Had a ruck at the Council tip yesterday!

[SecondhandRose]

My 9yr old DS is working on his Global Challenge badge at Cubs and one of things he needs to do is learn about recycling.

We had to go to the tip yesterday as the garage was literally full of recycling. My son took photos of it as we loaded the car and off we went to the tip to learn more.

Now this is where things start to go a bit mad, we get to the tip and I sent him round to take photos and make notes of what can be recycled whilst I unloaded the car.

Well the 3 people that ran the tip (incidentally didn't have a full set of teeth between them) surrounded my son and intimidated him (yes all three of them) wanting to know what permission he had and what he was up to (bearing in mind he's kid of 9).

We stopped taking photos but after I had finished unloading the car we went round with a pad and pen writing notes about car batteries, toner cartridges etc. At this point one of the men told us we had to leave now as we had had our 15 minutes unloading, he shouted to someone else to take my car number plate and insisted we had no right to do what we were doing.

How sad that no one actually showed an interest in what he was doing or actually helped my son. Either they were 3 complete 'jobsworths' or this country is in a sad way.

Was it a council owned tip or a private one?
We used to live near a private one, the owners have salvage rights over everything left behind and I guess can get territorial!
Maybe they had something to hide?

gosh - what a poor attitude. However, i think there's a sign at our local council tip that says children must remain inside the vehicle although it doesnt sound like they were too worried for your son's safety. Definitely ring the Council

It's the local Council tip, no no mention of children staying in the car. I have phoned the council but the man to speak to is in a meeting until lunchtime but I will report back on what he says.

I think they're up to something like maybe selling stuff on or something like that.

Sounds very suspicious to me. Why would they worry about photos and notes if they had nothing to hide?

Our tip sells great stuff, but all illegally - you have to go outside the perimeter fence to hand over you money so you don't get seen on the cameras. We've bought an Action Man boat, a dolls house, some windsurf sails, a a beach sand dingy thing....we love it (and they are nice people too!!!!)

Our council tip tells you not to bother recycling as it all ends up in landfill anyway. So I cart my glass elsewhere hoping it does get recycled.
Our neighbours always leave black bags in the garden and everyso often when someone complains the council come round and remove them...and they come into my garden and remove my tidy collection of glass, neatly stored in box...they just throw it with the rubbish. It makes me soooo mad!

What an awful attitude. Maybe the official council guy can give your son some info on local recycling statistics etc for his project? Here they are really into it, we have a box scheme which is collected once a fortnight by a separate recycling lorry for glass, paper and plastic, and the council sell cheap compost bins too.

The guys at our council tip are jobsworths too. They insist you show your driving licence otherwise they won't let you in. I once showed several bank cards plus two local library cards, membership for a local political party, video library, loyalty scheme etc. But no, wouldn't accept it. When I asked why they wouldn't accept so many local things with my name, signature & sometimes address on, they told me I might have just got them done so that I could use the dump!!!!!

Hope your man who rings you back is not also a jobsworth!

I wonder if your hunch is right 2ndhandrose, that they are selling stuff on the sly.
Their attitude is disgraceful , I hope you get a big apology and a promise of further action from the council officer.
Getting communities involved in recycling is uphill work in the UK, the council should be very grateful and appreciative of the thought you and ds were putting into his Challenge.

Agree they handled it wrong but.... it is a Health & Safety matter and a child of 9 shouldn't be wandering around a tip (I know you were in sight of him, but I'm trying to play devils advocate here). Safety warnings should be displayed though.

If you want some info on recycling, I will try to dig out some useful addresses for you - used to work for a big waste disposal company.

our local 'council tip' is actually contracted out to private tender. our tip has always and still does sell on certain items (old doors, parts off washing machines etc)

there is a sign asking for all children to remain inside vehicles.

what really annoyed me is when the new tender was issued this year. the people that have taken it over have installed a height barrier to prevent vans from entering......to stop tradesmen from using the tip for commercial waste, which i understand totally, but our works van is our only vehicle. we can't afford to run that and another car. this means we now cannot use the tip, and because it means others can't either fly tipping has become a huge problem in our beautiful rural area.

Snugs, no mention whatsoever of son staying in car. They were more interested in the photos and notes. Have spoken to the council and am waiting for a call back, think I'll chase them.

secondhandrose, when I used to collect clothing for my secondhand stall, I had some contact with rag yards and dumps. Many of the managers and workers had no time for 'customer relations' and treated the dump as their little empire. Admittedly I dealt with private contractors mostly. However what your son experienced sounds on par for the course. I think it's likely the stuff is being sold on - possibly the council turns a blind eye to it.

Hope you get an apology from the council and good luck with the global challenge badge.

They sound very heavy handed and unpleasant - but just being devils advocate for the moment, perhaps it would have been better to try and find someone in charge at the tip and introduce yourself first. I think I would have been inclined to do that - but perhaps I am over cautious.

Agree that they were throughly rotten to your 9 year old though

Just off the phone with the man at the council. In charge of all the waste in Hertfordshire apparently! He was concerned that no one mentioned that my son should have stayed in the car like some of you said.

He also said they do have permission to sell the stuff (but I wonder where the money goes). He's got a meeting with the contractor tomorrow and says he'll be finding out what happened.

In the meantime someone from the council's recycling team is going to ring me and give me lots of info. for DS.

i will not use our council tip unless it is absolutely neccessary. They make u only drive to certain skips & then they hover around u & ur car to see what ur putting in the skip - tutting at u if u DARE put the wrong thing in the wrong one & pulling stuff out before its even landed on the bottom!!!
just as an aside point...if u have a cat litter tray what do u do with the soiled litter??? ur not allowed to put it in ur bin bags for collection, & ur not allowed to take it to the council tip - what r u supposed to do with it???

Msann - Had the same prob with our dog poo had a massive barney at the tip so rang council and they told me as a matter of H & S it wasnt to be put in skips as workers do go inside !!! however it was ok to put in black bin linners and left for bin men to collect !!