Local recycling centres

[2gins]

S1KRR said:

You vote for Lib Dems that's what you get!

Well, I didn't but yes you're right that the short sighted bks to brexit brigade have well and truly shat on their own doorstep.

[Condi]

SS2. said:

I can see this being the thin end of the wedge.

Install ANPR on the premise it will stop cross county recycling - is this really a major problem for the recycling centres?

Monitor all traffic and, in time, start to limit vehicles to X visits per month, gradually reduce this until some / all visits become chargeable.

Already happens. Went to one in London t'other week and had ANPR, said on a sign that number of visits was monitored and anyone (in their opinion) using the centre too much would be charged.

I agree with the councils in some ways, that they provide the service for local residents. If someone is repeatedly driving across council borders to dump waste it costs the council money, £180 or whatever it is for each large container they have to dispose of.

[Robbo 27]

I live in a very large and posh apartment block in Canary Wharf. The communal refuse bins are in six seperate rooms and because most of the people are rich and throw away stuff that is still servicable someone has installed tables in these rooms for people who think that their items are too good to be thrown away and that someone else could make use of them, I think this is a great idea, maybe house owners could do something similar.

I have seen huge carpet squares, many items of furnture, drills and DIY equipments, watches, jewellery, suitcases full of clothes, suits, new shoes, new trainers still in their boxes, tinned food, framed paintings, someone who must have flown Emirates First Class a lot gave maybe 20 of his travel on kits, all new and unused, TVs, loads of mobile phones, lap tops, push bikes, leather luggage, tons of stuff.

Maybe recycling centres could do more to encourage people to re-use, a help yourself table. I have seen many pushchairs in metal recycling skips that look like they just need a good clean, and then see teenage mothers walking around town carrying a baby, perhaps because they cannot afford to buy a push chair.

[WindyCommon]

spaximus said:

...Council see this as a simple cash issue. the less we dump for free the better for them with the contract they have with SITA. Now if people fly tip, so long as it is not on council owned land, it is the landowners responsibility to pay for the clear up.
...
It is madness but the councillors nod things through as they see a cost saving

For years now local councils have eroded what most of us would view as core services. They have dressed this up as cost saving and environmental policy implementation.

In 2016/17 total council tax receipts amounted to £26bn, of which around £8bn was contributed to the Local Government Pension Scheme (LGPS). This £8bn does not capture all pension contributions as there are other schemes, but we can safely conclude that at least 30p of every pound of council tax collected is spent on pension contributions.

[Condi]

WindyCommon said:

For years now local councils have eroded what most of us would view as core services. They have dressed this up as cost saving and environmental policy implementation.

In 2016/17 total council tax receipts amounted to £26bn, of which around £8bn was contributed to the Local Government Pension Scheme (LGPS). This £8bn does not capture all pension contributions as there are other schemes, but we can safely conclude that at least 30p of every pound of council tax collected is spent on pension contributions.

What's the answer? You cant stop them paying pensions, and there is little you can do now to change pension agreements and employment contracts from 30 years ago. The money has to come from somewhere.

The reduction in services is to do with reduced funding from central government since 2008. It'll take many years, if ever, to return to the levels of 2006/7. Arguably there was waste to be cut within the system, but equally there have been hard hitting, and permanent effects on things like youth services, education, etc. While many people on here are insulated from that, the poorest in society have been most affected.

[borcy]

WindyCommon said:

spaximus said:

...Council see this as a simple cash issue. the less we dump for free the better for them with the contract they have with SITA. Now if people fly tip, so long as it is not on council owned land, it is the landowners responsibility to pay for the clear up.
...
It is madness but the councillors nod things through as they see a cost saving

For years now local councils have eroded what most of us would view as core services. They have dressed this up as cost saving and environmental policy implementation.

In 2016/17 total council tax receipts amounted to £26bn, of which around £8bn was contributed to the Local Government Pension Scheme (LGPS). This £8bn does not capture all pension contributions as there are other schemes, but we can safely conclude that at least 30p of every pound of council tax collected is spent on pension contributions.

That assumes their only income was council tax receipts. Local councils receive money from central government in the form of grants.

[Chrisgr31]

East Sussex excelled themselves when they decided to make changes to their sites recently. They consulted on a plan to introduce charges for various items, closing a couple of the small sites altogether and opening ours for longer (Currently its closed Sat and Sun PM and the plan was to open all day). The outcome of the consultation was indeed to charge for some items close the smaller centres and open ours longer.

So they closed the smaller sites, introduced charging and applied for planning consent from themselves to open our site for longer. They then refused themselves planning consent so our site remains closed weekend afternoons.

[Gooose]

Cleaned out my fathers shed after he died and he had about 10 boxes of pint glasses, obviously someone asked him to mind them years ago but never asked for them back so I took them to the tip, had a idiot employee accuse me of bringing in commercial waste and if I didn’t stop I wouldn’t be allowed in again. I’ve been down numerous times and have had too many runs in to mention, hateful place and hateful staff, the council even had the cheek to put a front page local paper campaign to say that abuse of staff at the tip wasn’t to be tolerated any more.

There was a fly tipping case recently were one of those flat bed vans with hydraulic tipper on dumped a load in a lay by and the council put it on their Facebook page about how bad it was, they had an absolute slating by everyone in the comments about their attitude to recycling and waste. quite comical

It’s all so stupid really

[WindyCommon]

borcy said:

WindyCommon said:

spaximus said:

...Council see this as a simple cash issue. the less we dump for free the better for them with the contract they have with SITA. Now if people fly tip, so long as it is not on council owned land, it is the landowners responsibility to pay for the clear up.
...
It is madness but the councillors nod things through as they see a cost saving

For years now local councils have eroded what most of us would view as core services. They have dressed this up as cost saving and environmental policy implementation.

In 2016/17 total council tax receipts amounted to £26bn, of which around £8bn was contributed to the Local Government Pension Scheme (LGPS). This £8bn does not capture all pension contributions as there are other schemes, but we can safely conclude that at least 30p of every pound of council tax collected is spent on pension contributions.

That assumes their only income was council tax receipts. Local councils receive money from central government in the form of grants.

Yes - that’s a fair point. I will rephrase as “...an amount equivalent to at least 30p in every pound of council tax collected is spent on pension contributions.”

Condi’s points are valid too. The harsh reality is that central funding has been squeezed, pension costs have risen and politically motivated resource allocation decisions continue to be made. The net effect of this is a degradation in many services. Local recycling centres are a good example of this, as illustrated by various posters on this thread.

On pensions the private sector has transitioned away from DB plans far more effectively than the public sector. According to the ONS 93% of public sector workers have DB pensions compared to 13% in the private sector. Whilst I accept fully the point about historic pension entitlements, it is no longer true that public sector workers are lower paid than their private sector equivalents. The ONS says: “After controlling for various individual and job characteristics, on average there is a positive earnings (including pensions) differential in favour of the public sector.”

I don’t pretend to have an answer! Perhaps de-politicising councils would be a good idea? I don’t really understand why we have party politics being played out at this level in society. Maybe councils should focus only on the efficient provision of certain services, to be more like local service companies than local governments..?

[2gins]

That's such a good idea, it's sure to be buried right soon!

[CypSIdders]

We used to have a private recycling centre, they would take most things.
I assume they were paid to provide the service by the council.
It was great, an out of town location, no jobsworths telling you what to do. The best part was, they would put aside loads of repairable and usable stuff and sell it on for peanuts, that's how recycling works, isn't it. I've had fishing tackle, garden furniture, tools and other stuff from there.
That all ended two years ago, now we have to use the council run facility in the town.
You now have to queue around the block, to get in.
You are subjected to grilling when you get in.
Nothing can be removed from the tip.

There are two, seemingly bizarre rules:
You can only take stuff into the recycling centre by car, no pushbikes, motorcycles or pedestrians.
For some, unknown reason, Land Rovers are not allowed in, pickups and small vans are.

Obviously this is progress!

[surveyor]

Our local one is not too bad. They do charge for some stuff - but I've never had to pay so not sure if they are expensive.

Annoyingly because my van is registered to a business I can't take it - even for domestic waste. The wife loves it when I take her Range Rover instead.

I do enjoy seeing them running to open the height barrier. I know that if I get there before them and have put it into access height I will get through with a cm to spare....

[SBDJ]

Our local centre charges per item for stuff they deem non-household which is pretty much everything. They then have a clause that for anything not listed they can effectively make up a price and that decision is final

I'd be amazed if fly tipping doesn't increase.

[Bibbs]

Where my rental is I get 3 tip passes a year (where you can take anything), 3 skip passes (where they deliver a free skip for a few days) and 3 fridge/matress passes where they come and collect as many as you want to bin.

I recently ordered a skip, filled it, put out 4 matresses and 2 fridges, a few Ikea big bookshelves etc. .. came back the next day and most had been magpied, so I filled the skip again. Anything of value went of FB marketplace cheap.

Where I live there is 1 week a year where you put everything you don't want on the verge and the council collects the lot. Usually after people have been through and taken anything of value.

I remember clearing a house in Hampshire and it was a nighmare. Too much stuff, wrong type of stuff, wrong type of car, limited hours ..

Edited by Bibbs on Monday 30th December 02:57

[Johnnytheboy]

Gooose said:

I’ve been down numerous times and have had too many runs in to mention, hateful place and hateful staff, the council even had the cheek to put a front page local paper campaign to say that abuse of staff at the tip wasn’t to be tolerated any more.

As has been said here before, invariably anywhere that has a notice like that is staffed by jobsworths.

[HTP99]

Johnnytheboy said:

Gooose said:

I’ve been down numerous times and have had too many runs in to mention, hateful place and hateful staff, the council even had the cheek to put a front page local paper campaign to say that abuse of staff at the tip wasn’t to be tolerated any more.

As has been said here before, invariably anywhere that has a notice like that is staffed by jobsworths.

The guys at my local tip are extremely helpful and polite, I went a few days ago, they asked what I had, asked me if I knew the layout and then told me exactly where to deposit my stuff, all without me actually asking.

[TorqueDirty]

Just echoing what others have said really.

I live in Scotland and in my rural area there is a big issue with fly tipping. Pretty much every week I'll see a new load of crap that has been dumped in a lay-by down a country lane. The wkers who do it are sometime kind enough to set it all on fire.

First - as I have said before on here - anyone who fly tips should have a hand amputated without anaesthetic. See below:-

https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&...

All of that said, you have to be pretty fking stupid not to realise that charging people to dispose of their rubbish at a recycling centre will inevitably lead to fly tipping.

I have to assume that sending a team out in to the country side to pick up a van load of smouldering crap is a whole lot more expensive than allowing said van load of crap to be disposed off for free at the recycling centre.

Sure, the privately owned recycling centres will make more money by charging the non-offenders and simply accepting that a proportion of people will avoid the charges by dumping. One of the guys at my recycling centre said they charge £20/kg dispose of asbestos sheeting. Is there any wonder why the local countryside is full of smashed up old bits of asbestos roofing?

Where is the joined up thinking here? We pay taxes so that some things are not left entirely to market forces. Surely recycling and prevention of fly tipping ought to be one such area? Subsidise the entire sector heavily. Allow builders to recycle their waste for free, and invest in actual cameras (not just signs that say there are cameras) at common dumping sites.

I'm sure it is all much more complicated than this but someone in power must be able to join the massive and obvious dots - oh and you know, actually do something about it!

[Spare tyre]

I just love how unjoined up the thinking is from council to council. You think it’d be better if we all worked together as a single country and looked at the bigger picture!

[WindyCommon]

Spare tyre said:

I just love how unjoined up the thinking is from council to council. You think it’d be better if we all worked together as a single country and looked at the bigger picture!

If council A decides to generate additional revenue from charging people for waste disposal then anyone who lives near the border with council B will simply take their waste to a facility in council B’s area. Faced with additional demands on its resources, council B now has either to introduce charging itself, or implement a system of ID/address verification. Council B also has a border with council C. And on and on it goes...

[p4cks]

Spare tyre said:

I just love how unjoined up the thinking is from council to council. You think it’d be better if we all worked together as a single country and looked at the bigger picture!

Bigger picture and council rarely go in the same sentence. In fact another poster hit the nail on the head when he said it was the councillors sticking their nose in to the day to day running of the borough.