Should households be charged extra for rubbish collection?

[Helen May]

There are plans to let councils charge extra for collection of excessive amounts of rubbish. What do you think?

How much to they deem as being excessive?

H

[DonG]

I think they will do anything to raise money.

We already pay a council tax to cover rubbish clearance...why pay more when we have no option but to bring home from the shop, supermarket all that wrapping plastic and paper?

[Helen May]

That's my take on it as well Don !

We had a local tip in the town where I live until 1999. They've been trying to find a new location as it was supposedly full. It is more likely that the residents close by complained about the access road getting jammed (they did have a valid point). The nearest one is now a 14 mile round trip

7 years on and after several potential sites were given the thumbs down by the council, it was announced by the local rag that we no longer require a tip as recycling had done away with the need. :o

Well if this charging comes in I can see a greater need for a tip. Not everything will fit into one wheelie bin that is collected once a fortnight.

H

[Toggy]

Just posted about this in the other thread :lol: No, they should not charge.

[semplemac]

Dont think it can be justified really.

Council tax is supposed to pay for our "public services". As a homeowner I already have to pay if I want large items collected. I would also dearly love to recycle more, but my council does not provide facilities for cardboard, plastic or clothing. Clothing I can take to local Asda or charity shops, but some itmes are in no condition to use again, but could surely be recylced into industrial rags or something. And by far the majority of my bin is taken up by plastic - not by weight, but certainly by bulk, which is the problem in landfill surely. Also plastic take YEARS to decompose.

Also I live in a flat with communal bins, so who would pay? Will I have to put an address label on me bin bag! Surely a bit silly.

[neill999]

Its just being lazy not recycling!

Its not exactly rocket science to think do I put my empty glass bottle in my recycling bin or my ordinary bin which will end up at a land fill site.

[Helen May]

We don't have a plastic collection either, they are supposed to collect clothing but don't leave a bag (on behalf of the Salvation Army in our case) when they have collected for the next time.

I agree about a facility for industrial rags for unusable clothes and linens. I'm sure the charity shop workers would welcome them as well as it would mean an end to all the rubbish items that they receive.

When you do it properly recycling does take up a lot of time and space though!

H

[Trent-Iffy]

We had a local tip in the town where I live until 1999.

Bet you were pleased to move out of the tip!

Yes, it's another means to raise taxes, but surely we need to be more responsible with waste. I'm amazed at how much rubbish some up my street put out. There's a simple solution to not paying extra - Don't be so wasteful.

I use the recycling bins at our local supermarket or recycling centre and it really cuts down what I put out for collection. Why can't others do similar or use their recycling bins better?

[baytum]

My local council is actually really good on recycling. I have three big wheelie bins, black for household rubbish, a green one for cardboard plastics, clothes shoes papers glass etc etc and a brown bin for compost and garden rubbish. We try and recycle as much as possible and our green bin is full a few days after it is emptied (which is fortnightly as with all the bins - brown and green go out toghether). I can then fill a couple of black bin bags of recycle stuff which more often than not goes to the tip and in the right recylce slots. I am not sure how councils can tell if you recycle or not. Occasionally if my black bin is not full (a rare occurance) I do top it up with stuff that could be recycled because I dont always have room to keep all the recycle stuff until it can fit in the green bin or I can get it to the tip. If they are weighing black bin rubbish, will they take into account how many people live in a house, and in some areas, how much stuff that is recycable that the councils dont make provisions for?

[V8farty]

Other countries (Like Germany) have been recycling for years. Suddenly, overnight we are all asked to recycle, which is fair enough, but what really stick in the throat is the way local government use it as another excuse to extract cash from us!

[Squeamous]

Dont think it can be justified really.

Council tax is supposed to pay for our "public services". As a homeowner I already have to pay if I want large items collected. I would also dearly love to recycle more, but my council does not provide facilities for cardboard, plastic or clothing. Clothing I can take to local Asda or charity shops, but some itmes are in no condition to use again, but could surely be recylced into industrial rags or something. And by far the majority of my bin is taken up by plastic - not by weight, but certainly by bulk, which is the problem in landfill surely. Also plastic take YEARS to decompose.

Also I live in a flat with communal bins, so who would pay? Will I have to put an address label on me bin bag! Surely a bit silly.

I agree. And I'm in the same situation as you. I live above shops, and they frequently chuck their rubbbish in the residents' bins. I can see there being a lot of arguments.

[Bea]

Fly-tipping will increase ten-fold.

What a stupid idea. How can it possibly be monitored properly.

We re-cycle paper, glass, plastics, cans etc. all clothes/toys/shoes etc go to Charity.

AND what the heck do I pay £1500 council tax for?

[Helen May]

We had a local tip in the town where I live until 1999.

Bet you were pleased to move out of the tip!

Yes, it's another means to raise taxes, but surely we need to be more responsible with waste. I'm amazed at how much rubbish some up my street put out. There's a simple solution to not paying extra - Don't be so wasteful.

I use the recycling bins at our local supermarket or recycling centre and it really cuts down what I put out for collection. Why can't others do similar or use their recycling bins better?

I don't and never have lived in a tip TI. ;)

The problem was that they only introduced green bins for garden waste in 2005 so for nearly 6 years you had no option but to take your grass cuttings etc to the tip, a 14 mile round trip, our council refused to collect garden waste.

H

[Trent-Iffy]

My biggest concern here is that many councils have recycling going on and what happens? They take the recyclables to the landfill site. In effect, all they're doing is using 2 different vehicles to take waste away, no more.

What I like about the matter is, some could make savings. I reckon I would and I'm a firm believer that money is better in my pocket than the council's.

[Squeamous]

H, here's a tip from a dustman's daughter. Save up your waste, and when the binmen come around slip them a fiver and they'll chuck the lot in the crusher. Don't worry about being cheeky, they do it all the time.

[thelovelytennisnut]

No way, what they should be doing is fining the suppliers for putting so much packaging on everything. Take your common or garden cornflakes, the boxes are always only 75% full, and as for Easter Eggs, well dont even go there. I liked the guy who said at the checkout he unpack all his shopping and presented the shop with the rubbish.
I recycle as much as possible but there are limits and since when did anyone ever hear of any taxes going down? :evil:

[Gadget]

I have a total of five 'active' bins in my house for different kinds of refuse. I have three in the kitchen cupboard for glass / plastic and paper / food waste, and two more in the lounge. a shredder for paper and one for general rubbish. [I've also got two bathroom bins and abedroom bin].

I only commented this afternoon as I emptied the shredder and separated the shredded paper from the bigger bits that can be recycled, that it is amazing how much we now put in the recycle bins compared with a few years ago when we just put everything into the one bin.

[BTW did you know you shoulnd't recycle shredded paper because the machinery doesn't recognise it as paper because it's all fluffy and it will reject the whole load].

I, too, live in a block of 4 flats and residents currently share two recycling bins [there are only 6 people in total] and four general rubbish bins. We fill one before moving on to the next so we are saving the bin-men time and effort. Sometimes there is only one of the four general bins to empty.

Apparently they will supply locks for the bins so that people can't put their trash into someone else's bin and also fit a sensor to automatically weigh the refuse.

So they will have to scrap all the current wheely bins and produce bins with lockable lids AND supply sensors.

And how will they unlock the bins before emptying them?

How long will this extra task at every bin take them?

How much overtime will the Councils have to pay out because the collections will take twice as long?

The most irritating thing will be that I shall have to remember to take the key with me when I go down with a bag of rubbish. I generally do this on my way out so I then have yet another key to carry around with me at all times.

Gadget