Recycled items dumped in our green bin

[Horsebox]

Have just found all of last weeks (Tuesday's) recycling bottles cans etc in our green household waste bin.

I'm guessing that this was an oversight/mistake by the crew.

Having called Southwark's recycling unit to report this, the girl in the call centre has advised me that I'll have to empty the bin back into the recycling box or it won't be collected. I'm not keen on the idea of clambering around in the dirty grimy waste receptacle but she was unable to grasp this concept. She can't register a complaint nor send an instruction to the crew right now as their IT system is down.

So basically it's sort it out yourself, not our problem!

Nice attitude from the council and a reflection of their attitude to recycling as a whole.

Isn't Southwark one of the worst boroughs in UK for recycling waste (according to Labour, at least?

[puzzled]

their IT system is always down when you ask them to do something for you. the idle and useless call centre is a lib dem triumph. before they took power you could actually call the dept you wanted and get some action.

[Penguin68]

Have just found all of last weeks (Tuesday's) recycling bottles cans etc in our green household waste bin.

I'm guessing that this was an oversight/mistake by the crew.

Last week the crew coming to us (Mondays) were sent out with the wrong lorry, not the normal recycling one, so they had to use the green waste bins (i.e. the brown ones) to load the recycling so they could use the rear-loader on the lorry - my guess is that they filled yours up but then forgot to empty it. Not their fault - on the other hand it almost certainly means that paper and bottles cans etc. were all mixed together in the normal dust lorry, as this doesn't have separate compartments.

[Horsebox]

Penguin68 Wrote:

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> my guess is that they filled yours up but then

> forgot to empty it. Not their fault...

Who's fault is it then?

Do you work for the council by any chance? :-)

[Penguin68]

I meant 'not their fault that they had to use a work round because they weren't issued the right collection lorry' - clearly they did fail to empty the bin, but since one crew went ahead and filled the bins with recycling (in our street) and another then went round emptying them into the back of the lorry they may simply have missed this one, not realising it too had been used as a temporary deposit for the 'wrong' rubbish. And no, I don't now, neither have I ever, worked for the council.

[James Barber]

Hi horsebox,

I'm really sorry you've had this problem. If you email me at [email protected] with your actual address I'll ask officers to resolve this for you.

Recycling rates. This financial year 24% of waste will be recycled and next FY 30%. We expected to be on 30% now but the new Integrated Waste Transfer Facilitiy is running a year behind schedule due to the PFI agreement with the government and Veolia taking longer than expected. Painful.

When the Lib Dems took over from Labour in 2002 the recycling rate was 3.6% and falling. Only newspapers were collected from homes in the Dulwich area. So we've all come a long way to reach 24% but its not good enough yet. This Spring/Summer we're rolling out comingling to make recycling easier and boost to 30% and beyond.

However, recycling will always be more challenging when over 60% of residents live in social housing and 80% of all residents live in blocks of flats. I'm told this is much more of both than nearly any other council in Britain. So until the end of the year we're quoted as being 6th worst for recycling but probably one of the very hardest boroughs to collect it in. Collecting from 'street properties' is a cinch in comparison.

Probably worth mentioning that we now have six locations for Tetrapak cartons to be deposited at but each week they only recover 14kg of waste. Now have 22 fabric collection points across the borugh. Household batteries can be left at all 14 libraries.

[Peckhamgatecrasher]

Why is it more challenging if one is in social housing?

[ratty]

Peckhamgatecrasher Wrote:

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> Why is it more challenging if one is in social

> housing?

Because they tend not to have easy ground floor access in many large blocks ??

[sophiesofa]

I lived in big flat block in Greenwich and was amazed at the recycling facilities. I thought it was great - two huge recycling bins that accepted mixed recycling so no sorting. The problem was the other bins were a further 4m away from the main front door and this meant all the lazy/and or selfish people from the block put all of their rubbish in the recycling (or threw it over the balcony into our patio thing) so in the end they had to remove all recycling there. Sadly some people just don't give a damn.

[Peckhamgatecrasher]

Ratty, CB separated out the social housing from those living in blocks. I understand to an extent the problem of collecting from blocks of flats, but why especially is social housing challenging?

[paragon]

Really???

Just deal with it.

[willow]

I get a bit annoyed when people attack the Council for low recycling rates (I don't work for the council incidently but do work in waste management). After all, a large proportion of households have a comprehensive, door to door recycling service. This includes many blocks of flats in the borough which have a clear bag scheme. This is not standard practice across London. Southwark also collects mixed plastics, which is also fairly unique. Responsibility for the low recycling rate is mainly (not solely) because the service isn't used because people can't be bothered!

In addition, Southwark's recycling rate is low compared with other boroughs because it has such a low proportion of households with gardens. Green recycling contributes significantly to the recycling rate so Southwark is automatically onto a loser here....

[Horsebox]

paragon Wrote:

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> Really???

>

> Just deal with it.

Is that directed at me?

[northlondoner]

Peckhamgatecrasher Wrote:

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> Why is it more challenging if one is in social

> housing?

Perhaps if one lives in social housing one has more pressing things on one's mind than recycling. Like where one's next meal is coming from FFS. Not everyone has the headspace to ponder the ethics of the disposal of mixed plastics.

[willow]

I find that view point slightly patronising. And really how difficult is it??

[bil]

In Lewisham (similar to Greenwich-SophieSofa) I had a large green wheelie bin (and another black wheelie bin for non recycling items). All recycling items were accepted and No sorting necessary! My non recyclable waste was less than half a sack a week.

Since I have moved here it has taken one e-mail and two phone calls to get my bag for paper and another (very small) box to take bottles. I am happy to separate the items but I think the container boxes/bags are very small and don't encourage much recycling

[tomchance]

James, just wondering why Southwark Council is rolling out comingling when the Government's waste adviser, WRAP, brought out research a while back showing conclusively that segregated recycling is much, much better?

Mixing it all together leads to contamination, particularly for paper and cardboard, so less of the collected material gets recycled. Easier, perhaps, but not the way to go at all!

Incidentally, another reason for low recycling rates in a lot of parts of London is that the population moves around a lot, so people don't learn how to use every council's slightly different facilities.

[paragon]

Horsebox Wrote:

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> paragon Wrote:

> --------------------------------------------------

> -----

> > Really???

> >

> > Just deal with it.

>

> Is that directed at me?

Yeah, sorry had a bad day.

[James Barber]

I should have pointed out the high population churn doesn't help.

My reference to social housing was more around large blocks not being street properties and with no concierge service as many large private blocks in the north of Southwark often have.

Our waste contractor Veolia assures us going co mingling will boost recycling rate very quickly during the next financial year from 24% to 30%. I believe this is a step towards further segregation when food waste will be collectable which clearly will have to be seperated.

What amazed me is that with six collection points only 14kg of tetrapak carton recycling a week taking place but more significantly the only place in Europe they can be recycled is in Sweden. So all Europes recycle tetrapaks are transported to Sweden. As 90% of tetrapaks are cardboard it costs a fortune in CO2.

[VikkiM]

It's not just Labour saying that Southwark's recycling is bad - it's official statistics. The Lib Dems haven't managed even a 1% rise in recycling in the last year and they have slipped from being the 10th worst recycler in the country to the 6th worst - after 8 years of running the council the Lib Dems need to take responsibility for this situation.

If Labour, Lib Dems, Tories and Greens are to be believed, we all share a concern for our environment and we all want to boost recycling rates, in conjunction with a whole host of other green policies. The thing is, I don't think this is necessarily an ideological thing in Southwark, it's really about a bit of political will and about how we use resources.

Yes, blocks of flats present a problem but it's not a problem that other boroughs haven't overcome. Yes, we have a high number of blocks but if we manage to give some recycling facilities, why are there blocks in Peckham Rye ward that have no recycling facilities? This is despite both residents and councillors requesting them and even suggesting where communal bins could be sited.

Similar arguments hold for population turnover - maybe Southwark Life, that's getting a panning elsewhere on this forum could, once a year, be a specific recycling issue that sets out the latest details on recycling for residents. Southwark's website is terrible, a few changes could help get the message across on recycling more effectively. I'm sure people not posting at midnight after 5 mins thought could come up with better suggestions!

A couple of people have mentioned Greenwich which is regularly rated the best council for recycling in London. They have a simple colour coded system which people find easy to use and is something that we could replicate in Southwark. It would also encourage separation at source something which, as Tom's says, evidence suggests ultimately boosts recycling rates.

[tomchance]

JBARBER Wrote:

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> Our waste contractor Veolia assures us going co

> mingling will boost recycling rate very quickly

> during the next financial year from 24% to 30%. I

> believe this is a step towards further segregation

> when food waste will be collectable which clearly

> will have to be seperated.

So you're going with the view of a large company that stands to benefit from the cheaper collection system, rather than the advice of the Government's expert adviser, advice supported by most independent waste experts and NGOs?

You'll probably get a larger quantity of material into the trucks in the next few years, but you're shooting yourself in the foot if you want to eventually reach the recycling rates of our neighbours around Europe.

[BARA]

My mother lives in Sheltered Housing in Sydenham. All the tenants got a letter re recycling, when we read through it, Lewisham will not take half the amount of stuff that we in Southwark can recycle. You cannot put plastics other than milk containers in ( no butter/Marg containers, yoghurt pots/plastic trays etc.)

At one of the DCC meetings - Veolia gave out details of what can now be included in the recycling bin - now includes foil, aerisol cans (empty) deodrant and shampoo bottles etc. What I would like see is the tetra packs to be included at some point.

Some people just do not think about recycling - at work they laugh at me as I regularly check the kitchen bins for tins.bottles plastics to wash out and put in the recycling bin which is about 7 feet away from the general bin - with a large notice outlining what can or cannot go into the bin.

[Claire29]

same thing happened to us last week, everything emptied into our green bin which was really annoying as the bin was full up then and we couldn't get any normal rubbish in

[James Barber]

Hi Claire29,

If you didn't report it to Southwark Council can you PM your address and I'll ask for this to be investigated.