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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

to be a bit pissed off that after all the cuts, £250,000,000 has been 'found' for weekly bin collections?

346 replies

Annpan88 · 30/09/2011 08:11

Correct me if I'm wrong but after all these cuts to services and people losing their jobs, I believe the government has decided to make changes to the minor Inconvenience that is fornightly bin collections?

Yes, it is a bit of a pain in the arse but I don't see how its the most important thing in thw world and I'm guessing people are pretty use to it.

I just wonder if people are feeling like me, AIBU?

OP posts:
LaWeasel · 30/09/2011 09:18

Oh yes, I have a big long list of things that can spend any spare cash they've got on if they so wish (and a slightly smaller one of stuff they'd bloody better find the money for because not doing so borders on human rights abuses)

HappyMummyOfOne · 30/09/2011 09:25

Waste of money, would have preferred it to have gone to schools or hospitals instead.

MillyR · 30/09/2011 09:26

They should put the money into sorting out recycling so that people didn't need weekly collections. One small box emptied every two weeks will not hold all my recycling, and as another poster pointed out, they don't take away a lot of items even though they can be recycled if you take them to the tip yourself.

I don't drive so I have to put lots of stuff that could easily be recycled in my landfill bin.

LaWeasel · 30/09/2011 09:29

I'd just like to add that our local recycling is partcularly well though out, they take almost everything as recycling and it is sorted and re-processed locally.

I should think our current system employs a lot of local people, switching it to weekly and having lazy people just chuck it all in the landfill bin would probably cause job losses at the recycling plants.

gethelp · 30/09/2011 09:29

YANBU.
The cost of going to fortnightly collections was immense in my borough (not mine exactly, I just live here), and the grief the binmen got was dreadful (as if it was their fault).
We just seem to go round in very expensive circles in education, health and local government, in twenty years time we'll be re-constructing local authorities for health, housing and social care after seeing years of poor management run them into the ground.
Still, you cast your vote, you make your choice.

slavetofilofax · 30/09/2011 09:38

YABU

My council has never moved to fortnightly collections, but if they did I would be mighty pissed off. I have a small house, no space for a wheely bin at the front and no front to back access. So we have a bin in our back garden which has to be emptied and traipsed through the garage each week, along with the recyling. I think I pay enough council tax to warrant weekly collections.

I agree that there are areas where money is wasted, but I don't think this is one of them. I would like to see education and healthcare prioritised well above anything else, but we pay for councils to run a good refuse collection service. Once a fortnight does not imo, create a good refuse collection service.

tethersend · 30/09/2011 09:54

Hang on... You don't think that maybe they have got money after all and they are making cuts based on ideologies, do you?

No, no, of course not. That would be absurd. There must be another explanation. Yes.

Aitcherella · 30/09/2011 09:59

YANBU, complete waste of money.

LaWeasel · 30/09/2011 09:59

I know it's a shocking revelation tethers I mean, when they said they didn't need the 750mil they were raising from the 50p tax rate I started to wonder...

BetsyBoop · 30/09/2011 10:06

YANBU

Our (tory) council are generally crap, but we've had alternate weekly collections here for over 10 years & it works really well. (week one black bin = non-recyclables; week two = green bin compostable waste + green box = metal/plastic/glass + blue bag = cardboard + paper) Even after two weeks our black bin is barely half full, if it was collected weekly I probably wouldn't bother to even put it out... The few people that moan are the once that can't be arsed to sort their rubbish, so their black bin is overflowing in a few days - why not charge them extra for an extra collection if they are that bothered?

If there is "spare" money I'd much rather it went on care for the elderly/disabled/SN/libraries etc all of which have been CUT.

SpanishPaella · 30/09/2011 10:07

we have always had weekly collections but they did bin & recycling at same time

now we are having separate weekly bin & recycling collections on different days

Must say our council is pretty good

slavetofilofax · 30/09/2011 10:09

Because they already pay Betsy, so they shouldn't have to pay more if they want extra. They pay council tax based on the size house they have.

I would rather my council tax paid for weekly collections rather than libraries.

LyingWitchInTheWardrobe2726 · 30/09/2011 10:09

You're being unreasonable, OP. Do you know the reasoning behind it? Landfill Directive diversion targets? If councils fail to meet those targets they will attract huge fines from Europe - far greater than any project costs they're investing in now. Diverting waste from landfill, by any means possible, is essential.

SpanishPaella · 30/09/2011 10:09

maybe they should cut the bins and make parenting classes compulsory (with an assessment). Would definitely cut down on various "issues" that the govt currently chucks money at

ramblinrose · 30/09/2011 10:10

YANBU

There are five of us in our household and we manage perfectly well with fortnightly collections.
What is so wrong with recycling.This extra money could be much better spent elsewhere.

stoatie · 30/09/2011 10:11

We have fortnightly collections and works really well. Our recycling will take - green bin , garden waste and food waste, red box - paper, tins bottles and glass (I have separate boxes for each) and large bag for cardboard. We are a family of five but our black bin is sufficient (apart from at Christmas).

However - we have 2 wheelie bins in front drive/garden and 4 boxes and a large bag in garage (which we use for general storage not for housing the car) so whilst recycling is great it does take up a lot of space which many don't have.

MillyR · 30/09/2011 10:15

I agree that recycling and avoiding landfill is important, so why are there still councils like mine that do not provide decent recycling collection?

My mum lives in a different area to me, and she has one wheely bin for green waste, one for general recycling and one for landfill. If we had that we would only need our bin emptied once a month. Why don't the government insist that all councils provide proper recycling collections?

It is all very well people moaning and saying that weekly collections are not needed, but they are in a very different position if they have a proper recycling service.

Bramshott · 30/09/2011 10:16

I am utterly aghast at this!

midnightexpress · 30/09/2011 10:17

YANBU. We have had recycling one week (glass/paper/cardboard/plastic/tetra/cans) non-recyclable the next week and a monthly glass collection for years and it works just fine. Our bins are never full. It would be a total waste of money to reintroduce weekly collections, but as we're in Scotland, the council and the govt have less interest in pandering to the average Daily Mail reader, and more important things to spend their money on, so it probably won't affect us.

MillyR · 30/09/2011 10:21

The newspaper report seems to be saying that waste has to be collected every week. It doesn't seem to be saying that it must be landfill every week, so presumably they could just alternate between landfill one week and recycling the next. Has anybody seen a report anywhere that says it will be landfill every week?

MooncupGoddess · 30/09/2011 10:22

Totally ridiculous, and it also undermines the localism agenda - ie councils should make their own decisions based on the views of their local electorate, not be pushed around by orders from the top the whole time.

The coalition are turning out just like New Labour - Daily Mail/focus group politics resulting in a blizzard of ill-thought-out and contradictory initiatives.

oldraver · 30/09/2011 10:30

Our local council (West Oxfordshire) are very good with recycling, we now even have Tetra Packs collection and all the 'floataway' plastic (including clingfilm) collected now. We also have food waste collected that goes to a Bio thingy, so we dont actually need any more than fortnightly on the general waste bin.

I was a little bit anti the food waste bin as my Mum had a problem with the mmm things but I think I have got round that I freeze the stuff.

I would much rather the money be spent on other services than messing around with the bin schedule

SardineQueen · 30/09/2011 10:30

Good grief.

RhinoKey · 30/09/2011 10:34

Its a gimmick - will please middle England, along with the 80mph speed limit.

ShirleyKnot · 30/09/2011 10:35

YANBU

But it, yet again, shows that the cuts are idealogical rather than anything else.

The ideolgy being to punish the poor and reward the rich.