Some people have no idea

[Isitschool]

It sometimes feels that some people have no idea what it's like for people living in poverty or a very low income.

There has been some discussions about fly tipping. I said some people don't drive so can't get to the tip. Or they can't afford to have it taken away. My council charges 30.00 pounds to have a fridge removed . Or it's 20.00 for up to 4 items such as a bed frame, chest of drawers ect. That does not seem like alot of money, But there are people out there that are having to choose weather they put money on their gas or eat . If they are in that position they clearly can't afford to have broken furniture taken away .

The replies from people were . If they can afford new furniture then they can afford to have it taken away or if they get a new fridge from curry's you pay a bit extra to have the old ones removed. Do people honestly think that people who can barely afford to eat are buying brand new fridge and furniture.

I'm just no way saying fly tipping is OK. Of course its not but I do understand why it happens. I just think it's sad how many people don't understand what its like to live on a shoe string

The council should make this easy for all of us. In case of deprived areas they should do this within the council tax fees. Being once or twice a month.

I’ve got neighbours need lots of repairs in flat but put up with living in disarray because can’t afford take multiply times of a low paying job. Housing association will do a 8-6 on this day which is hopeless. When juggling two jobs and childcare.

@ToManderleyAgain

At the risk of completely missing the point… I’ve never understood why councils don’t offer a more heavily subsidised collection service, given that presumably they have to waste a considerable amount of resources on collecting fly tipped waste?

The council will not collect fly tipped waste dumped on private land. We have to either remove it ourselves or pay for a contractor to do so.

My council provides free collection of large items - you just have to book it and they tell you what day to leave the stuff outside. People still prefer to leave it festering for months in their front yard, and then walk it down to the corner and dump it there. Even when I remonstrate and tell them the council will collect it for free, they shrug and say the council will collect it from the corner so no need to book it.

It's not always about money.

I think councils offering free fridge/freezer collection would be helpful as these items are the ones most likely to get dumped/ flytipped.

But for everything else I don't agree.

Working/ unbroken items which are no longer needed (because you've upgraded or been given a replacement) - Freecycle or similar
Non working metal/electrical items - the scrappers will almost certainly collect for free

Upthread someone said that their area offers free collection of anything less than armchair sized - if it's that small you can break it up and put it in your rubbish bin, surely you don't need a separate collection? And for other stuff maybe we should be trying more to fix and repair things (like the broken bed slat I mentioned in my previous post) rather than discard them at the first opportunity, especially if you can't afford to pay for the replacement and disposal of the old item.

I understand some items (washing machines, cookers, fridges) are essential, can't easily be repaired and often people on low incomes would be replacing with another second hand version. But as said - scrappers will usually take the broken ones for free, and I do think councils should collect fridges. Especially after seeing a friend's post last week of no less than 3 fridge freezers dumped in the middle of her street (normal residential road about 2 miles from the nearest tip!)

Lived in France, where there are the ' encombrants' every month for people to leave their things outside their houses. Vans go round and collect stuff before the council comes. People also go around looking for furniture to recycle.

In Paris you book online, get a number stick it on your rubbish outside for the next morning. It's free.

I get that £30 would be prohibitive for some families and they're possibly living off toast all week to afford a replacement fridge which they need. But that doesn't explain carting (presumably in a car) somewhere to fly tip it. I don't see people carting fridges in their back to chuck over an embankment.
When we couldn't afford to pay for items to be removed we kept them until we could. I didn't walk a few planks of broken cot around the estate to chuck them up alleyways.

Why do people fill the communal litter store in their flats or their gardens with rubbish? Yes I'll accept in part it's poverty.

Flytipping? I'm not seeing it. Oh I couldn't get it removed legally so my oy recourse was to being it to these woods and dump it. No.

Upthread someone said that their area offers free collection of anything less than armchair sized - if it's that small you can break it up and put it in your rubbish bin, surely you don't need a separate collection? how much spare space do you have in your bin each fortnight?? We struggle to fit our normal waste in.

Agree with scrap men, here at least. Anything goes out that's metal and they're round. They'll also ask to check your skip check whilst you're out although some also stole my oxygen tanks

That’s not who fly tips around here - it is builders dumping building waste, and house clearance companies dumping stuff instead of taking it to the tip because they would be charged (I’ve seen them - unfortunately the van said “AA House Clearance” which doesn’t narrow it down, and I didn’t get the licence number). So nope, no sympathy.

And yep anything usable left outside your house just goes around here (south London). Usually that is helpful (old cot was taken, etc). Sometimes not so helpful (new floorboards went while the floorers were unloading their van). Obviously not the piles of plasterboard fragments and broken plastic pipes the flytippers leave obstructing the pavement every week.

Mine charges for 3 items, if you have four you have to pay again.

This is why I have a broken plastic garden chair in my garden, they would only take 3.

The local rag and bone man took my old air conditioner, and they collected it from the back garden because the council only pick up from the pavement in front.

@SleepingStandingUp

I get that £30 would be prohibitive for some families and they're possibly living off toast all week to afford a replacement fridge which they need. But that doesn't explain carting (presumably in a car) somewhere to fly tip it. I don't see people carting fridges in their back to chuck over an embankment. When we couldn't afford to pay for items to be removed we kept them until we could. I didn't walk a few planks of broken cot around the estate to chuck them up alleyways.

Why do people fill the communal litter store in their flats or their gardens with rubbish? Yes I'll accept in part it's poverty.

Flytipping? I'm not seeing it. Oh I couldn't get it removed legally so my oy recourse was to being it to these woods and dump it. No.

There was a woman who had a fridge in a supermarket trolley trying to push it on the heavy rain a couple months back. I think it much have been to heavy for her to get up the kerb as I heard a big bang. She had dropped it outside my house.

People who are living in poverty don't eat toast for a week to save for a replacement unless its 2nd hand and cheap. A new one would take a long time for them to save up. Or if they are lucky enough they may get a free one that somone has kindly given away.

(If) theh manage to save up 30.00 to have a fridge removed .they then get their child come home saying there's a hole I'm my shoe etc . Or they have their old fridge in their back/front garden whilst they save for the collection and some judgmental person takes a photo of their garden slagging them of in social media

My local authority offers free collection of large household items.

There is still a lot of fly tipping - especially in student areas and areas with high density rented terraces (lack of storage for unwanted items a problem).

I also think some of it is landlords and they just don't care as it's not their neighbourhood.

@Crowdfundingforcake

Our council in Sydney, Australia, had 2 x 'council clean ups' a year where you could put anything out on the curbside and it would be picked up and disposed of. It worked really well because A: people could get rid of bulky stuff with no effort and no resorting to fly tipping and B: people treated the piles of stuff on the curb as a kind of garage sale and helped themselves to anything they wanted, so recycling and keeping stuff out of landfill.

A friend scored a pair of very expensive skis in perfect condition and I picked up a really nice TV cabinet.

They used to have something similar in Germany, people placed items they didn't want on the pavement outside their houses/ flats and anyone who needed them could take them, the council collected the rest. I furnished my flat that way when I was on a very low income.

I believe a lot of flytipping isn't individuals though, but rogue companies who charge people to collect their rubbish and then just dump it.

Our tip isn’t free for commercial waste or if trailers on so vans etc can’t use it (I can recall DH having to argue when he took an old mattress in a hired van) our tip is only open some days too. Previous area they closed the convenient tip (just off motorway, next to big Asda) and only one was miles away in a random rural isolated town you’d never go to. I complained and they said decision already made.

The council in the next borough removes mattresses for free- doesn’t stop chavs dumping em in the street- scummy behaviour is scummy behaviour

Isn't most fly tipping done in country lanes though ? Surely if you have the means to get it there, you have the means to take it to the tip ? Our local tip is free to use and council will collect large items for a small fee.

@PhoenixIsFlying

You make a very valid point. Any suggestions on how to dispose of a king-size mattress?

Big pair of scissors. Strip it of all the fabric and stuffing, and that goes out with your rubbish a bit at a time, for as many weeks or months as it takes to get rid of it all. Once you’ve got it down to the metal springs, get on your local community FB page and ask who your scrap collectors are and they’ll come and take the springs. They won’t be interested unless you’ve stripped it first.

@Babyroobs

Isn't most fly tipping done in country lanes though ? Surely if you have the means to get it there, you have the means to take it to the tip ? Our local tip is free to use and council will collect large items for a small fee.

I'm not talking about people that fly tip on country lanes my understanding is they are mainly scammers that say they collected unwanted stuff then dump it so they don't have to pay fees.

People whovdo drive to dump stuff round the corner I agree they should take it to the dump.

The small fee is often not small for people living in poverty.

I spoke to a local councillor about this recently as my area has only just introduced bulk waste collection charges a few months back - apparently it doesn’t lead to an increase in fly-tipping. I’m astonished if that is true.

The last time I had something to leave out I grudgingly booked and paid for collection (washing machine) but the scrappy got to it first and I got a refund from the council!

@Isitschool well yes my eating toast comment was in reference to cutting back just to afford a second hand one. But I still think that most people who would responsibly dispose of something IF they could afford it are more likely to do so if they're poor (ie leave for scrap man, leave at side of house) etc and people who think it's OK to dump their crap anywhere will do so regardless of cost because they don't give a damn.

I unsure if your lady flytipped her fridge outside your house or you're saying she was wheeling one home?

@PhoenixIsFlying

You make a very valid point. Any suggestions on how to dispose of a king-size mattress?
Where I used to live you'd just set fire to it and then the tat man takes the metal 🔥😬

@ChristmasCatBells

Slightly off topic but people flytip near me but they have driven to the Country roads to dump the stuff so I don't understand why they don't just drive to the recycling/waste centre. Agree that people can find it difficult to afford the fee.

That will be someone who has paid a randomer with no waste disposal licence to take it away for them. Commercial vehicles are not allowed in the council tips. They have to pay for a licence and waste disposal.

[quote SleepingStandingUp]@Isitschool well yes my eating toast comment was in reference to cutting back just to afford a second hand one. But I still think that most people who would responsibly dispose of something IF they could afford it are more likely to do so if they're poor (ie leave for scrap man, leave at side of house) etc and people who think it's OK to dump their crap anywhere will do so regardless of cost because they don't give a damn.

I unsure if your lady flytipped her fridge outside your house or you're saying she was wheeling one home?[/quote]
Oh yes I agree most would. And yes you do get people who would dump stuff even if they can afford it so it will be a mix of people.

No the lady dropped it and done runner. Plus that mother thingy in the bottom was missing . It took council over 6 weeks to collect it from outside my house.

Also a few weeks back there was a house down my road they had put things neatly on their wall. And a dog basket and something else leaning again their wall. With a sign saying free please help yourself. The council put tape all over it saying fly tipping under investigation

omfg- some of the cluelessness here!

“I can always get rid of my working tv on free cycle “. Aye hen, fancy a 5 year old shit fridge that doesn’t work?

“I just saw it up and take it to the tip”

1. does anyone know how to saw up a fridge?
2. how many bus trips with my fridge in my handbag would I need to take?
3. are saws free?

My fridge spent 6 months in my garden because it broke during the middle of lockdown and the ONLY people who would deliver IN to the house AND offer an interest-free payment plan were Amazon. Unfortunately they didn’t do disposal.

£35 to get it taken away. Or ignore it in the garden for a few months. Wwyd?