Is anyone else fed up with fortnightly refuse collections.?

Question

I'm sure you are but is it affecting your health, with flies everywhere. I recycle everything ican yet it still isn't enough .

Edit: To mark, To have to drive to get rid is a contradiction of the government policies in itself, we are trying to save the planet but we have to use petrol to get rid of over packaged goods.

Answer 1

Just think - If you really want to save the Earth, you would limit trash pick up to just twice a year!

What a joke. This is why I'm so glad that our trash pick up is done by a private collector who competes with others and that I pay on my own.

Answer 2

All this global warming malarky is bo!!ocks check out http://www.iceagenow.com I should imagine that most people that are fed up with fortnightly collections and are dumping or burning their rubbish and thats the only way that the councils and government will listen and change it back to weekly.
My rubbish is still collected weekly although we don't have weelie bins we're still using bin liners, but if we start getting charged per bag and council tax is not reduced then i will drive it to the tip myself, but if i get charged for that then i will burn what can't be recycled. I suppose if EVERYBODY stopped buying so much so we don't produce so much rubbish then the economy may start to suffer, then the government will panic. The economy is more important to the government than anything else, including global warming, so maybe the best way to beat them is to buy as little as possible. If you have a garden, growing your own veg and keeping chickens for eggs will go a long way.

Answer 3

I've tried to solve this problem for myself too. I think the only way its gonna slowly change is if the packaging changes. Its still good what you are doing. Just make sure you clean everything really well so transporting doesn't seem so disgusting. Maybe you could find some way to make less trips and or when ever you have to go to school or work you could take a little here and there with you so that you aren't even making special trips to recycle. I know, I know, the doomed feeling still doesn't go away does it!?

Answer 4

Here in Ryedale, North Yorkshire, we have weekly collections but they alternate between household waste and garden waste. Having the garden waste collected is very useful from my point of view. I can, however, see the objection to the household waste being collected only every other week when the weather is hot because there is an increase in bad odours, flies, and so on.

If the local Councils could come up with a wheelie bin with a really air-tight lid that would solve the problem.

I minimise the amount of waste by composting most of our food waste.

Answer 5

I can't stand it .. it drives me mad .. plus were I come from they are starting to inspect gardens .. and if your not up to standard they are having powers to evict you . ( I come from a council estate) I cant afford to buy skips . I have a blue box and green bin but your right its not enough. Its not just that ,Every household gets treat the same .. It doesnt effect single people more than it effects families .. my household is 4 , 2 adults 2 children .. and I struggle . down the street there is a woman with 8 children .. WOW how does she cope ... we are all struggling .. then at the same time if they see binliners at the side of your bin .. You can get in trouble for that too... Its a disgrace .. I dont see them hitting businesses .. My local shop has loads of excess card I asked her if she recycles and she said no it goes into there big bin.. whats that about lol .. but houses are getting hit bad .. it should be weekly as well as collecting our recycled goods .. They have got it all wrong .. They have not trusted the people to recycle on their own backs giving us the green bins is a good thing but by not fetching our black bins they have imposed it on us .. I still see some people illegal tipping rather than recycling which saddens me also . :( But that is what happens and the best way would be if they had another . Instead of landfill they could sort the rubbish before hand and do it that way . plus with the benefit of good people who recycle .. it would help loads .

Answer 6

Until we adopt, in a big way, the recycling systems developed in Scandinavia, where the low gas combustion of waste is converted to Mega watts of electricity, then we as a nation are only playing at saving the planet!
The fortnightly collection of waste is an insult to Council Tax payers, and is purely based on a swingeing method of saving expenditure within the Council's budget!
The public Health Department must be brought in to realise that vermin and the resultant diseases are not welcome in 2007 Britain!!

Answer 7

We are fine with fortnightly collections. We have almost no food waste, what little there is is either composted or goes out to feed the birds. (Obviously you need a garden to compost stuff, so we're lucky there.) We plan our dinners and shop once a week. Dinner leftovers (if there are any!) usually become the next day's lunch. The last dinner of the week is always "dregs", to use up remaining fresh food from the fridge. I know children are a challenge, but it's surely not too difficult for adults to not waste food.

Answer 8

Most things that attract flies should be composted, which will further bring down the amount of waste you have in the bin.

As for councils taking more money and not delivering more services- they are offering vastly improved recycling services, not just coming to collect rubbish less often.

Answer 9

I think it is a stupid idea. I think we are supposed to be helping the environment and saving money, yet they can't collect every week.

When it's the brown bin for cardboard and food stuffs. I put the food stuffs in plastic bags, then when the day arrives for collection I empty them into the bin with out the bag. So I have not suffered from flies or maggots Yet!

Answer 10

i think collections every two weeks are great. Compost all your raw foods and wrap cooked food waste in newspaper to try and limit the flies. Also i find it hard to carry recycling to the collection points as we don't have doorstep collections so i leave as much as i can at the shops, anything that i think is excessive gets given back to the customer service department! if everyone did that they'd have to start taking notice :-)

Answer 11

I think it's great. I now only have to drag the bin out once every two weeks. It was only ever half full anyway because we already recycle as much as we can (well, as much as local facilities permit).

It's a pain in the backside that I actually have to DRIVE half of my recycling to a recycling centre because the council don't take plastic bottles or cardboard.