One subject certain to arouse anger among householders is the fortnightly 
rubbish collection and fears over the vermin it attracts. Local newspapers have filled their letters and news pages several times over on this topic.
Yet in spite of these very real concerns, government seems to be in favour of ending the weekly bin collection, saying there would be no hygiene problems if rubbish was properly wrapped.
But according to this report, Labour was warned by its own scientists that abolishing weekly rubbish collections DID increase the threat of infestation by rats, insects and other vermin. Isn’t this threat likely to increase with hotter summers and global warming?
The damning report was produced by scientists inside the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs last January. It states:
“There are significant gaps in knowledge to fully understand the implications of changes to collection routines. Providing alternate weekly collection to facilitate recycling schemes could result in accumulation of waste at households.
“This could encourage vermin and insects into the home environment, which could potentially increase disease transmission routes.”
So why has this advice been ignored? And surely householders already know about wrapping up leaking or smelly waste before throwing it out, they would be doing their utmost to prevent rats appearing on their doorstep.
I totally support a fortnightly collection of recyclables, but why not also maintain the weekly collection of residual household waste? Householders will be forced to reduce the amount collected anyway with pay-as-you-throw schemes being introduced.
The government and local authorities are choosing the cheapest and easy way out. I just don’t see any sense in it. Good luck to Doretta Cox and her Campaign for Weekly Waste Collection. Still, if this new quango takes over responsibility for rubbish collection, it’s unlikely their voice, or anyone else’s, will be heard.
Where I live in East Cambridgeshire, our rubbish is still collected each week, and I want it to stay that way, but neighbouring authorities have introduced fortnightly collections and I have not met anybody who thinks it is a good idea. Has it worked where you are? What are your views about fortnightly rubbish collections?
I wasn’t aware of the existence of fortnightly rubbish collections. That’s plain stupid from a public health point of view. It also flies in the face of advice from the World Health Organisation which recommends that in temperate climates like the UK that waste should be collected at least once a week.
Believe it or not- rubbish collection takes place on a daily (yes, daily) basis all year-round in Turkey.
The British public pays for and expects to receive decent public services…but ends up worse off than us in the Third World.
We get twice weekly collections of household waste and paper. We also have five recycling areas (glass, steel, aluminium, clothes, plastic, batteries, lightbulbs) within 5 minutes walk. For more specialist recycling (white goods, furniture, electronics, poisons, dead animals), there is a central recycling area for our commune about 5 minutes drive away (every commune has them – there are around ten of these centres in a city the size of Cambridge). There is also a twice-yearly doorstep collection of furniture and white goods. Green waste is generally composted in people’s gardens.
The recycling works as follows:
1. Plastics that can be recycled are.
2. Glass is either sent to be melted, or ground into sand to put on the roads in winter (there is a net flow of glass into Switzerland)
3. White goods and electronics are stripped of parts and each is recyled accordingly. This is typically not done in the communal centres, but at large cantonal centres.
4. All waste that is safely combustable (dead animals, wood, paper, plastic that cannot be recycled, clothes) is burned to produce electricity.
5. All other specialist waste above is sent to central recycling facilities.
Very little is burried.
Why can’t the UK do the same?
IT, I wasn’t aware of the WHO recommendation, do you have the link?
Alan, Thank you for your observations from Switzerland. The problem here is that we make it complicated and difficult. For example, co-mingled recyclables are collected in America which means it doensn’t have to be separated at source. We find it is all too easy to say something can’t be done here, even though we have been looking at best practice in other parts of Europes for many, many years.
I’m looking forward to the 50% cut in my council tax bill…
What will the dustmen do on their week off!?!
I saw this in the DT this morning and I must say ,in a densely populated inner Cirty area this look like a disaster to me . They have said that with minimal sensible storage there will not be a problem ,but half of our housing is the state`s and a lot of the rest, short terms lets with cramped conditions . Neither of these groups have any reason to care . They do not
This is very obvious when you walk from the tenanted to the leaseholders areas. I believe the architectural ugliness you might have noticed in Ann Widdecombes Andover Estate, has a part to play and so does the sense that if noone else cares why should I.The community envviroment ..not that there is a community.
We had a full scale riot all night a while ago and into this place you are going to double the possibility of rat infestation and disease which is already bad. With Coucil tax beating inflation every year and further theft from drivers perpetrated on a large scale I believe we should expect them to take rubbish out , when it suits us .
There are no Nurseries ,schools are the worst in London , crime is errupting and the atmosphere is getting opprresively tense.
Perhaps having rats running around will be a good metaphor for the filthy Liberals that have done this ,but otherwise yet another outrage … Do we get anything worth having form the 45% of GDP that is now state managed .
In Cardiff we used to have general rubbish collected one week, and garden and recyclable rubbish collected the next. It seemed to work well and we were provided with ample wheelie-bins for each sort of rubbish. I don’t know if that scheme still operates. Here in Sicily where most people live in flats you have to take your rubbish in bags down to the communal skips. There are four of these points within walking distance and there are separate bins for cans, paper, glass, plastic and general rubbish at each point. The rubbish is collected twice a day from them so there is no smell or vermin problem. I think the key to this is to make it easy for people: it is more difficult if you don’t drive and have to carry several bags if the collection points aren’t near.
I burn all my rubbish in the bath – it is a safe and effective means of disposal, you will all have to do the something similar, which will be fun if you don’t have a garden like me! Try putting your rubbish in the neighbours bin, or fly-tipping it, or chucking it a handy canal or river! Or just burn it in the bath like I do.. If you have a spare room you could ack all the excess rubbish into it and then move out when the room is full. Anyone else have any good ideas?
I am a bit miffed that you do not list me in your bloglist thingy – we have been friends for a long time and I would expect some recognition. I am trying to make intelligent remarks you know!
We have this system already (2 years now). It works fine for us.
Make sure your bins are set out so that there is minimum motion involved. Get in the habit of recycling as you do things.
The council sells biodegradable bags at £3 for fifty (for lining the ‘green’ kitchen caddy). You don’t need to use these bags during winter.
The bi-weekly collections are offset by the fact that the mass of rubbish is divided between two bins.
The separation of food substances makes you far more conscious of food wastage and this is a good thing.
I don’t like that the council will not take bins which are not properly closed as this has caused a lot of fly tipping in the area.
I don’t like the idea that you have to wash out tins as this wastes water.
I think the idea of chipping bins is scandalous and it is wrong to charge people by weight when volume is the problem with regard to landfill.
If you are new to this scheme expect officials with clipboards checking your bins. This happened to me and I was told that my green bin would not be taken because I had put barbecue ash in it. I thought barbecue ash (being organic) was biodegradable but it isn’t. Only after I had scooped it out by hand did they agree to take it. I felt quite offended by this petty officiousness and this person definitely had the jack-boots on.
Beware that failing to put your bin out will result in you having a load that you simply can’t get rid of as the refuse site will not take it. I don’t yet know how you are supposed to get round this problem as it’s never happened to me.
PS, I’m so glad I don’t live next door to Mutleythedog !
if a pay as you throw scheme is introduced I may start doing the same as Mutleythedog !!
They are already stopping the green bag collection for the grass cuttings expecting you to pay £36 a year for yet another bin… Not that i will be getting one !!
Ellee – rubbish is a big issue. Cambridgeshire is meant to be one of the leading lights in recycling. But the collection must be as user friendly as possible. Alternate bin weeks are less user friendly….I have that system here and if you miss them one week, it seems ages until the next collection. Michelle
Who thinks of these schemes? Do they not consider all the implications? The whole thing is a health hazard.
Ellee I live in South Cambs where we already have collections every 2 weeks. We are a family of 5 and it is fine. It does make us think about what we buy and how it is packaged which is a good thing. I suggest you think about the alternative which is running out of landfill sites-would you prefer more and bigger landfill closer to your home? Not to mention paying more council tax as the councils will be charged according to the amount of rubbish they have to dispose of. This is a good measure and we should applaud it
PS remember it was the Conservatives who brought it in to South Cambs!
mens sana, These measures will not prevent more waste going to landfill, in my opinion. The issue is the health risks involved and spread of vermin. I believe about 60% of household waste can be recycled, and there is no reason why the residual waste cannot be collected weekly instead of fortnightly. I know only two well about the shortage of landfill space. After all, London’s rubbish is going to be exported to our county soo as they have run out of space, and I have a landfill down the road from me which is very well run and not a problem. One day it will be full and there will be no more cells available for any more rubbish.
Sorry I don’t agree. We have cut down our waste output by nearly 50% since going over to fortnightly collections. I am sure we would not have changed our behaviour in this way if we hadn’t had to. Virtually all our organic waste goes into green bins. We have no more rats or other vermin than before. The only other problem we have is that it is more difficult to recycle plastic as it is not collected. No-one likes the idea of having rubbish around for 2 weeks but we really have not had a problem and we are not a green earth-mother organic family.
mens sana, I’m glad you haven’t had a problem with rats, I do know very well about local recycling figures and how excellent they are, I worked on promoting them for a while. The reason plastic is not collected is because there is no facility for them to be sent to, and there are many different types of plastic, which is why it gets shipped to China and returned to the UK as Christmas trees etc.
So were you happy promoting the policy as long as it didn’t apply where you lived?
Mens sana, you misunderstand, I totally support recyling, but would like to see it run in conjunction with a weekly collection of household waste, not fortnightly. We are fortunate enough in East Cambs to still have a weekly collection of rubbish, and a fortnightly collection of recyclables, I would like it to stay that way, I do not support fortnightly collections of rubbish, but I am pleased to hear it is working well for you.
I sort of deliberately misunderstood! but all I am saying is don’t worry too much about the fortnightly collections-they won’t be as bad as you think
mens sana, surely life is too short to sort of deliberately misunderstand someone. I am also conscious of the Defra scientists who have expressed concern about the health aspects and spread of vermin which has happened in many areas as a result of fortnightly rubbish collections.
Ellee, I am in the process of selling my house – so both at my old and new house we have fortnightly collections. In one local authority the green bin is just for grass clippings and cardboard. In the Summer – even from a tiny garden the rotting grass which effectively seems to get cooked in the bin when in direct sunlight does create quite a smell and attracts flies.
Thank goodness we dont have kids and nappies sitting in a black bin for two weeks. (would we accept dog mess bins only being emptied every fortnight????
I find the guidance about wrapping stuff well inside your bins to avoid smells and flies a bit silly – as what do you wrap things in – plastic bags??? Sorry they are meant to be recycled!
Then you have the problem at Xmas when you try to recycle all your cardboard etc – if your bin is full they won’t take anymore recycled material – which has effectively led to neighbours sneaking recycled waste into others recycled bins.
If and when there is a move to charging for waste with chips ib bins it will be hours not days before people have to lock their bins up – and where is the solution for residences of multiple occupation (flats) who have a communal bin??
Jonathan, new householders moving into South Cambs will have to pay £60 for their wheelie bin used for household waste and a recycling bin from April 1st, and that is without the chip. The council doesn’t want to be “crippled” by the cost of supplying thousands of new homes being built in its district.
Ellee, if South Cambs don’t want to be crippled by the cost of supplying thousands of new homes with wheelie bins, can we assume they won’t want to be crippled by the costs of billing them for council tax either!?!
Nappies – good point.
The eco-friendly bin liners do stop the flies, I don’t understand how there is a problem with rats as the bin is sealed. Also there are issues with people who need help with handling the bins and this is provided by the council. As I said before we’ve not encountered any problems ourselves but it is more of an issue of other residents who seem unable to get themselves organised.
So Ellee to put it another way have you any evidence at all apart from anecdotes from an angry hampshire housewife that fortnightly collections lead to any of the problems you are worried about? The government (whom of course we all trust implicitly) states that there is no such evidence
I think life is too short for us to ruin the planet for our children, but the odd slightly provocative comment I can live with
Wow – what a litmus test of how this is a real issue that gets people talking.
There are so many different things ravelled here though – from local government finance matters to environmental health, to waste management (where we need more action from manufacturers/retailers), variation in practices nationally and locally, culture/expectations/habits/preconceptions etc.
And that’s without the issue of the rat, which shouldn’t be attracted by sealed bins. However, I believe poor habits in other people’s waste disposal (especially composting) and keeping of chickens in domestic gardens explain why I’ve had the nasty visitors in my house. I’m fortunate my council gets rid of them for free.
However, when one died under the floorboards in the hottest week of the summer, the only advice was to buy air freshners (probably true but no less unpleasant for that).
Heather, I’ve heard that rats like to congregate under decking in the garden too and have been nesting there quite happily. As a result, the decking has had to be dismantled.
Yes, this is a passionate subject that always arouses strong feelings, I am amazed by the stream of letters that appear in the local press on this subject.
“I hear that rats like congregating under the decking …”
Playing Beach Boys music no doubt !
(I couldn’t resist)
[…] The latest recycling row By Ellee While I am delighted the government has been recommended to re-think its fortnightly bin collections, I just wonder why it has taken so long when Labour ignored previous warnings about the potential health risks this involved. […]