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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:
Ormirian · 30/09/2011 16:28

Well don't put food for maggots in your wheeliebin then? Put it in the food bin and give it a wash regularly.

notcitrus · 30/09/2011 16:29

We still have weekly collection for both rubbish and recycling.
But since April it's compulsory to recycle - people who don't can in theory be fined up to £1000, and the recycling bags now take plastic trays as well as plastic bottles, glass, cans, paper and card. So that's only 2 bins needed in the house, and even with a nappy a night we fill less than one bin bag a week.

Apparently recycling rates have risen from 65% to 81% since April - which still means 1 in 5 households can't be arsed to recycle. This is a crowded part of south London where many people don't speak English and move frequently so new people may not yet understand the system or how to get orange bags, but hopefully attitudes will improve. It's a bit tricky to fine people for contaminating rubbish bins as they have to be stored in front of most people's houses/flats so people walking down the street chuck stuff in them.

I think weekly recycling and fortnightly rubbish collection would work here - need recycling weekly as it's hard enough walking down the pavement round 100s of orange bags on collection day as it is!

FWIW, rubbish collection is the no.1 reason for people to phone the council - it's the one service everyone in the borough gets, and they love to complain. Early pilot recycling schemes found it was vital to double the number of staff answering the phone for at least 6 months, and train them on dealing with abusive callers. 'I don't get anything else from the council so I expect my rubbish to be collected' was a really common refrain - and I suspect these are the people who mainly vote Tory...

So much for localism and leaving LAs to decide what is best for them.

rycooler · 30/09/2011 16:35

What food bin? I have a brown bin, a green bin and a blue bin - I put paper in the green one, bottles in the blue one, and everything else goes in the brown one - isn't that enough? - what more do they want from me? - half the time I don't bother with the right colour bin anyway - I'm too busy to do the councils job for them -

Quenelle · 30/09/2011 16:38

We have occasionally found maggots in our rubbish bin in really hot weather, but they don't hang around long once DH has I have washed and bleached it.

Ormirian · 30/09/2011 16:41

No food bin? I can see your problem then. But I think that's the main issue TBH. if you have maggots in your bin they'll be there whether the rubbish picked up every week or not - unless you wash it out regularly. A food bin is small and easy to clean

It isn't just the council's problem. It's everyone's and that will come home to us all when our council's have to pay fines for producing too much waste for landfill - and our council tax goes up. it's not that hard to seperate a bit of waste surely?

GwendolineMaryLacey · 30/09/2011 16:41

FFS, I was intent on reading this debate until the 'fat, blubbery Pickles' comment Angry. I'll come back when some of you have grown up.

rycooler · 30/09/2011 16:49

Our brown bins are the only ones collected weekly - the blue and green ones are every two weeks. The maggots comment was an example of what can happen when food waste is left too long ( we've only had them a few times but it happens )

It's a hygiene issue and should be a priority.

lassylass · 30/09/2011 16:52

Its a Tory manifesto promise. Good on the Condems for delivering on it.

Councils dont have to go back to weekly collections. Its just that the financial penalties imposed by the last nanny-state government to force councils down the fortnightly collections route are being removed, and some extra cash found to fund switching back etc.

Cash that translates directly into services. Real services that everyone benefits from.

What has the Daily Mail got to do with it? Its a popular move across the whole country. I seem to recall a lot of MN wailing when the weekly collections were removed. Have we all forgotten now its the Toorryyy cnnuuttss who are doing it?

OTheHugeWerewolef · 30/09/2011 16:58

lassy Exactly. It's a manifesto promise. They're doing what they said they'd do.

Presumably if they didn't do it the people who hate Tories regardless of what they do would have a go at them for being evil lying Tories, reneging on their promises and ignoring the everyday needs of ordinary people. Hmm

LaWeasel · 30/09/2011 17:03

It might have been a manifesto promise but it's clearly not the most important thing to be spending money on right now. Currently up for debate is cutting benefits for people with terminal illnesses if they have the termacity to beat the odds and live for more than 12mths.

So, funnily enough, I couldn't give a shit about bins in comparison.

It's also pointless because although of course everyone grumbled when fortnightly collections where introduced, because no one likes change, most people have got over it by now.

rycooler · 30/09/2011 17:05

Is it only Daily Mail readers and Tories who want weekly bin collections?

Ponders · 30/09/2011 17:06

"it's what taxpayers want" says Mr Pickles

oh really Hmm

we have had weekly rubbish collections all along & I would rather switch to fortnightly. Mr Pickles didn't ask me

schroeder · 30/09/2011 17:16

You can't have it both ways!

Either 'there is no money, so we have to cut services'

Or 'we want to cut some services that we like and provide extra cash for the ones we like/win us more votes'

Not both.

I live in the 'real world' whatever that means I know politics is a complex mix of doing what is popular and doing what works and doing what appeals to the government world view or idealology.

But I have been told repeatedly that jobs and services are being cut because of a shortage of money. This is rubbish and swallowed by a frightening amount of people.The truth of it is the government would rather spend money on this service, because it appeals to a broad swathe of homeowners many of whom fail to grasp the horror of the public sector cuts, because they just do not effect them.

PeachyWhoCannotType · 30/09/2011 17:20

I get the job argument but to be honest we have 6 people in our house 1 in nappies, a cat and we cope fine with a fortnightly collection. Not a problem. So it takes a bit of recycling, that's good. Even means I get to know which neighbours are secret lushes Wink (all of them)

YANBU

Silly DM vote winner

PeachyWhoCannotType · 30/09/2011 17:21

And- and-

otrage here

but

and a few people on my FB know this but

When Eric Pickles came on TV about this my 3 year old pointed at the TV and said 'look mummy it's you'

He will NEVER be forgiven!

PeachyWhoCannotType · 30/09/2011 17:22

(We do get the food bin collected with the recycling though)

alemci · 30/09/2011 17:23

I think it is a good thing. Council tax went up and up and I think some people felt that all they got back was the weekly bin collection so I can't blame them for wanting it to be returned./

You can still be a sensible recycler and benefit from a weekly bin collection. Otherwise I think it does cause a hygene problem.

I think the packaging thing is an issue because it hasn't really improved.

PeachyWhoCannotType · 30/09/2011 17:29

Nah I would much rather the extras we pay (and all the rises lead to inevitable rises in VAT etc obviously) went to the vulnerable- terminally ill people, homeless children etc.

Not a bin.

Bramshott · 30/09/2011 17:35

What's the issue with maggots? We have them sometimes, they look a bit gross, then they grow into flies, and I open the lid and they fly off Confused

rycooler · 30/09/2011 17:48

Maggots are ok - it's the rats you have to worry about.

BoulevardOfBrokenSleep · 30/09/2011 17:58

But rats won't get into a closed wheelie bin - right?

prettybird · 30/09/2011 17:59

Have rats developed opposable thumbs and can get into wheely bins now? Hmm

However, I can understand people's concerns re vermin if black bags are still being used.

I live in an area where there are lots of urban foxes. When wheely bins were introduced, they really struggled for a while but there are plenty of idiots who put food out for them

AnnieLobeseder · 30/09/2011 17:59

Our council collect food waste every week, which goes to bio plants to create electricity. Then waste and recycling are alternated, so each is bi-weekly. Since there is no food in the waste, it doesn't get smelly or maggoty. A perfect system IMO.

£250 million spent on bringing back weekly bins collections because it's a basic "human right"? Words fail me. What a fucking waste of much-needed money.

prettybird · 30/09/2011 18:07

There are many (civilised) countries in the world where there are no unversal waste collections and you have to take your waste to communal collection points (personal experience of France, South Africa, and some parts of America).

I'm not suggesting that we should go that way - but I'm just pointing out that society doesn't collapse if you need to do that.

rycooler · 30/09/2011 18:12

It's worth remembering what local councils were set up for, and why you actually pay council tax - local councils were set up to meet the needs of local people, one of those needs is the regular disposal of our waste ( a basic human right ) I pay council tax on top of all the other taxes I have to pay. I hand over fucking 1000's - it's not much to ask for my rubbish to be collected every 7 days. I already sort it out for them.