On 2006-08-06 00:25:06 +0100, "Alan Holmes" said:


"Andy Hall" wrote in message ...
On 2006-08-05 21:09:57 +0100, "MikeH" said:

Our bin is only emptied every two weeks, but we've never had a problem
with smells, flies or maggots. All our veggie waste goes on a compost
heap. Any meat scraps, leftovers, etc, (cooked or otherwise), are
double-bagged and put in the bottom shelf of the freezer until the day
the bin is emptied. I use coloured bags so there's no chance of
confusing the stuff destined for the bin with the remainder of the
freezer contents. We don't have a massive amount of meat waste, so it
doesn't take much space in the freezer. Been doing this for years with
no problems at all.

Mike

This is all very well, but it shouldn't be necessary to have to mess
around like this.

Meat only has to be in a bin for a day to attract flies, so you feel
that the council should collect every day?

I think that there is a reasonable balance. Historically, rubbish
collections have been a weekly thing and people are geared up for that.
Bagging stuff up, tying it and putting it in the bin is reasonable.
I don't think that having to split it up, put some bits in a compost
bin and others in bags in the freezer and all the rest of it is.

In effect, the local authority has halved the service by reducing the
collection frequency. Have they halved the amount of money collected
that relates to this part of their service? I very much doubt it.
Did they poll their customers and ask if they were happy to have
collections only every two weeks? Who knows.

Either way, if they are going to reduce a service, they should ask the
customers first and provide an option to opt out. In other words, if
the general level of service is halved and I don't accept that, then
there should be an option not to pay and to go elsewhere for rubbish
collection.