Wheelie Bin News Roundup 18th December

Wheelie bin news roundup 18^th December  

A pensioners’ group in Dundee has called for the city council to be more proactive in publicising its assisted bin collection service.

People over the age of 70 who struggle to move their bins can request that bin men collect them and return them to their property, but members of the group say that many older people are unaware of the service, and are confused about what they can and can’t put in their bin.

The group has met with the council and the council have offered to send them information on rubbish collections that they are going to include in their newsletter.

The next newsletter won’t be published until the new year however, and many older people are concerned about the extra rubbish that is generated at Christmas and when collections will happen.

The council state that information on festive rubbish collections will be sent out to residents very soon.

Residents in Croydon are set to be given new wheelie bins for recycling, after the local authority agreed a deal with Veolia which will save taxpayers £5 million per year. Households can also recycle their Christmas trees for free for 2 weeks, starting in January. Real trees will be collected for composting.

The contract with Veolia is a step towards reducing fly-tipping, keeping the streets cleaner, and boosting the recycling rate.

New blue bins will be provided to residents and these will replace the current recycling boxes. £9.6 million is being invested as part of the contract to buy new refuse vehicles and to upgrade the local waste depot.

The service improvements are not only limited to recycling household waste, the garden waste collection service is being stepped up to operate all year round instead of the usual April to November service.

The new waste collection service will start in October next year, and the street cleaning service will start earlier, in March. Food waste collections will be weekly, paper and cans, plastic, and glass will be collected on alternate weeks, and general waste will be collected every 2 weeks.

As part of the contract, there will also be a clampdown on fly-tipping and missed waste collections. Veolia aim to clear up any reported fly-tipping incidents within 24 hours and to miss no more than 30 waste collections each year.

In preparation for the new collection services, Veolia will liaise with private landlords to make sure there are an adequate number of bins and recycling containers located at their properties.

If you think that council bin regulations are tough and confusing in the UK, spare a thought for the hundreds of residents in Christchurch in New Zealand who have forked out a total of $50,000 this year due to flouting the local bin laws.

If your bin is damaged or stolen, it’s free to get a replacement, as long as you report it to the city council within 24 hours. Many residents are not aware of this rule and so they are having to pay up to $132 dollars a time for a new bin. Each month, there are more than 300 requests for new bins and to date, more than 410 households have missed the 24-hour deadline and have had to pay for a new bin.

The council have defended the rule, claiming that replacing missing bins free of charge would cost taxpayers $500,000 per year. They added that the 24 hour rule has been in place since 2009, and that people were informed about it through an advertising campaign.

Residents are outraged and claim it’s not fair as many people don’t know about the 24 hour rule or might be away on holiday when their bin is stolen.