Removal of weekly 'black bin' collections

[Apple]

At a time when national govt is attempting to get councils who have adopted a fortnightly collection arrangement to go back to weekly collections, (possibly by force), the BCKLWN is proposing a change to fortnightly from April 2013.

THey are also proposing replacing the 140l black bins with 240l and handing out a 'waste food box' and 'waste food caddy' to every household.

They still want you to cough up even more money if you want a brown bin though!

Follow the link to the story in the Lynn News:

http://tinyurl.com/639nqaz

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Text of that story:

West Norfolk: Weekly black bin collection to be scrapped


Published on Thursday 27 October 2011 12:06

WEEKLY black bin collections look set to be scrapped in West Norfolk under new proposals.

Food scraps will become the only waste collected weekly under the plans that will see all homes given a third bin to collect them in.

All other waste will move to a fortnightly collection, with black bins collected on alternate weeks to recycling, if the plans are agreed.

West Norfolk Council’s cabinet is being asked to vote in favour of the plan to take effect from April 2013, at a meeting on Tuesday.

A report said the proposal will save taxpayers £553,000 a year and increase the amount of overall waste recycled in the borough from 37.7 per cent to 50.7 per cent as food scraps will be sent for composting.

Existing 140 litre black bins will be replaced with 240 litre ones and homes will be given a new 21-23 litre food waste box with a locking lid to put out for collection. Residents will also receive a seven litre food waste caddy, intended to be kept inside and emptied into the box, it is proposed.

There will be special arrangements for homes unsuitable for the intended bins, like North End, Lynn.

Source: Lynn News. 27 10 11

[Tim]

Erm 140 to 240 isn't double.  Not sure about everyone else but there is very little food waste in our black bins, peelings generally go to the animals and waste bread to the birds.  We eat the rest of it.

Bloody stupid idea, weekly bin collections is the only service we get in the village from the council.

Tim

[Sheepdog Lady]

Same here re food waste. Nothing perishable gets binned, one or other of the animals eats it and we don't need a brown bin as garden waste is disposed of on our land. We do find, however, that the recycle bin is always overflowing, and quite often end up putting the recycleable rubbish in the black bin just to stop it overflowing. I can foresee an increase in the amount of bonfires down the Drove though come the change to fortnightly black bin collection. 

[Apple]

We do find, however, that the recycle bin is always overflowing, and quite often end up putting the recycleable rubbish in the black bin just to stop it overflowing.  

We had this problem too.

If you contact the BCKLWN and complain to them about it they can do one of two things. Either issue you a second green bin, or remove the 240 and replace with a 360 litre green bin.

In true council style, someone has to first come out and rummage through your green bin to 'make sure' you are not placing in there anything that is not on their list of accepted materials*

*This list is quite restricted, so if the bin-rummager finds stuff in your green bin that is not on their list they will probably try to say that you do not need a bigger bin.

Basically, what I am saying is, if you do arrange a visit, 'be prepared'.

[Apple]

Update on this latest bit of buffoonery by the BCKLWN.....

http://tinyurl.com/7ls5ylt

[Tim]

Well there you go, those that objected to the Energy from Waste plant in King's Lynn have managed to give them ammunition to drop weekly collections.

Two wins for the Council.

[Apple]

What really irritates me about the incinerator issue is that we have two idiot councils, NCC & BCKLWN slugging it out over all this, NCC trying all the tricks in the book to make KL accept the siting of the incinerator here and the BCKLWN using all the tricks it can think of to foil the county council.

Most people of this area will have an opinion one way or the other, yet, as council tax payers we have to fund BOTH sides of this fight. Those who have no problem with an incinerator in the area still have to fund the BCKLWN in its fight against it, and those who do not want it here have to fund NCC's attempts to override the borough council.

They all need to stop spending money on new projects and spend a bit on repairing what is already there.

Rant over!

[nennyrainbow]

Well I forgot to put my green bin out  2 weeks ago (when we had roadworks directly outside our house) so we had 4 weeks of recycling to get rid of today. I put the excess in the 'old' green box which we used to use for recycling, and put it out next to the green bin on the road, not realising that we are no longer allowed to add extra waste if it doesn't fit in the bin. So what did they do? Rather than just not empty the excess, they did empty it and confiscated the green box. When I phoned the council to ask why my green box was missing, I was told that it had been removed due to 'improper use' and that I wouldn't get it back. Since it was originally issued by the council, it is still council property apparently, which means they have the right to remove it. So there you go- you have been warned - don't ever use your green box for excess recycling. I now have to find myself a new receptacle to place glass for recycling in to take to the bottle bank. Or maybe I should just black bin it (which will cost them more) since they seem to be making it as difficult as possible for me to recycle.
Oh , and I was told if I regularly exceed the bin capacity (which I don't) I can apply for a bigger or an additional bin. So what's to stop me from ordering another one (stockpiling some newspapers and cardboard to fill it up with when the inspectors come) and then using the old one for the glass, saving myself the cost of finding a new box? All at the council's expense since additional bins are free. It's just illogical.
Needless to say, there will be no Christmas bonus for the recycling team from our household.

[nennyrainbow]

PS Requested a bigger (360l) green bin Friday afternoon and it arrived today (Tuesday) - no rummaging required! Although they did have to tip the contents of the old bin into the new one so I guess if there had been something in there that shouldn't have been, they might have noticed. They did mention about the new contracts starting in 2013 with the fortnightly black bin emptying, and saying 'it'll all be change again, and probably chaos while the new contractors get themselves organised" - didn't fill me with hope for the future....

[Apple]

It's winter. I expect the bin inspector is hibernating, that's why you did not have a formal bin rummage!