RUBBISH CHARGE

Page 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8
 

Council's who have switched to fortnightly bin rounds are being given powers to restore more frequent pick-ups for individual homes. However, families requesting the service are likely to face extra charges of at least £50 a year. Joan Ruddock, Minister for Waste, said, "We have created powers in the Climate Change Bill to allow pilot schemes to operate in a variety of ways, including but not limited to weight-based schemes using microchips or schemes based on frequency of collection." It means the law not only allows councils to charge according to the amount of rubbish they pick up, but also means they can issue bills for additional collections.

Councils are supposed to take no profit from pay-as-you-throw taxes. Instead they are meant to reward those who recycle and punish those who put out most waste but the bureaucratic cost of setting up taxation schemes will be high, £10 a house, according to Miss Ruddock. She added that charges for those who pay the tax could be £30 to £50 a year. Critics say the cost is certain to rise above £100 a year for those who want weekly collections or who have large amounts of rubbish to dispose of. (Source: Daily Mail, Mar/08)

One in three households has lost the right to have rubbish collected once a week. It means nine million homes now have their bins picked up only once a fortnight. Despite denials from ministers, Whitehall-funded research has shown failure to collect the bins at least once a week increases the chances of infestations by insects and vermin such as rats.

Gordon Brown has been piling the pressure on councils to switch to fortnightly rubbish collections by increasing landfill taxes. Unless councils can find a way of recycling more waste and persuading householders to leave out less rubbish, they may be forced to raise local taxes to cover the cost.

As a result, the fortnightly rubbish collections involve not just complex recycling regulations but also demands that householders dump less waste. Bins are not collected if they are filled too full while rubbish left in bags outside bins is not picked up at all. Those who fail to close their wheelie bin lids are, under laws that came into force last year, subject to on-the-spot fines of £100.

The same applies to those who leave their rubbish out too early or who leave out extra bags. However, thieves caught shoplifting are typically fined £80. The unpopularity of the recycling schemes has been intensified by the petty rules they insist on. For example, householders have been told to remove the plastic windows from envelopes and separate printed cardboard from blank cardboard. (Source: Mail on Sunday, Apr/07)

Pensioner Patricia Pilkington managed to get her heavy wheelie-bin to the end of her driveway but petty-minded binmen ignored it, because it was a foot short of the pavement where it was meant to be left. The 64-year-old, who suffers from severe arthritis and has had both her knees replaced, said, "I know they're supposed to be rubbish collectors, but I didn't think they'd take their name literally." She rang the council and was told that because her wheelie-bin was 12 inches away from the pavement it would not have been classed as "out for collection". She added, "We are always being told to recycle more and there are always stories about fly-tipping. It's no surprise if they don't take our bins away. I pay my taxes and I did the recycling properly. I have to wait another fortnight now just because it was 12 inches from the pavement. It is ridiculous."

Waste service manager Dennis Pennill, said, "It is not the job of our waste teams to collect wheeled bins from driveways, and they are acting as they have been instructed to do. However, in this instance and as a gesture of goodwill, as long as the bin contains only appropriate waste and has its lid closed, we will return to collect it. I would politely ask that the resident makes sure the bin is in the correct position on the kerb in the future." More than 33,000 householders breached rubbish disposal rules last year. They include a fellow pensioner who was warned he'd be ordered to pay £1,000 if he made the mistake of putting an orange juice carton in the wrong recycling sack again. And a group of residents in Liverpool were threatened with fines of up to £20,000 for leaving their bins out on the wrong day. (Source: Mail on Sunday, Apr/07)

Chris Perry, who lives in Winchester, Hampshire, got fed up of being woken at 5.45am every week by binmen making a racket in the street. There was always the thunder of wheelie bins being pulled from driveways and the roar of the engine from the lorry. After weeks of disturbed sleep, Mr Perry, decided to take action. Convinced the council wouldn't act on any complaint, he took matters into his own hands and parked his car across their path, blocking them in the cul-de-sac. Then he demanded they call their depot to change their collection times. The binmen, however, phoned the police instead. But officers told them to stop working so early and to leave the estate immediately.

Mr Perry said, "It's absolutely ridiculous that they have to turn up at the crack of dawn every week and create such a racket. I'm not prepared to be woken up that early in the morning. I was so annoyed that I felt I had to take a stand myself. There's no point complaining to the council because they wouldn't do anything." He added, "I was so riled when the driver told me that he had to start his rounds early so he could get back in time to drive his son to school. That's no excuse for waking the whole neighbourhood up, so I decided to block them in. But they said they'd ram me out of the way."

Winchester City Council's rubbish contractor, Serco, has since apologised. A spokesman explained that the binmen had been starting much earlier than necessary. City councillor Brian Collins, who represents the ward where Mr Perry lives, said, "It is not reasonable for them to start before 7am." A council spokesman said an investigation was taking place. (Source: Mail on Sunday, Oct/06)

More than 30 councils are fitting microchips to wheelie bins in advance of possible laws that will allow residents to be charged for the amount of non-recyclable waste they produce. Local authorities do not yet have the power to use the chips for charging householders, but some councils are activating the technology to pinpoint areas with low recycling rates.

Cllr Paul Bettison, chairman of the environment board of the Local Government Association, said many councils were buying microchipped bins now because this was cheaper than fitting the technology later to bins. Defiant householders have been removing the microchips and either dumping them or posting them back to their local town hall, according to recent newspaper reports.

One of the biggest shows of defiance has been reportedly in Bournemouth, where councillors estimated that 25,000 "bugs", one-third of the total, have been unscrewed. An LGA spokeswoman said, "If local authorities are going to introduce this, then they need to let local people know, and explain why, if they are going to use them." She stressed that a "pay-as-you-throw" scheme would not mean extra charges imposed by councils. (Source: Mail on Sunday, Oct/06)