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UK diy (uk.d-i-y) For the discussion of all topics related to diy (do-it-yourself) in the UK. All levels of experience and proficency are welcome to join in to ask questions or offer solutions. |
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#1
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Rubbish disposal, government regs and local councils
Has anyone else had the experience of a local council getting sh*tty because
you have asked them to take away a fridge? They are charging me £20 anyway, but thats not the issue, I was made to feel really guilty for daring to get rid of my old appliance and get a new one at all! I heard of recycling but this is silly. In 1977 I brought my fridge. Its now knackered. Doesnt cool and needs to be replaced. So I replaced it. Council officer told me I should not have replaced it - I am an ecologically unfriendly person for getting rid of an old appliance! What am I supposed to do? Ditto experience when I went to the amenity tip/ recycling tip with my old microwave ( bought 1981). Old microwave has a hole in it. It is rusted through. I got a new one. They told me I should not be dumping my old one because I was making waste! Unfortunately I took my old knackered Vax ( bought 1987) at the same time. The motor is knackered and it doesnt suck. Apparently I am supposed to repair it ( I was told by the repair people it was not economic to do so!). We have got to the point now where you are not allowed to throw anything away. You are not allowed to burn anything. You are not allowed to dump anything. Should I rename my house Steptoes Backyard? So what am I supposed to do? Not replace old appliances? Go without altogether and live a life of Victorian * luxury* with no mod cons? |
#2
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Rubbish disposal, government regs and local councils
Fwiw, I might add, I am getting so p*ssed off with all this eco stuff that
I am getting to the point where I think sod you all and it will last my lifetime ( which it probably will!) Shouting at people for changing fridge's every 25 years is not the way to go here. I would have understood if I was doing the designer thing and throwing out goods because they didn't fit in with the colour of my dogs coat! "lynd" wrote in message ... Has anyone else had the experience of a local council getting sh*tty because you have asked them to take away a fridge? They are charging me £20 anyway, but thats not the issue, I was made to feel really guilty for daring to get rid of my old appliance and get a new one at all! I heard of recycling but this is silly. In 1977 I brought my fridge. Its now knackered. Doesnt cool and needs to be replaced. So I replaced it. Council officer told me I should not have replaced it - I am an ecologically unfriendly person for getting rid of an old appliance! What am I supposed to do? Ditto experience when I went to the amenity tip/ recycling tip with my old microwave ( bought 1981). Old microwave has a hole in it. It is rusted through. I got a new one. They told me I should not be dumping my old one because I was making waste! Unfortunately I took my old knackered Vax ( bought 1987) at the same time. The motor is knackered and it doesnt suck. Apparently I am supposed to repair it ( I was told by the repair people it was not economic to do so!). We have got to the point now where you are not allowed to throw anything away. You are not allowed to burn anything. You are not allowed to dump anything. Should I rename my house Steptoes Backyard? So what am I supposed to do? Not replace old appliances? Go without altogether and live a life of Victorian * luxury* with no mod cons? |
#3
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Rubbish disposal, government regs and local councils
On Sat, 3 Dec 2005 10:18:50 +0000 (UTC), "lynd"
wrote: Fwiw, I might add, I am getting so p*ssed off with all this eco stuff that I am getting to the point where I think sod you all and it will last my lifetime ( which it probably will!) Shouting at people for changing fridge's every 25 years is not the way to go here. I would have understood if I was doing the designer thing and throwing out goods because they didn't fit in with the colour of my dogs coat! If you were shouted at you should most definately complain. It is not in any council employees description to shoout at members of the public (unless their job is chief of shouting at people) -- Promotional codes, discounts, money off http://www.promotionalcode.co.uk/ http://www.moneyoffvouchers.co.uk |
#4
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Rubbish disposal, government regs and local councils
On Sat, 03 Dec 2005 17:04:48 +0000, mogga wrote:
If you were shouted at you should most definately complain. It is not in any council employees description to shoout at members of the public (unless their job is chief of shouting at people) Or town crier |
#5
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Rubbish disposal, government regs and local councils
On Sat, 3 Dec 2005 10:11:17 +0000 (UTC), "lynd"
wrote: Has anyone else had the experience of a local council getting sh*tty because you have asked them to take away a fridge? They are charging me £20 anyway, but thats not the issue, I was made to feel really guilty for daring to get rid of my old appliance and get a new one at all! IME, council waste departments seem to attract two main types of people: - Those who are managing an outsource contractor and taking phone calls from customers complaining about bins not being emptied etc. I had occasion to have a "discussion" with one of these some while ago when the collection policy was changed from one of collecting bins at the house to bins must be at edge of property. I have quite a long drive and it was a PITA. Their opening line was that this was a health and safety issue and that the operatives weren't insured to go on people's property. I didn't buy it. Eventually I spoke to the manager who admitted that it was a time and cost issue in their contract negotiation. Fine. I don't have a problem with that - they could have simply told the truth in the first place. - The socialist jobsworths on a crusade and who are unemployable anywhere else. Poorly paid and realising they control a resource that you want, they will play it for all it's worth. There is a very simple solution to this nonsense. Tell them that they are not empowered by their employer to make social or any other judgments and are there to implement the service that their employer says that they provide. Further tell them that you expect that to be provided expeditiously, you will pay the defined charge and that is that. Threaten to escalate the issue if they don't co-operate. The do it anyway. Write to the chief executive of the council and your councillor. These people need to be weeded out of these positions. I heard of recycling but this is silly. Yes of course it is. In 1977 I brought my fridge. Its now knackered. Doesnt cool and needs to be replaced. So I replaced it. Council officer told me I should not have replaced it - I am an ecologically unfriendly person for getting rid of an old appliance! What am I supposed to do? You use the procedure that the council has to provide and you pay for it. That's it. Ditto experience when I went to the amenity tip/ recycling tip with my old microwave ( bought 1981). Old microwave has a hole in it. It is rusted through. I got a new one. They told me I should not be dumping my old one because I was making waste! Unfortunately I took my old knackered Vax ( bought 1987) at the same time. The motor is knackered and it doesnt suck. Apparently I am supposed to repair it ( I was told by the repair people it was not economic to do so!). These places are another magnet for jobsworths, although most at these places are into selling stuff on the side. The technique is to let them have their say, ignore it completely and then ask where you put the item, thanking them for their co-operation. We have got to the point now where you are not allowed to throw anything away. You are not allowed to burn anything. You are not allowed to dump anything. Should I rename my house Steptoes Backyard? So what am I supposed to do? Not replace old appliances? Go without altogether and live a life of Victorian * luxury* with no mod cons? I think that the answer is simple: - Recycle when it is convenient and economically sensible to do so. - Make product choices based on ecological considerations provided that again they are economically sensible and also products are fit for purpose. - Expect to pay for disposal. Having said that, increasingly manufacturers will be expected to play a part in facilitating or paying for that. Of course, the customer will pay in the end. -- ..andy |
#6
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Rubbish disposal, government regs and local councils
In article ,
lynd wrote: In 1977 I brought my fridge. Its now knackered. Doesnt cool and needs to be replaced. So I replaced it. Council officer told me I should not have replaced it - I am an ecologically unfriendly person for getting rid of an old appliance! Complain in writing to his superior. -- *Sherlock Holmes never said "Elementary, my dear Watson" * Dave Plowman London SW To e-mail, change noise into sound. |
#7
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Rubbish disposal, government regs and local councils
On Sat, 3 Dec 2005 10:11:17 +0000 (UTC), "lynd"
wrote: Has anyone else had the experience of a local council getting sh*tty because you have asked them to take away a fridge? They are charging me £20 anyway, but thats not the issue, I was made to feel really guilty for daring to get rid of my old appliance and get a new one at all! The whole recycling system is a joke. Some types of waste Councils do not want. Other types of waste they really do want. The Government has set local authorities a target based on weight in respect of the recycling of certain types of waste. This does not encourage a local authority to recycle in the most effective way. For example, take the recycling of glass and aluminium. The UK now produces so much recycled green glass that we sell the excess to China. However, we produce insufficient aluminium in the UK that we have to import it from Europe. Solution: We need to encourage greater recycling of aluminium. However, this will not particularly help a local authority to meet their recycling weight target, because aluminium is considerably lighter in weight than glass. In order to meet weight targets, a local authority is more likely to push glass and paper recycling. Graham |
#8
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Rubbish disposal, government regs and local councils
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#9
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Rubbish disposal, government regs and local councils
On 03 Dec 2005 14:49:58 GMT, Andrew Gabriel wrote:
The phrase "driving to the bottle bank" is commonly used as a reference to the futility of some types of recycling. If you have to drive to a bottle bank, it's more environmentally friendly to drop the glass in your regular landfill rubbish. Presumably only when making a special journey just to the bottle bank. If the journey is going to be made anyway, the extra fuel that the added weight of a few bottles are going to use is minimal. -- Cheers Dave. pam is missing e-mail |
#10
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Rubbish disposal, government regs and local councils
Andrew Gabriel wrote:
The phrase "driving to the bottle bank" is commonly used as a reference to the futility of some types of recycling. If you have to drive to a bottle bank, it's more environmentally friendly to drop the glass in your regular landfill rubbish. We had a glass/cans/paper collection bin provided recently. The idea being you collect such items in this bin and it gets emptied on the same day as the bins every other week. So far so good. But I do wonder how much environmental cost is there in everyone using now washing up cans and bottles that would previously have just been binned, on the grounds that they don't want soiled containers sitting about in the open air for a fortnight? -- Cheers, John. /================================================== ===============\ | Internode Ltd - http://www.internode.co.uk | |-----------------------------------------------------------------| | John Rumm - john(at)internode(dot)co(dot)uk | \================================================= ================/ |
#11
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Rubbish disposal, government regs and local councils
On Sun, 04 Dec 2005 00:21:30 +0000, John Rumm
wrote: We had a glass/cans/paper collection bin provided recently. The idea being you collect such items in this bin and it gets emptied on the same day as the bins every other week. So far so good. But I do wonder how much environmental cost is there in everyone using now washing up cans and bottles that would previously have just been binned, on the grounds that they don't want soiled containers sitting about in the open air for a fortnight? We've had the same thing for a while now. They expect you to cut windows out of envelopes before "recycling" them. Sod that. I rarely use the recycling box - I walk a couple of hundred yards to Sainsbury's where there are recycling bin-type-thingies. And I rinse jars out, but never wash up cans. -- Frank Erskine |
#12
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Rubbish disposal, government regs and local councils
On Sun, 4 Dec 2005 00:30:35 +0000 (UTC), Frank Erskine
wrote: We've had the same thing for a while now. They expect you to cut windows out of envelopes before "recycling" them. Sod that. I rarely use the recycling box - I walk a couple of hundred yards to Sainsbury's where there are recycling bin-type-thingies. And I rinse jars out, but never wash up cans. Apparently, clear glass is the most valuable of brown, green and clear glass. However, if bottle banked clear glass is contaminated by more than 7% with coloured glass then it is not worth so much. (7% figure is taken from several years ago - it may have changed and may vary from location to location). Many local authorities would offer brown, green, clear bottle banks. However, all the glass would be emptied into one single truck because joe public is too stupid to put the bottles in the correct banks. The glass is then sold as mixed. Graham |
#13
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Rubbish disposal, government regs and local councils
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#14
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Rubbish disposal, government regs and local councils
On Sun, 4 Dec 2005 09:22:38 +0000, Mike Tomlinson
wrote: In article , writes In order to meet weight targets, a local authority is more likely to push glass and paper recycling. And garden waste, which our local council has started collecting every two weeks for composting. The compost is then sold back to Joe Public at two quid a bag... Without thinking about the detailed economics, somebody has at least thought about that and turned a problem into an opportunity. Ours has done the typically stupid thing of being willing to collect one bag per week, or you can buy special bags from them. However, you have to go to the council offices, where there is no parking, to buy them for a pound each. Either that, or take the whole lot to the tip. -- ..andy |
#15
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Rubbish disposal, government regs and local councils
In article , Andy Hall
writes Without thinking about the detailed economics, somebody has at least thought about that and turned a problem into an opportunity. I agree, though can't help idly wondering whether the benefit to the environment is offset by the manufacture and distribution of the half- ton woven re-usable plastic bags for collecting the waste (distributed free to every household, whether they wanted it or not, by the council), the fuel used by the trucks to collect and empty the bags, and the fuel used by people going to and from the central point used to distribute the resultant compost. My suspicion is that all this garden waste is weighed and used by the council to offset the tax they will be paying on recycling vs. landfill ratios next year, as mentioned earlier in the thread. And as the bags are open and the waste gets wet, it weighs more... However, you have to go to the council offices, where there is no parking, to buy them for a pound each. Typical council mentality. Either that, or take the whole lot to the tip. Our local tip has a crusher for "green waste", which is presumably also composted. I used it a lot earlier this year, before the collection service came into being. |
#16
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Rubbish disposal, government regs and local councils
In article ,
Mike Tomlinson writes: And garden waste, which our local council has started collecting every two weeks for composting. The compost is then sold back to Joe Public at two quid a bag... Yes, of the two local councils I'm familiar with, one does this and makes a profit out of it, which is fine by me. The other one charges £25 for a bag which lasts a year and is collected every other week. I suspect most people just hide their garden refuse in the regular rubbish. It's looking like most councils will be changing the regular refuse collection to every two weeks over the next year. -- Andrew Gabriel |
#17
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Rubbish disposal, government regs and local councils
In article , Andrew Gabriel
writes Yes, of the two local councils I'm familiar with, one does this and makes a profit out of it, which is fine by me. Me too, as long as it goes into local services or is used to reduce council tax. It's looking like most councils will be changing the regular refuse collection to every two weeks over the next year. I think this is acceptable as long as provision is also made for recycling refuse that would otherwise have gone into the bin (paper, glass, garden waste, etc.) so that the bin doesn't fill up as quickly. Judging by the bins on collection day though, I suspect that some families will have trouble. We're still on weekly collection around here. |
#18
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Rubbish disposal, government regs and local councils
"Mike Tomlinson" wrote in message ... In article , Andrew Gabriel writes Yes, of the two local councils I'm familiar with, one does this and makes a profit out of it, which is fine by me. Me too, as long as it goes into local services or is used to reduce council tax. It's looking like most councils will be changing the regular refuse collection to every two weeks over the next year. I think this is acceptable as long as provision is also made for recycling refuse that would otherwise have gone into the bin (paper, glass, garden waste, etc.) so that the bin doesn't fill up as quickly. Judging by the bins on collection day though, I suspect that some families will have trouble. We're still on weekly collection around here. its now happened here (council promised that the second bin was not in preparation for a two weekly pick up), I now use a 4x2 clamped to the top of the large plastic bin a bottle jack & metal plate to compress the rubbish allowing it to last between collections - sometimes difficult to wheel this monstrosity to the perimeter, I have seen occasions where two 'refuse collection technicians' manhandled on to their lift. We still have a filled (uncompressed) 'recycle' waste bin on the other week (3-kids 2 adult family) and I compost my green/kitchen waste!!! (use the four woven backs for storage in the shed - waste not want not :-)) -- (º·.¸(¨*·.¸ ¸.·*¨)¸.·º) .·°·. NIK .·°·. (¸.·º(¸.·¨* *¨·.¸)º·.¸) |
#19
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Rubbish disposal, government regs and local councils
"lynd" wrote in message ... Has anyone else had the experience of a local council getting sh*tty because you have asked them to take away a fridge? They are charging me £20 anyway, but thats not the issue, I was made to feel really guilty for daring to get rid of my old appliance and get a new one at all! I heard of recycling but this is silly. In 1977 I brought my fridge. Its now knackered. Doesnt cool and needs to be replaced. So I replaced it. Council officer told me I should not have replaced it - I am an ecologically unfriendly person for getting rid of an old appliance! From next year councils will be fined for exceeding quotas of rubbish just buried instead of recycled. The figures run into several hundred thousand pounds. The councils are between a rock and a hard place. So blame it all on central government. bland |
#20
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Rubbish disposal, government regs and local councils
Our local council [NW lancs] gets rid of approx 1 skip full of
bicycles a month. these go for scrap when asked about re;cycling them for repair and resale they quoted H&S isssues. BO!!OCKS. It doesn't stop the local council employed skip rats running their own private scheme, routing through binbags for stock for their car boot sales!!!! IMHO one step above a pikey! -- Posted via Mailgate.ORG Server - http://www.Mailgate.ORG |
#21
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Rubbish disposal, government regs and local councils
lynd wrote:
Has anyone else had the experience of a local council getting sh*tty because you have asked them to take away a fridge? I'd remind them that it is simply their job to provide the services you pay (no doubt) huge sums of council tax for. It is not their job to make social or any other judgments (as Andy Hall put so well). Dave |
#22
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Rubbish disposal, government regs and local councils
On Sat, 3 Dec 2005 10:11:17 +0000 (UTC), lynd wrote:
In 1977 I brought my fridge. Its now knackered. Doesnt cool and needs to be replaced. So I replaced it. Didn't the place you bought the new one from have a (free?) scheme to take away the old one? Plenty of "exchanged" fridges out the back of Comet, Carlisle with large red stickers on wibbling something about the enviroment. -- Cheers Dave. pam is missing e-mail |
#23
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Rubbish disposal, government regs and local councils
I monitored a refuse & recycling contract for three years. You are
right to be concerned. In the last ten to fifteen years, local authorities have been cutting back on refuse collection services across the board because they are obliged to meet strict recycling quotas. This has given refuse contractors carte blanche to be as picky and fussy as they like about what they will or won't pick up. You can waste hours on the phone to the local authority complaining about these issues, but the only way that you will achieve any change is to lobby either your local councillor or the committee responsible for the service, ideally with a petition signed by others. If that has no effect, try to get the local media involved, because nothing scares an elected councillor more than the thought of bad publicity. Fridges, cars, DIY material, car batteries etc etc - although local authorities are obliged to provide facilities for disposing of these things, there are allowed to charge. It used to be that second hand car dealers would fight over the rights to impound abandoned cars - legion are the stories about backhanders thrown to highways inspectors in return for scrap cars - but now no one wants them, what with the low cost of second hand cars, so the councils charge high fees just for scrapping a vehicle, because the car dealers don't want them anymore. Taxpayers who can't drive to amenity tips are being discriminated against because they have to pay extra to the refuse contractor to collect bulky items. This effects the poor, disabled and elderly. Of course it's all wrong but you can only change local policy by lobbying politicians. For years local government ignored the issue of recycling. These were the golden days when binmen would collect anything. Then when the horrendous cost of recycling was suddenly realised, swingeing cuts were made to the general refuse collection service (along with cuts to street cleaning and similar grounds maintenance work). To make matters worse, so much is now being recycled that the value of recycled paper, glass and metal has tumbled, meaning that local authorities get far less income than they had budgetted for. |
#24
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Rubbish disposal, government regs and local councils
In article .com,
wrote: but now no one wants them, what with the low cost of second hand cars, so the councils charge high fees just for scrapping a vehicle, because the car dealers don't want them anymore. This is out of date. A bare bodyshell from the average car is worth about 25 quid these days. And of course the dismantler may make more by selling secondhand parts. -- *I didn't fight my way to the top of the food chain to be a vegetarian. Dave Plowman London SW To e-mail, change noise into sound. |
#27
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Rubbish disposal, government regs and local councils
In article .com,
wrote: Indeed. Local authorities can't even organise decent education these days. That's why they "loose" money then. :-) -- AJL |
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