Yes you read the title of this post correctly, East Lindsey District Council will STOP the green bin collections completely over the winter period (November to March)!
I’m all for recycling and saving money and have always thought fortnightly collection of green bins throughout the year a waste of resources, even in summer our green bins are rarely full (small garden). I also thought it a bit strange we got a full size green bin and a half size black bin, should have been the other way around IMO: and as a family we have managed to fit black bin waste in the half sized black bin, but struggle with the over flowing full size grey recycling bin (businesses give us too much recyclable material as packaging!) and at times have to put it in the black bin.
In summer we need those bins collecting on a regular basis, they stink and generate a lot of flies (ours get infested with fruit fly, we get a swarm when the bin opens). Not sure how regular would work, but suspect fortnightly at peak use times (all those grass cuttings) and less often as less green waste is generated and slowing to even a couple of collections over the winter.
East Lindsey District Council plan to stop green bin collection from November all the way through winter to Easter, that’s 4 months of rotting food! Even with our quite positive recycling attitude our green bin is likely to over flow in 4 months of use!!
East Lindsey District Council like all councils are in serious financial problems due to the credit crunch/recession and it’s likely to get worse before it gets better and so I fully understand why they would like to stop green bin collections for 4 months a year, would save £173,000 apparently. However, we have to be reasonable and this is not a reasonable response, reasonable would be cutting the green bin collection service (which we all pay for) to every 6 weeks over the winter. It’s not an ideal solution to have rotting food sitting in tens of thousands of bins for 6 weeks at a time, but it’s got to be better than 4 months!
I’m sure with a little planning which we all know East Lindsey District Council is useless at we could come up with an annual plan for green bin collections that strikes a balance between saving money and keeping our green bins from turning into compost bin for a third of the year!
For example:
Winter 6 weekly collection.
Early Spring/ Late Autumn monthly collection.
Summer fortnightly collection.
With this sort of green bin collection we’d have our green wasted collected relatively quickly at peak use times (summer) and not so often the rest of the year. I’m sure with a little thought the same saving could be made without having our green waste left festering for months at a time.
If East Lindsey District Council go ahead with this retarded idea our solution will be to put food waste into the black bin from November until March (there will be no waste in our green bin over winter).
You know would have made more sense to supply everyone access to a compost bin, either on your own garden or somewhere local with a free local collection service for those not able to deal with their own green waste. With how recycling mad the country has gone recently I’m sure people would be lining up to volunteer to help out on such a local recycling scheme.
David Law
I do not agree with this decision I think the green bin was the best idea for recycling i fill my bin regularly now it will have to go somewhere else
I am sorry but I do not agree with your sentiments. There is a very simple solution to recycling your green waste. Do it yourself. Get yourself a compost bin and turn your green waste into high quality usable compost that you can then use on your own garden. Why require somebody to come in a large truck, probably diesel powered and take away the green waste. Then pile it high for another large truck, again using diesel oil, to come and collect it, take it somewhere else and then turn it into compost which you can use on your garden. Be REALLY green and do it yourself. I am aware that this is not a solution for everybody but it would decrease the green waste that the council does collect enormously. Obviously sitting back and letting the council recycle for you is better than not doing the recycling, however my sentiment as expressed above still holds true. I would also like to say that your constant sniping at ELDC is exceptionally broad brush and as such appears to me to be nothing more than you espousing your own feelings about the council as a whole and not providing the evidence of failure relating to the individual issue which you are “reviewing” for want of a better word.
Hi Steve,
Few problems with your solution. Even if 50% (it’s not going to be close to 100% without government legislation) of households decided to buy a compost bin and recycle all green waste, the council would still have to collect the green waste from the remaining households, so can’t see how it would save much money?
I agree we should encourage maximum recycling which is why I suggested a choice between green bins and compost bins, if we can get the amount of collected green waste to a minimum MAYBE it could be past on to a voluntary group (with some funding) or a not for profit group for the remaining residents who can’t/don’t want to recycle green waste for LOCAL collection. Why not have multiple small green waste recycling locations, like you say it’s a waste of resources collecting it, transporting it all over the place etc…, much better to keep it local.
Since I posted the above article we’ve decided if ELDC refuse to collect green waste for 4 months of the year we will buy a compost bin, even though we currently aren’t really setup (renovating our home) to have a compost bin on the property (it’s a mess, still not sure where we will put it!). Even if we do buy a compost bin what about everyone else, this is still a problem for others?
Regarding your “constant sniping at ELDC” comment: If not East Lindsey District Council who do we address these issues to, ELDC are making this decision, who else has power to make a change in council policy?
David
Possible good news ELDC will review this policy in the New Year, lets hope they have seen sense and don’t leave our bins filled with green waste for a third of a year at a time!
David