To wish they'd reopen the recycling centers?

[feelinguseless78]

They closed the tips at the start of lockdown and fly tipping and bonfires have gone up massively in our area as a result.

I appreciate that they constitute a non essential journey to use them, but I feel they're the lesser evil!

AIBU?

YABU - they should remain closed
YANBU - yes they should reopen

I deffo class them as essential workers and they need to re-open.

Fly tipping's gone crazy round here since they closed.

I've noticed a lot more 'white collar' fly-tipping, where people have dumped loads of black bags and assorted jumble in the doorways of charity shops. They tell you not to do it normally, as it can get stolen, attacked by foxes or blow around everywhere overnight - but when everybody knows that nobody is going to be collecting it for weeks or months, it's got to be obvious to anybody doing it that they are just tipping their rubbish illegally.

Plus, I'm guessing that the kind of stuff that folk leave in black bags in the doorways isn't the decent quality easily-saleable goods but the sort of material that, if open when brought, the charity shop would politely decline anyway - if not just outright household waste that wouldn't fit in people's wheelie bin.

Flytipping is a huge issue here too. Yanbu for wanting them to reopen

@WeAllHaveWings no, I've not heard about the pandemic. It's completely by passed the hospital I work at, we know nothing about it.

People need to think about the waste they create and their ability to get rid of it before they create it.

Our council has suspended brown bin services. Gardens need to be tended to, so where is that waste supposed to go? You can't have a bonfire and not everyone has space for a compost heap. Normally that rubbish would be collected once a fortnight but it's not.

doesn't have to be one or the other.

it's not an essential service it is rightly not operating.

Prioritising redecorating over saving lives is abhorrent,

Not everyone lives in houses with gardens and plenty of storage space.

Absolutely. It's not even just waste, in fact: we have friends who live with their two children in a small flat and they've had to temporarily move and stack up all non-essential furniture in one of the children's bedrooms with the two kids now sharing, as they wouldn't physically have the space to be able to do their professional jobs (and the children their schoolwork) from home if they hadn't.

Our garden waste is never collected unless you pay for an extra bin (and it works out at about £2.50 per collection) and our glass is never collected either - and that's before you get on to all sorts of other stuff like electrical good, fabric and garden chemicals. On the plus side, our usually useless council is still collecting rubbish, plastic, tins and paper as normal.

Ours is a very popular tip and well laid out so it would be easy to distance.

Fly tipping costs much more than running the tip - does that not tell people that the council are having to prioritise other services first. Nope. Because it doesn't work like that. The county council operates the tips. The district councils pick up the tab for fly tipping, but only fly tipping on public land - I'm pretty sure that if stuff is fly-tipped over a hedge into a farmer's field, the farmer had to pay to get it cleared up.

Prioritising redecorating over saving lives is abhorrent

Nobody is doing this.

Sanitation is absolutely essential . It is very close after food, water and medical health in terms of importance.

I'd love them to open. They are not collecting garden waste here either. I can understand that they may not be able to staff them though.

We’ve not noticed any in our immediate area but apparently there’s been a lot of people burning rubbish at home in the wider area. The council have put a notice on their social media stating that it’s a nuisance and anyone caught faces being prosecuted and an unlimited fine.

Prioritising redecorating over saving lives is abhorrent

Or chest freezers in people's garages that have failed and are now going mouldy with a whole load of rotting food inside?

@WeAllHaveWings no, I've not heard about the pandemic. It's completely by passed the hospital I work at, we know nothing about it.

So you know better than most that a life saved is more important than redecorating or some fly tipping that can be cleared up later.

Anyone with a garden no matter how small should be composting. Even large piles of grass clippings will compost and you can add egg shells, veg waste and even paper and cardboard. They hardly take up any room at if done correctly and even if you don’t know how to compost then use google and you will soon find out.

@WeAllHaveWings what I know is that one has very little to do with the other. Those refuse workers haven't been redeployed to hospitals, the funding hasn't been redirected. Most household waste facilities can be run using social distancing measures. And actually fly tipping, both it's presence and clearing creates more strain on the NHS overall.

Since when has it only been essential workers, anyway.
It's work from home if you can.
Otherwise social distancing which you can do with any of the suggestions mentioned.
Where is the risk in unloading and collecting a skip?

Also going to a recycling centre is not one of the legitimate reasons for leaving your home. So noone should be going there!

Prioritising redecorating over saving lives is abhorrent

Yes, because that's exactly what's happening, isn't it?

In the long run, waste left out is unhygienic and dangerous. It attracts rodents, flies and foxes. It smells. The weather is getting warmer and some things will soon begin to rot.

People are home 24/7 and are producing much more waste than normal, yet waste services have been vastly reduced. Tips can easily operate while maintaining social distancing. One car in at a time. Make sure you don't touch the sides or hand rails. Get rid of your rubbish, leave, then the next car comes in and does the same.

@feelinguseless78 they might not have been redeployed to hospitals, but to social services and homeless outreach, who are completely overrun at the moment.

it's not an essential service it is rightly not operating.

Waste removal is absolutely an essential service. It's part of keeping the country clean and sanitary.

Jellybott they haven't been redeployed to social services here. They're still on refuge services, most still working at the tip, just with it closed to the public.

WeAllHaveWings my OP literally says that.

Whilst the garden waste is annoying, I don't class it in the same category as household waste. At least those of us who are signed up for the garden waste collections are lucky enough to have gardens in which to store the waste temporarily - and whilst dirty in an earthy way, it's natural and organic and doesn't represent a health hazard.

I just think that, whilst many folk will have the ability to make do with a lot of their other waste until the tips open, an awful lot of people will be left very vulnerable and in very unsafe living conditions.

Plus, for those without gardens, aside from the waste-disposal issue, they're also facing judgement (even hatred) and sometimes heavy-handed policing when they and their families need to exercise or play outdoors and take their dogs for a walk.

Surely decorating is saving lives as you are in the home, if I am decorating I haven’t got time to go out and do the daily exercise so therefore staying in more than is required

I’m in Canada and was just staying this today! I understand that they are a non-essential journey but if they opened, even on reduced hours, I think it would be the lesser evil. I’ve seen so much rubbish dumped on the side roads where I live.

I hope I've misunderstood you there - surely you aren't saying that you'd just fly-tip anything that doesn't fit in your bin?

Oh heavens no I wouldn’t fly tip! But if it’s something small like some batteries or a broken phone then if needs must it’s in the bin. I haven’t had any big appliances to throw away but if I did I could put them in my second garage