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Fortnightly rubbish collection creating a plague of rats

Keith Parkins | 08.01.2007 12:04 | Ecology | Health | Social Struggles

Across the country, fortnightly rubbish collection is creating a plague of rats.

'The recycling mania now among us is creating a serious knock-on problem. Household refuse stored in black plastic bags and overflowing wheelie bins causes a 24/7 source of rodent food.' -- National Pest Technicians Association

'Councils are being bullied by the Government into axing weekly rubbish collections, despite this clearly being against the public's wishes. People don't want bags of rubbish hanging around for days on end, bringing bad smells and attracting vermin' -- Eric Pickles, Tory Environment spokesman

We need to cut down our waste, increase our rates of recycling. These worthy objectives have full public support.

Unfortunately too many councils are abusing the public, using recycling as an excuse to cut down on public services, whilst at the same time pushing local taxes up year-on-year at rates at least double that of the prevailing rate of inflation.

Many councils have gone or are going down the route of cutting waste collection from once a week to only once a fortnight with the expected problems of fly-tipping, rotting garbage and rats.

Non-compliance by the public with these highly unpopular cuts is to levy on-the-spot fines. Across the country 100 people a day are being fined.

As usual it is the long suffering public who are having to bear the cost of crass policies pushed on then by incompetent and corrupt councillors and their useless officials.

Entirely predictable, the country is now faced with a plague of rats.

In a recent report, the National Pest Technicians Association has warned of a plague of rats sweeping the country. The cause of this plague is councils cutting the frequency of rubbish collections from weekly to fortnightly. Their report comes hot on the heals of a report last year of super rats gorging themselves silly on rubbish and waste food.

Based on returns from over 300 local councils, there has been a 69% increase in vermin infestation.

The National Pest Technicians Association puts the problem down to fortnightly refuse collection and associated problems of overflowing bins, fly-tipping and rubbish left at the side of bins and the growing problem of junk food dropped in the street.

'Whilst the main reason for this change [from weekly to fortnightly collection], we are told, is the need to bring in greater recycling initiatives, we believe it should not be done to the detriment of the removal of ordinary putrescible (liable to rot) and organic waste from homes.'

The advice from a government quango to councils is to introduce fortnightly waste collection in the winter so as to minimise the smell and lessen public opposition.

This advice flies in the face of advice from the WHO which recommends in temperate climates like the UK waste should be collected at least once a week.

The dumb advice from the jobsworths at Redditch Council in Worcestershire is that if you are suffering a stench from rotting putrescent garbage is to install a carbon filter in your wheelie bin. Can't find a carbon filter, then how about dropping a couple of Odour Eaters into the bin?

One of the worst performing councils the Rotten Borough of Rushmoor, with a recycling rate of just over 20%, with a target of 40% by 2010, is one of the councils using recycling as an excuse to cut services. The public has made very clear their strong opposition, but the council is not listening, especially the arrogant head of environment David Quirk. The level of objection can be seen by the fact that Independent Councillor Peter Sandy is now receiving 20 letters of objection through his letter box every day.

In marked contrast with the Rotten Borough of Rushmoor, North Kesteven in Lincolnshire, at 51.5% the top performing council in the country, has a very simple system, provides clear information to the public on what should go into each bin, works with the public and heeds what they have to say, in addition there has been the investment made in the equipment that separates and recycles the waste.

It seems some councils just don't learn. Lincoln City, neighbouring council to North Kesteven, is introducing a recycling system, which it would be an understatement to describe as complicated. The public has already kicked up a fuss. Is it too much to ask that they look to their better performing neighbour? North Kesteven has found that a simple system works.

The public pays for and expects to receive decent public services. The latest daft initiative to emanate from the Local Government Association is a proposal to charge households for the collection of domestic refuse.

Web

http://www.thetruthinrushmoor.co.uk/

http://www.npta.org.uk/

http://www.lga.gov.uk/

Reference

Steve Bird, Recycling for city's glass? We're working on it now, letters, Lincolnshire Echo, 8 January 2007

Lester R Brown, Plan B 2.0, Norton, 2006

Lester R. Brown, Throwaway economy in trouble, Earth Policy Institute, 30 November 2006

http://www.earth-policy.org/Books/Seg/PB2ch06_ss4.htm

'Charges needed' in war on waste, BBC News on-line, 8 January 2007

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/6240119.stm

Alex Crawford, If the weekly bin collection system ain't broke don't fix it, letters, Farnborough News, 1 December 2006

Martin Delgado, Dawn of the Super Rat... and blame the end of weekly rubbish collections, Daily Mail, 16 September 2006

Martin Delagdo, Smelly bins? Then get some Odour Eaters, The Mail on Sunday, 7 January 2007

Steve Doughty, 100 a day fined by bin police, Daily Mail, 11 November 2006

Steve Doughty, A New Plague: Recycling and fortnightly rubbish collections are bringing a huge rise in rat numbers, warn experts, Daily Mail, 5 January 2007

LGA War on Waste launched as figures show Britain is officially the dustbin of Europe, press release, 7 January 2007

http://www.lga.gov.uk/PressRelease.asp?lSection=0&id=SX8452-A783F328

Andrew Milford, Alternate bins plan gets a trial run, Farnborough News, 10 November 2006

Andrew Milford, Opposition mounting to alternate bin collections, Aldershot News, 17 November 2006

Andrew Milford, Bin plan backlash gathers supporters, Aldershot Mail, 28 November 2006

http://www.aldershot.co.uk/news/2005/2005745/bin_plan_backlash_gathers_supporters

Cliff Mogg, Bins trial rebels: 'Take part or else' warning over boycott threat, Surrey-Hants Star, 7 December 2006

http://www.shstar.co.uk/news/2006/2006045/bins_trial_rebels

NK Recycles Most in Country, press release, North Kesteven, 18 December 2006

http://www.n-kesteven.gov.uk/section.asp?docId=3205&catId=87

NKDC says - Thank you residents, you are our Christmas No. 1!, press release, North Kesteven, 22 Dec 2006

http://www.n-kesteven.gov.uk/section.asp?docId=3208&catId=87

NPTA National Rodent Survey Report 2006, NPTA, January 2007

http://www.npta.org.uk/assets/documents/RodentReportJan07.pdf

James Newall, New life as hangover hill gets massive makeover, Lincolnshire Echo, 30 December 2006

http://www.thisislincolnshire.co.uk/displayNode.jsp?nodeId=156153&command=displayContent&sourceNode=156136&contentPK=16292008&moduleName=InternalSearch&formname=filtersearch

Keith Parkins, Curitiba – Designing a sustainable city, April 2006

http://www.heureka.clara.net/gaia/curitiba.htm

Keith Parkins, Alternate Bin Collections, Indymedia UK, 13 November 2006

http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2006/11/355923.html?c=on

Keith Parkins, It's just rubbish, letters, Surrey-Hants Star, 16 November 2006

Keith Parkins, Rushmoor fortnightly bin collection, Indymedia UK, 17 November 2006

http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2006/11/356166.html?c=on

Keith Parkins, Shredded paper not recyclable, Indymedia UK, 21 November 2006

http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2006/11/356502.html

Keith Parkins, The Truth in Rushmoor, Indymedia UK, 30 November 2006

http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2006/11/357418.html

Keith Parkins, Fortnightly collection of bins has nothing to do with recycling, letters, Farnborough News, 1 December 2006

Keith Parkins, A load of rubbish, Indymedia UK, 12 December 2006

http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2006/12/358225.html

Keith Parkins, Failing councils are creating gravy trains for consultants, Indymedia UK, 12 December 2006

http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2006/12/358589.html

Keith Parkins, Recycling – a tale of two councils, Indymedia UK, 5 January 2007

http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2007/01/359341.html?c=on

Recycling 'cutting CO2 emissions', BBC News on-line, 22 December 2006

http://newsvote.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/6202317.stm

Keith Parkins
Homepage: http://www.heureka.clara.net/gaia/

Comments

Hide the following 18 comments

Why not just waste less?

08.01.2007 14:56

This 'article' is totally biased to the selfish perspective of just happily carrying on creating loads of waste and then blaming the council for trying to get them to cut down in small ways.

Here are ways you can cause less waste:

Compost your food

Don't buy more food than you're going to eat

use re-useable nappies

leave extra packaging at the supermarket counter

Join an organisation like 'Freecycle' and hand on your old stuff instead of sending it to landfill.

All these things and more are very easy. We have 3 small children and don't even fill a wheelie bin every fortnight.And I'd rather the council cut back on collecting lazy people's rubbish than just buried their heads in the sand along with all the lazies. Don't just whinge, do something!

Steph
mail e-mail: galateasspheres@yahoo.co.uk

can't read

08.01.2007 15:40

Clearly someone cannot read.

Opening comments of article:

'We need to cut down our waste, increase our rates of recycling. These worthy objectives have full public support.'

I fully support efforts to cut down waste, increase rates of recycling.

We do this by adopting a whole-system approach, working with the public. We do not do so by punishing the public.

Like the smug comments, I too generate very little waste, I re-use, compost, but I also recognise the need for societal shift.

In the UK, or recycling rates are abysmal.

Keith

More fortnightly residual waste collections please

08.01.2007 16:34

Steph is spot on.

The original cut and paste article contains much emotion, but little else.

Councils are not cutting down on collections, ften they are increasing them, but what they are doing is collecting different things in different weeks and then recycling much of what they collect. They are to be congratualted that, at long last, they are bosting recycling rates. The alternative is that they put up the poll tax in future years to pay the large fines they will have to pay for not recycling enough.

Many people needed the encouragement of fortnightly residual waste collections to start reducing, reusing and recycling properly. These people now have that incentive and have discovered that, despite their initial reservations, they are perfectly well able to cope with a fortnightly residual waste collection.

Some people are unable or unwilling to do this. Should council's waste strategies be based round these people? I don't think so. Rather these people should be encouraged (and eventually forced) to play their part in society.

A N Other

I'm with Steph

08.01.2007 19:13

Same scenario, 3 kids usually no more than 1/2 a wheelie bin per fortnight.

It can be done......very very easily!

another A N Other

The problem with recycling

09.01.2007 10:02

We try to sort our rubbish as much as we can, our blue paper bin is constantly over filled, and we have bags and bags of recycling. But this is the problem, we don't drive, the local recycling point is miles away, so our shed, celler, down the side of the shed, crammed with bags of recycling.
Will the council collect this? No! They collect paper bin, grass bin and ordinary rubbish but not any other recycling.
We have two children and we still find, even with composting and recycling, that we struggle to not have an over filling rubbish bin. we asked the council for a larger bin, they said no, and why? Becuase we are using our bin for business purposes, we don't even have a business and have never used our bin for business purposes.
Although the council thought that this was a good idea, by cutting down the weekly bin collection, there has been an increase in rubbish around the estate, the council should return to weekly bin collections, or provide wheelybins that suit the size of the family. They also (like they do in london) provide collection for all recycling.

Boozytortoise

The reason recycling rates are poor in Rushmoor

09.01.2007 10:21

I'm also with Steph. We have fortnightly collections here and have no overflowing bins or plagues of rats. Those who live on overpriced overpackaged junk food have to either think about their lifestyle or make trips to the tip (sorry, civic amenity site). For which they will soon be charged.

Rushmoor is poor at recycling not because the corrupt council makes residents use boxes rather than bins as Keith 'wheelie bin' Parkins would have you believe, but because Mr Parkins and his fellow residents fail to use the kerbside recycling service provided. A couple of years ago, recycling meant a trip to a bring bank, now it is collected from your doorstep. What more can you ask?

Instead of banging on here about the injustice of it all, how about doing someting positive. Sort and recycle your own waste. Help your neighbours to understand why it is necessary. Do you have any elderly or disabled neighbours who have difficulty sorting their refuse and putting bins/boxes out on the right day? Did you know that new wheelie bins come with braile labels to help the visually impaired?

Of course whining about having to pay local taxes and harrassing local government employees about perceived 'corruption' is so much easier than doing something useful.

RVR800

The problem with recycling

09.01.2007 10:41

Boozytortoise needs to get only his councillors. Glass and metals are worth money, and around here at least the contractors will take all that they can get their hands on. They are certainly having no problems with the additional quantity of drinks bottles/cans following christmas.

I'm suprised that Boozytortoise's council won't take glass and cans. Here they are easier and more profitable than paper.

The only answer to the residual waste bin overflowing is of course to waste less. Why is it so difficult? - everyone else seems to manage.

RVR800

How to get better recycling

09.01.2007 16:16

Boozytortoise needs to lobby councillors to get a better service.

Here, at the moment, paper/cardboard and garden waste is collected in household bins, along with residual waste. Glass, tins, some plastic and excess paper/cardboard is collected at the recycling point, a walk of a minute away. Clothes are collected at another recycling point, a few minutes bike ride away. Those with even a small garden can compost/put in a wormery/put in a green cone much food waste, though little food is wasted if you buy prope food. Other recycling has to be taken further away, though they are building another place closer. This can be seen as a problem for those without cars, but bike trailers are a good way of transporting a fair amount to those places so it is not impossible. My residual waste bin is usually emptied once a month and is often not full even then.

It has not always been like this. The council went through a very bad patch, but over the past few years things have steadily got better.

If Boozytortoise's residual waste bin is someties overflowing then it is time to look at what is put in it and see what help is available to stop it overflowing. There should be information available from the council about local schemes, there might even be waste advisors. There is plenty of information available elsewhere, for example Scotland has

http://www.wasteawarescotland.org.uk/html/index.asp which people can browse.

As for the "business use" of the bin, the council could be challenged on this and made to justify their actions. Alternatively reduce, reuse and recycle could probably reduce the amount of stuff that goes in it dramatically.

A N Other

Recycling

09.01.2007 17:34

As I said I have a compost bin and we never put anything in our bin that can be recycled, it may end up bagged up in our cellar but we are very careful.
Its all very well to watch your packaging but when you are on a budget and have little money, you have to go by the price of an item not what its packaged in. combine this with the fact that a lot of plastics have a triangle no thats not compatible with the few recycling banks we have you are talking a 10 mile trip to go to our recycling center. Big towns have improved greatly, but little villages like ours still struggle.
We still have an over fill bin at the end of two weeks, doing everything right that we can.
The council should impose its fine policy in checking peoples waste rather than impose a two week collection to force people into it, because although we are trying to do all we can, 90% of people on this estate are not bothered and its them than are causing our estate to turn into a rubbish tip.

Boozytortoise

Expensive food

09.01.2007 20:48

>>Its all very well to watch your packaging but when you are on a budget and have little money, you have to go by the price of an item not what its packaged in.<<

Packaged food is usually far more expensive than unpackaged food. The best way to save money is not to buy packaged food, but to get food as Mother Nature intended from a market or grow it yourself and then cook it from scratch.

Frozen pizzas and the like are an expensive luxury. Food which comes in its own plastic coffin for reheating is expensive, even when reduced to half price as the sell by date comes up. I just looked at some in the shop on the way home, but half price £1.65 is still too expensive for a meal.

Even a few tubs with vegetables in them can provide a proportion of food for a family. There is plenty of advice on the sort of thrift which was once second nature from various sources. Living thriftily also minimises energy consumption.

A N Other

Action plan for Boozytortoise

09.01.2007 21:30

Boozytortoise needs to stop making excuses and take some action. He/she tells us that the recycling centre is a ten mile trip. This less than forty minutes with a bike and trailer. One trip a day until the backlog is cleared, then one trip a week to get rid of glass and cans for Boozytortoise and his/her neighbours. There will be so much more room in the house and cycling is excellent exercise (which will help any tortoise living on unhealthy packaged foods).

The council won't provide a kerbside service or a more local bring bank for Boozy alone, and won't provide one unless they think it will be used. It's not sufficient for Boozy alone to lobby councillors - he/she needs to start educating the neighbours and getting them to write letters and talking to councillors as well.

Boozy tells us that their residual waste is a problem. He/she really needs to look at exactly why it is that some of us generate a quarter of a bin a week, yet the tortoise family bin is forever overflowing. Some ideas have been posted above. My guess is too much expensive and unhealthy overpackaged supermarket food. Shopping at local greengrocers who tend to wrap fruit and veg in paper bags rather than on bulky plastic trays for example. Taking your own bag to the supermarket rather than accumulating carrier bags (when are these going to be charged for like in Ireland...?) Take aways and junk food also come well overpackaged (and over priced).

Boozy also tells us that the estate is a tip. Here he/she can either whine to the council or do something positive about cleaning it up. Those who are tipping their waste need to be either educated or enforced against. If you have persistant tipping, your environmental health departmant can help to prosecute the individuals involved, even using covert surveillance (authorised under the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act) to gather evidence if necessary.

Of course all this takes some effort, but I'm sure that Boozytortoise will see the advantage of active participation in his/her community over sitting at home whininig on the Internet.

Do let us know how you get on Boozy. You'll be making you community a better place for all who live there, and this sort of thing works far better when it is led by residents, rather than a distant and disinterested local authority.

Mike

cut down waste, recycle more

10.01.2007 14:56

The UK is Europe's dustbin. We throw away more rubbish than any other country.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/6240119.stm

We need to therefore cut down on waste, recycle more.

The public supports recycling, would like to see less waste.

It is therefore important councils work with the public to maintain that support. Not use recycling as an excuse to cut down services, punish offenders with on-the-spot fines, and as is now being proposed, charge for waste collection.

North Kesteven manages to recycle 51.5% of its waste. What it collects at the doorstep goes to private contractors who recover over 90%.

As the top performing council on recycling, North Kesteven must be doing something right.

They have a very simple three bin system

- green waste
- recyclable
- residual waste

North Kesteven say they achieve their high recycling rates by having a simple system, providing very clear instructions on what goes in each bin, and working with the public.

http://www.n-kesteven.gov.uk/section.asp?docId=3205&catId=87

http://www.n-kesteven.gov.uk/section.asp?docId=3208&catId=87

http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2007/01/359341.html?c=on

North Kesteven tried a box collection scheme a few years ago, found it didn't work, did little to increase
recycling rates, was not popular with the public, and was withdrawn.

Wheelie bins are also easier for the bin men to handle.

It is education that is needed, not punishment, not cuts in service.

Fortnightly collection already has problems of smells, rats, flies.

http://www.npta.org.uk/assets/documents/RodentReportJan07.pdf

If we then charge to collect waste, we are going to have a worsening of existing problems – fly-tipping and burning of waste in back gardens.

Yes, people can go on a round trip to find somewhere to take their waste, but is is highly inefficient compared with doorstep collection, both in manpower and energy consumption.

Household waste is only the tip of a very big problem. We have to cut waste in every sector.

We also have to create markets for post-consumer waste.

Are the councils who are cutting services, for example, specifying that all the paper they use is made from post-consumer waste?

Yes, we can all do much better.

I personally generate very little waste, I compost in-situ in the garden, re-use wherever possible, but even I can do better. Although the waste I generate is low by western standards, it is high by third world standards.

If we work against the public not with, our recycling rates will go down, not up.

Keith

Rushmoor is not North Kesteven

10.01.2007 19:07

Hey Wheelie-Bin

Have you ever considered whether demographic differences between North Kesteven and other areas, such as Rushmoor might account for differeing tendencies towards anti-social behaviour, which the generation of excess waste and failure to use the recycling facilities provided certainly is.
Maybe Rushmoor needs to take a firmer line with enforcement for the benefit all all it's residents.

And have you ever considered that different equipment might be suitable for different areas, with different streets and housing types. And that recycling contractors might select the type of equipment which is best for their area. I wouldn't want to have to drag another wheelie bin up my cobbled street, up a hill, when I can have a box collected from my doorstep. I'd far rather have my residual waste collected like that as well.

Why is it you are so obsessed with wheelie bins, when the real issue is willingness to use whatever facilities are provided, which is one of education, enforcement and anti social behaviour?

RVR800

Water privatisation to blame

11.01.2007 15:06

Until water privatisation, London's councils fended back the rat armies through a simple procedure called sewer-baiting. “We would lift up the manhole covers and lower a load of poison down,” says Gary Sheppard, a rat-catcher for Westminster Council. “It would always be eaten, so we knew it was needed.” But then in 1988 the Tories sold off London’s water monopoly to Thames Water, a corporation accountable to private shareholders rather than to us. They didn’t see why they should spend money on killing rats when they could pocket it as profit, and the practice stopped.

This happened across Britain. The report warns that now “only pay lip service [is paid] to the very serious matter of sewer baiting… [This] refusal time after time to undertake or financially support pro-active treatments is steadily causing serious concern because of its knock-on effect against the public’s health.”

hairy
Homepage: http://www.johannhari.com/archive/article.php?id=1049

Rotten Borough of Rushmoor v North Kesteven

12.01.2007 17:46

The differences between the two councils is that one is a rural council the other an urban council.

Neither has a problem with the collection of wheelie bins.

The big difference is that North Kesteven works with the local community, gets them on board, provides clear information what goes into each bin.

Rushmoor fails to work with the local coommunity, refuses to listen to what local people are saying.

The other big difference is that North Kesteven has had a long term committment to recycling.

The net result is that North Kesteven recycles 51.5%, is the top performing council in the country, Rushmoor an abysmal 22%, with a target of only 40% by 2010.

Keith

the views from Rushmoor

13.01.2007 12:25

In the Rotten Borough of Rushmoor, the problem lies with the council, not local people.

Local people have said they wish to recycle more. They have also said they do not wish to see a cut in service, a weekly collection service reduced to once a fortnight.

The problem lies with the council who are using recycling as an excuse to cut services. Who are not listening to local people.

To increase the rates of recycling, it is necessary for local councils to work with local people, get their full cooperation. In Rushmoor the council is doing the exact opposite.

Keith

whats the point

20.03.2007 14:17

don’t bother with recycling. who gives a dam.. I don’t.. what the council don’t collect one week goes in the neighbour’s bin next time, or the back ally of the estate. if you lot of halfwits want to live like cave men then sod off an find a cave. I use what I want, drive what I want, and waist what I want. Oh and on Friday nights I binge drink, eat a kebab and puke up, which the dog eats for his supper, that’s recycling.

redrunner

this is the point

27.03.2007 10:31

Nice try baiting people, but you should try something original, or at least a bit more imaginative.

It'll be you in a cave, trying to escape the rubbish and climate chaos that you make so well.

redrunner (nice try!)

UK Indymedia

Fortnightly rubbish collection creating a plague of rats

Comments

Why not just waste less?

can't read

More fortnightly residual waste collections please

I'm with Steph

The problem with recycling

The reason recycling rates are poor in Rushmoor

The problem with recycling

How to get better recycling

Recycling

Expensive food

Action plan for Boozytortoise

cut down waste, recycle more

Rushmoor is not North Kesteven

Water privatisation to blame

Rotten Borough of Rushmoor v North Kesteven

the views from Rushmoor

whats the point

this is the point

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