Have my fellow residents of this lovley town taken delivery of the leaflet explaining the new refuse collection services and are they shaking there heads in disbelief blink that the council are going ahead with this :blink: ?? I know we have to recycle more but a household refuse collection once every 2 weeks!! :blink:

I haven't had a leaflet yet but have followed the progress of this on the council's website. Household waste will be collected one week, garden waste the next. I'll have two bins but only have room for one, and more boxes to put sorted items in for recycling. The council will save some money to help pay for the new theatre no doubt.

I had a leaflet but i have nowhere to store this extra bin and extra boxes!!! Where do they expect us to keep all of these things?

Yes, I received one. Every two weeks won't be a problem for us because we don't create much waste, but I know that for an average family it will be a pain. As for the two wheelie bins - has anyone else noticed that they plan a green bin for the green waste and a grey bin for the household waste. Our current bin is a greeny/grey colour. So presumably they are going to take one away and give us two new bins. That's environmentally friendly then!?!

well this system has already been implented in north shropshire a couple of years ago.
we didnt really have room for two bins but i do think green waste should be recycled seperatly.
we complained when they brought this in as we had a baby so by only collecting every two weeks it means anything smelly has to stay around longer!
gross

We use all our green waste for compost for the garden and allotment, so the green bin will be a complete waste of space for us; there will never be anything in it. I wonder what they would do if we just kept it in the garage and used it for storage?

I already recycle many things such as newspaper & magazines, juke mail {but not the envelopes} glass , metal cans, but there's no mention of collecting plastics in the leaflet, plastic drink bottles, plastic milk bottles, fabric conditioner bottles. I take my collection of plastic bottles to the recycling centre every couple of weeks or so, why can't the council collect plastics ??? :blink: :blink:

I phoned sabc this morning and they told me we shall be keeping the blue bin that we are already using.

You also use it for cardboard.

I read that the new system will cost the Council (ie us) £1.3 million to introduce. The same vehicle that collects your household waste one week will collect your green waste the next. That's why the green waste has to go in a bin. They won't collect any green waste in bags as they do now.

The lids on the bins have to be closed otherwise they won't be emptied and any bags left by the bins won't be collected. There will be some special arrangements for those who can't use the bins such as the disabled etc.

If you don't abide by the rules you will be warned by a yellow sticker for the first and second transgression. A third "offence" will bring a red sticker and an official will call to make sure you understand the system. Elsewhere, persistent offenders have been fined for ignoring the rules.

We recycle now but our bin is full most weeks so we will have to take the surplus to the tip. So much for the Council's claim that one benefit of the new system will be a reduction in air pollution.

Exactly one of my points, we will still have to go to a recycling centre to get rid of the stuff they don't collect and also the surplus :angry:

Thanks for the info about keeping the existing bin. Good to know they aren't completely stupid.

As for cardboard - we use that as mulch so the green bin looks like it will still be empty. But then I suppose a lot of people who don't generate green waste will have an empty bin too.

I'd love to know how much recycling goes on at the council/s.

It's rather inconsiderate anyway if you live in a first-floor flat and have no street access for the back yard (necessitating wheeling it through the ground floor)...sigh.

Before we moved here we lived in an area where general waste was collected once every 2 weeks. I was amazed at the people who had problems.

We were a 6 person family and at the end of the 2 weeks the bin would be about 2/3 to 3/4 full yet there were couples and one child families complaining that they were having to put 2 bin bags out as well! We didn't and don't deliberately buy products with less packaging so I can only put it down to the fact that these people weren't recycling as much as we were and weren't so economic with space. With containers etc squash it down and it takes up far less room.

I know what you mean, the problem is that far too many people are really pathetic when it comes to organising their lives, and there are far too many people who squeal when some aspect of the world is not arranged to fit in with their wasteful little lifestyles. Sorting out household rubbish into different bins is the norm in Germany - and if they can do it, there's no earthly reason why people shouldn't be able to do it over here.

If you dont use them for 'green waste' they make fantastic water butts but dont tell everybody ;)

The Council realise that the new system is not suitable for everybody and so it is being introduced in two stages I believe. Most of us will receive an extra bin and an extra box in the first stage. They will then consider the best way to deal with the waste from properties where the new system would be impractical - such as your place maybe.

Yes, I don't know how some people get through such a huge amount of rubbish, we've got two adults and one small baby and our bin would probably only be full after around 4 weeks (it might smell a bit by then but that's a different matter).

I had a letter yesterday saying that neither scheme is operating for those inside the riverloop anyway. It's all being optional for us...

hope youre not chucking it in the river ? :D

The council will be doing a blanket delivery of the new bins and boxes from next week it appears (except to those within the river loop) as it's cheaper to do so. They will then retrieve them from those households who don't want them or can't use them.

I remember reading somewhere that if you receive unsolicited goods, they can be treated as gifts and so you could use them in any way you like. Any legal eagles out there?

Ah yes, the Unsolicited Goods and Services Act 1971. You can keep quiet, don't use it and keep it in good condition then it becomes your property after six months. Or you can tell them to take it back and if they don't within thirty days then it becomes yours.

But, I have no idea whether this would apply to a council supplied wheelie bin. I suspect not. I'm favouring Andy's water butt idea. Allegedly!

I'd have thought any environmental purpose would be acceptable.

Yes, but if I bodge a hole in the bottom of it for a tap I bet I'll have Robin knocking on my door pretty sharpish :)

I just dip my watering can in it and have a solar powered pump that fills an additional water-butt. I wouldnt damage the bin though. By the way the council (NSDC in my case) sell compost making bins at a good discount £7.00 per bin and there big too!

Hi Andy
Where did you get the solar pump from and how much?

No, somebody else's trash bag (there are three apartments in the building where I live :)).

So it is you then!!!!! I'm sure some of the "items" could be flushed!!!!!!!! :lol: :lol:

You civilians always think disposing of those syringes is easy :)

Got our new bin and two boxes which we will have to store until the council introduce the new "service" at the end of next month.

If you had a green box before you can use that as well for cans, glass and textiles. The blue box is for papers but there's no provision for plastic or all that polystyrene packaging. Too expensive to recycle they say yet other councils do so.

:(

We asked them to come back and swap them for the smaller versions.
They said no problem. At least they will take up a bit less space.
At the moment it all looks ridiculous and is completely blocking the garage.
We don't have side access to the rear of the house so they all have to sit out front.
There are just wheelie bins as far as the eye can see.

I received the bin and the boxes but no leaflet. I emailed them for one and they are quite quick to reponse and put one in the post.

My problem is to find more space for the bins and boxes. leaving the boxes in rain is not a goog idea.

I keep reading such conflicting information about the new bins in the local press,what goes in which bin, what bin is green and what bin is grey/blue!

I think it will not work as people will put domestic rubbish in the green bin anyway so fines will have to be introduced. What with the new dog restrictions about to be introduced,parking,litter, etc. Shrewsbury will be known as

:rolleyes: 'Town of Fines!' :rolleyes:


:D :D :D

This weeks Chronicle got it wrong saying green waste will go into the 'existing' green[actualy grey in colour] bin for recycling green waste and the new one for household rubbish. Try that the other way round, the existing bin which we have had for a few years now will be the for household/food waste, the new light green in colour bin will be for cardboard and garden waste. We've gained another green box as well :D

We have been using this system in North Shropshire for over a year now. If you put green rubbish in the domestic rubbish bin they dont empty it. The system does make you a lot more conscious, we dont dispose of our green waste we compost it now and as ive said before the green bin is a water butt ! As they intend to charge on the weight of waste you dispose in the future everyone will need to think of this although I think it could encourage people to illegally dispose of it.

SABC have toyed with this idea but said it would be too expensive.

BTW I wasn't saying that I would do that, I put very little in my 'grey' bin I just think that some peeps will.

The waste collectors didn't notice a tramp asleep in a bin and the poor man was killed when he was thrown into the refuse van!

My Webpage man crushed in bin lorry

I'm worried about having the household bin only emptied once every 2 weeks. Our bin is full in about 3 days after emptying it. The smell that comes from it isnt very nice. Whats it going to be like after 2 weeks? There must be an health issue here. Isnt it going to attract rats and mice? What about the extra rubbish we have? We dont have a car. We live about 15 miles from the nearest tip. I suppose we could always catch the local bus and take it that way! :-) Then I suppose we could always take it up the road and just dump it over the nearest hedge like most people wil be doing!

I think you will find that the council offer advise about wrapping food stuffs in newspaper for example that cannot be composted like chicken, fish bones and skin etc.

If you separate out tins,glass,cardboard,paper and plastic bottles then I find as a family of five the bin is not all that full.

All this fuss, and the verdict is still "well, if you live in the river loop we won't do it because it's too much effort". Relieved grin on my part, because I can think of better things to do with my life & living space than sort trash.