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Rochford postpones green recycling plan
8:33am Wednesday 7th May 2008
A NEW recycling scheme aimed at making Rochford District Council one of the greenest in Essex has been postponed indefinitely, it has been revealed.
Earlier this year, the district council trumpeted its new agreement with waste firm, Sita, which included plans to give every household three wheelie bins.
One was to be used for kitchen and garden waste and was to be emptied weekly and the other two were for recyclables and non-recyclables, collected on alternate weeks.
However, the changes have now been put on hold for the foreseeable future and there is no fixed date for when they will be brought into operation.
At the moment, the existing recycling arrangements for bottles, cans and paper will continue and residents will also be able to retain their current blue box for bottles and cans.
Although the new contractors Sita started work at the beginning of April, arrangements for the changes are far from complete, Rochford District Council said.
Council officials put the changes on hold until the results of a pilot scheme by Sita in Warwick are known.
Council chief executive Paul Warren said: "We would rather that any teething problems are identified there and not in the Rochford district.
"There is also the logistics of delivering some 70,000 new bins to properties across the district. This in itself will take some considerable time to be accomplished successfully."
He added the delay would let the new contractors settle in fully in the district and get adjusted to the rounds.
However, one council insider said he had heard there had also been friction between existing and new members of staff.
One change which Sita has made is to introduce bank holiday collections, which began on Monday.
It is one of only a few refuse collection companies where staff work on bank holidays.
Resident Alan Berman, 43, of Rayleigh, said there had been confusion about the start of the scheme.
He said: "We had the first announcements of this scheme then nothing happened. Now we are told nothing is happening yet. It's all somewhat confusing."
Your Say YourEcho
Lesley, says...
11:41am Wed 7 May 08
I have a mountain of newspaper in my house ready to re-cycle, but the last time I was in the Hockley Library car park (last week) the paper re-cycling bank was totally full and people had started to leave their newspapers by the side. I'm reluctant to load up the car again, in case I find out it still hasn't been emptied...
They don't make it easy, do they?
Margaret Stoll, Rochford says...
11:52am Wed 7 May 08
Lesley wrote:No, they certainly do NOT make it easy. And this has been my point in discussions with the council recycling officers over several years now - if you don't make it easy for people they just won't do it. There is a widespread feeling about that 'we pay our council tax, it should be collected, and we don't care what happens to it after that, it's not our business, not what we pay for, there are people getting paid for taking care of it for us'. That seems to be a very widespread view.
<b> I was also looking forward to the new arrangements.
I have a mountain of newspaper in my house ready to re-cycle, but the last time I was in the Hockley Library car park (last week) the paper re-cycling bank was totally full and people had started to leave their newspapers by the side. I\'m reluctant to load up the car again, in case I find out it still hasn\'t been emptied...
They don\'t make it easy, do they?</b>
Given that many people think it's OK to throw their drinks and snacks containers down just anywhere, wherever they are when they've finished with them, it's an attitude of mind as much as anything. And people throwing things out of cars....it's all part of the same mindset.
John Cheek, Rayleigh says...
1:08pm Wed 7 May 08
It's a shame - the 'Recycling cause' is still progressing slowly and in a minor way, this is another setback!
Doug, Rochford says...
3:20pm Wed 7 May 08
Result was the 'binmen' zoomed round in record time only collecting a few bins from each street
where the residents were on holiday and had put the bin out, or residents who had received notification.
The result was the binmen had to do the circuit again on Tuesday as the original schedule.
(Still the binmen were VERY happy, they got overtime for the Bank Holiday).
What a way to run a business. Still it doesn't matter we are paying for it arn't we!
Mark, Rayleigh says...
5:53pm Wed 7 May 08
What are we supposed to do with all the rubbish we have until next Tuesday? Leave them out for them not to collect because they aren't in the bin? Rayleigh will become a big heap of black bags!
As for the recycling scheme it seemed complicated. Unless it is simple most people won't do it therefore the scheme won't be a success.
Kim Gandy, Rayleigh says...
7:23pm Wed 7 May 08
Then a bin and blue box were delivered.
The very next day they were taken back.
I was told I was "not entitled" to them because the area I live in is private.
I was then told to leave the bags in a certain place.
One day, a friend put them just a yard to the right of where they are usually left and they didn't get taken.
Like everyone else, I was not prepared for the collection on Monday and I haven't had any bin bags in ages.
The words "@rse" and "elbow" spring to mind.
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Margaret Stoll, Rochford says...
10:41am Wed 7 May 08
The blue boxes are, in my opinion, not a success. They're collected fortnightly, and a fortnight's-worth of cans and bottles makes the blue box very heavy. We're lucky in that our neighbours take out the bins and boxes for us and we bring them back - they're young people and we're....not young! There are a lot of retired people around here and I'm sure we can't be the only people who have this difficulty. Also the red bags for paper are useless - on a windy day they just disappear, we found ours in the next street! The plan was going to be to have plastics and cardboard collected as well. At present we have to take plastics to a 'bring-bin' and cardboard up to Rayleigh, all using petrol - not very 'green'! As I said to the council some years ago before the blue boxes were even introduced, people are elderly, not all have transport to take recyclables to the 'bring bins', and you have to make it easy for people otherwise they just won't do it - they think they pay their council tax for it to be collected and they don't think where it goes after that. 'So it goes into landfill, so what - that's what we're paying for' is what I've heard.
Also, we're one of the few houses that has a green bin for collection of garden waste. I paid for ours a couple of years ago but most people didn't - they said things like 'we pay enough in council tax already, why pay more?' So you get garden rubbish, prunings, grass mowings, put into the normal bin to go into landfill. Not a good idea.
I thought it was a good idea to have 3 wheelie bins. I don't like the idea of plastic bags as used in Southend, and I was looking forward to this new scheme starting. So, just carry on as before - more landfill.
Regarding the problem of delivering the new bins - some of us who have transport would be willing to collect our own. Has that not been considered?