ARE NEW BIN COLLECTIONS A LOAD OF RUBBISH?

Published 9 Sep 2009 12:33 11 Comments

Share this

RENFREWSHIRE residents are hitting out at new arrangements that will see their rubbish collected fortnightly rather than weekly.

While collections will still take place weekly, household waste will only be collected every two weeks, with recycling uplifted every other week.

An Elderslie resident blasted: "I'm very concerned - as a family of four, our weekly rubbish fills our bin, so are the council planning on giving us a new, bigger bin to deal with the extra week's worth of rubbish?

"There's only so much you can recycle, and it's a shame for families who have young children who go through lots of nappies.

"Families will have to drive out to the dump with their extra rubbish and that is not fair for those who don't have cars.

"The council is just making us do their dirty work."

Bridge of Weir resident Terry Taylor also hit out: "In my household it's just my wife and I so we could cope with once a fortnight - but it would be much more difficult for people with a couple of kids.

"Things can be stinking: fish or chicken can be foul and if they're lying in the rubbish for two weeks it's very unpleasant.

"I can understand their argument of getting more people to recycle more things, but the logical thing would be to provide extra recycling facilities first.

"They seem to be going about it the other way round."

A Renfrewshire Council spokesman said: "The new service is designed to encourage more recycling and many other councils in Scotland are already operating this service successfully. The capacity for recycling will be increased to 240 litres to ensure that food and general waste can be safely and hygienically stored in bins with closed lids.

"Over 50 per cent of the general household waste can be recycled and this will be collected in brown bins, blue bins or kerbside boxes.

"By giving households extra bins and boxes for recycling people will reduce the amount of household waste that they will have to put in their grey bins. By providing an extra bin to recycle this means that a grey bin will have the capacity to hold two weeks' worth of rubbish that can't be recycled.

"Additional recycling containers can also be obtained by householders free of charge on request and if you have extra rubbish which won't fit into your wheelie bin, you can either arrange for a special uplift or take it to one of the household waste and recycling centres."

This article appeared in The Gazette 09 Sep 09

Have your say. Post a comment on this article.

Sandra H
Unregistered User
Sep 9, 13:58
Report comment

Having previoulsy lived within the Stirling Council area - yes fortnightly collections there work well. BUT!!!! They operate differently from Renfrewshire council. They alternate grey bins and brown bins (which also collect cardboard) on a weekly basis both of which are collected THROUGHOUT THE YEAR - Not just the april to October as Renfrewshire council do. Recycling boxes and recycling wheelie bins are collected WEEKLY.What renfrewshire council are proposing - a fortnightly collection of both recycling and grey bins with half year brown bin collection will NOT work and will only serve to promote unwanted vermin.The rubbish currently left behind by the bin men from the recycling boxes outside each house is a disgrace with lids and boxes thrown all over the street. At the very least they should replace all kerbside boxes with the blue wheelie bins if this fiasco must go ahead

Recommend? Yes 0 No 0
Chris
Unregistered User
Sep 9, 14:57
Report comment

Hope the switch over goes well.

Waste Aware Scotland provides helpful advice on how and why to reduce, reuse and recycle your household waste.

www.wasteawarescotland.org.uk

or

www.sort-it.org.uk

Some great information for those who are not sure about what can and cannot be recycled.

Recommend? Yes 0 No 0
alan michaels
Unregistered User
Sep 11, 10:21
Report comment

according to info I've read - the recycling bin is a blue wheelie bin.

I believe more councils are doing this all across the UK.

To be honest, I think its a good idea - why waste money on landfill tax. this is a win - win; saves council taxpayer money while saving the environment.

Recommend? Yes 0 No 0
Fergus Lee
Unregistered User
Sep 12, 00:12
Report comment

I think the council are right by encouraging recycling and giving extra wheelie bins. Come bonfire night they will make a fortune whenever all the householders are forced to fork out for replacements for twice as many bins after then neds torch them.

Recommend? Yes 0 No 0
Hamish Boxer
Unregistered User
Sep 15, 11:59
Report comment

High time councils and residents woke up to the overdue need to take recycling seriously.It disgusts me to see grey bins overflowing with stuff that is recyclable every week up here.Having lived in Nottingshire were they had blue bins over 7 years ago,there was never a problem as blue collected one week grey the next.The blue had cans,plastic ,paper and cardboard in.Glass we took ourselves to local points.There was no rotting food etc most likely because it was not wasted as up here.Garden rubbish was not collected,though weeds etc went in the grey bin.Put it this way,we know who will pay the EU landfill tax if its not done!We have been well warned for long enough.

Recommend? Yes 0 No 0
Ross Clark
Unregistered User
Sep 16, 06:42
Report comment

I was amused by the comment about young families and disposable nappies: have they never heard of traditional nappies? These are washable, waste-free, easy on the skin, and don't fill up your bin.

It's time people realised that landfill capacity is finite, and we do not have any inherent right to throw whatever we want away. That said, my recyclable goods tend to back up into my shed sometimes, as the 2 tubs provided by the council are too small. I'd be willing to provide my own, larger container, but then I suspect this might be rejected by the binmen.

Recommend? Yes 0 No 0
Andrew
Unregistered User
Sep 16, 13:28
Report comment

Always missing the point do our Council. Firstly, fix some roads, give us a better service and ask the coveted bin emptiers to actually do that. I left a large cardboard box out for uplift and as usual it was ignored as it was not in my recycle bin which is not big enough.

I want to bin my rubbish not file it

Recommend? Yes 0 No 0
william reid
Unregistered User
Sep 17, 13:18
Report comment

Here in Toronto we have 3 Wheelie bins, 1 for recycle (blue bin), 1 for rubbish (gray bin)and 1 for food and baby nappies etc.(green in) the green bin is smaller than the other 2. this is how it works..Every week the green bin (smelly stuff) gets emptied and every other week they come for the blue bin or the gray bin, this works great as you get used to recycling your rubbish and only put in the landfill what you really have to.

Recommend? Yes 0 No 0
pete
Unregistered User
Sep 19, 04:37
Report comment

i'd rather the council introduced the new measures they propose than hit us with the huge cost of fines and taxes instead. it works elsewhere

Recommend? Yes 0 No 0
kimberley
Unregistered User
Sep 26, 20:14
Report comment

we don't have wheelie bins and if we want them we need to buy them from the council and as for the blue bag collection (recycling) they don't come to get them half the time !!! fortnightly collection is a ridiculous idea ! someone stop the madness !

Recommend? Yes 0 No 0
flat tired
Unregistered User
Sep 26, 21:12
Report comment

The broken glass left in our streets by the present collection system is a danger when it cuts not just children but vehicle tires. At least give us a re-cycle bin which is designed not to loose its lid and spread its contents around during collection. Perhaps scheduling the wee clean up machine to follow collections rather ,as at present, before them, would help? Also could some of our school science/art/design classes invent a ball mounted bin? Like the ball Hoover thing. This would help folk maneuver a full unwieldy bin out to the street. Perhaps we could then sell "ball" bins to other countries and make money?

Recommend? Yes 0 No 0

Follow @thegazettepaper

Return to the main index, get more from this section or browse our News archives.