. These together with the card that slips off ready meal containers go into a cereal box and are added to until collection.  These are so much easier to flatten nowadays.  Packaging is changing as there are more unrecyclable plastic pouches being used now. It seems to be reducing in volume.If I was changing our system again I would put the ordinary bin back under the sink and only use it for recycling.A friend kept a green box on the bottom shelf of a kitchen unit and filled that as the week progressed.We used to have the undersink cupboard full of single use carrier bags.  We now have very few of those and use the space differently.  We have one of those holey Ikea containers for plastic bags in the kitchen and a bag hanging in the hall so that nobody goes shopping without taking a bag with them. Like life it just keeps evolving.

Philippa Bond ● 2988d

Rarely have any paper going out. It is mainly plastics which often do not break down so are bulky.But what if you have no space outside to put these boxes? At least you can fold the bags and stuff them away outside Usually in the green box. But plastics will mean a box has to be 'live' so stacking is not really going to happen.They will have to go on the pavement. Simply nowhere else. Same with the wheelie bin. It's out in the street most of the week.

Raymond Havelock ● 2989d

It seems you will have a weekly recycling collection - so it will presumably depend on how much you have of anything whether you put a box out.  You can fill your waste paper basket first before you choose to put your papers out.Then you can leave your boxes stacked together outside.Plastic tubs and bottles with all their different shapes and sizes are our largest contribution. 

Philippa Bond ● 2990d

These will have to be stored inside the house as theres nowhere out front.It's a typical wet day today.I wonder if LBH will be paying for the carpets and floor to be cleaned and dried overtime they have to be trudged through our tiny house?Like the wheelies, they just don't think these things through properly.They obviously think we all have houses with side gates, garages and big front gardens.

Raymond Havelock ● 2990d

A neighbour on my street seemed to be involved in a photoshoot dropping various items into new boxes yesterday afternoon - but the boxes disappeared with the photographer.....

Tim Henderson ● 2990d

Oh dear, I am reading this and laughing ...!  I checked the leaflet and the new boxes go to houses from this week and the fortnightly collection starts in July.

Sarah Felstead ● 2990d

Things on lamp columns have appeared saying roll out for containers starts today - new collection regime starts 9 July. I may be being really thick but it also says BLACK wheelies will be collected fortnightly, does that mean the green ones are redundant and after all the expense and grief we are now getting black ones? Or are black replacing brown ones (green waste) and green ones are staying for ordinary refuse? What a bloody stupid palaver.

Vanessa Smith ● 2991d

A little bit more info here:http://westlondonwaste.gov.uk/news/

Philippa Bond ● 2991d

None delivered in North Brentford

Emma Renton ● 2991d

Ah, I too9k it to mean that the new collections were starting today.

Susan Kelly ● 2991d

None delivered in Osterley!

Roger Foreman ● 2992d

I saw a notice in St Paul's Park, Brentford yesterday which I think had the date 5 June on it for the roll out. I suppose it could take a few weeks before all houses have been issued with the containers.'We're gonna build a wall.'

Anne England ● 2992d