Waste Disposal Council Style

[frank ward]

Here’s a daft example of bureaucracy from our Highland Council….
I have refurbished my kitchen and need to get rid of some old kitchen units. They’re a bit big for a car trip to the skip.
So I phone to find out when the next bulk refuse collection is. Eventually I am routed through to a receptionist. I have to give my postcode, then house number. Fair enough so far.
Then I’m asked, what am I throwing out?
Old kitchen units. Sorry, not acceptable. Eh? Why not?
Yes you can throw out a washing machine, or 3-piece suite, that’s household goods, but not units, they’re part of the house.
So I ask if I smash the units up into bits, is that OK? Yes, that’s acceptable. And if I chop up a good door, will that be taken away? Yes, but not the door.
Then I’m asked for more personal details, which I refuse, what more do they need than my address?
they still won’t tell me the next date of bulk uplift. I must tell them what I’m throwing out.
I say that If I knew the date of uplift I could gather some stuff. I get shirty, I’m asked to hang on, then after a while and consultation with a supervisor, I’m finally told the date - over five weeks away.
All this is apparently because of ‘competitive tendering’ for waste services. Little wonder there‘s so much fly-tipping!

[willowbankbear]

We had similar problems with the same outfit last year, we got a new kitchen, they were phoned, they werent very forthcoming so we got a chap with a transit van to take 2 loads up to the recycling centre at the drome.
It wasnt worth the hassle to bother with the council but your circumstances may be different to ours?

[JAWS]

Here’s a daft example of bureaucracy from our Highland Council….
I have refurbished my kitchen and need to get rid of some old kitchen units. They’re a bit big for a car trip to the skip.
So I phone to find out when the next bulk refuse collection is. Eventually I am routed through to a receptionist. I have to give my postcode, then house number. Fair enough so far.
Then I’m asked, what am I throwing out?
Old kitchen units. Sorry, not acceptable. Eh? Why not?
Yes you can throw out a washing machine, or 3-piece suite, that’s household goods, but not units, they’re part of the house.
So I ask if I smash the units up into bits, is that OK? Yes, that’s acceptable. And if I chop up a good door, will that be taken away? Yes, but not the door.
Then I’m asked for more personal details, which I refuse, what more do they need than my address?
they still won’t tell me the next date of bulk uplift. I must tell them what I’m throwing out.
I say that If I knew the date of uplift I could gather some stuff. I get shirty, I’m asked to hang on, then after a while and consultation with a supervisor, I’m finally told the date - over five weeks away.
All this is apparently because of ‘competitive tendering’ for waste services. Little wonder there‘s so much fly-tipping!
Break the things up over a period of time and put them in the bin for the Skaffy men.

I had a good bit of plain ordinary sheet glass to get rid of. In an attempt to ease my conscience because I need in excess of five Earths just to sustain my lifestyle, and that's just me, not if everybody lived like me, I took it to the recycling depot because it go through the holes in the bottle bank.
What do I find? A skip for disposal of glass? Not on your life, it goes in the skip for landfill along with the other non-recyclable materials.

I'm tempted to dump any more glass off some remote cliff somewhere so it can be recycled naturally and become sand again. :lol:

I'm no expert but I would think plain glass is one of the easiest things to recycle which requires any sort of processing.

[Ricco]

Break the things up over a period of time and put them in the bin for the Skaffy men.

I had a good bit of plain ordinary sheet glass to get rid of. In an attempt to ease my conscience because I need in excess of five Earths just to sustain my lifestyle, and that's just me, not if everybody lived like me, I took it to the recycling depot because it go through the holes in the bottle bank.
What do I find? A skip for disposal of glass? Not on your life, it goes in the skip for landfill along with the other non-recyclable materials.

I'm tempted to dump any more glass off some remote cliff somewhere so it can be recycled naturally and become sand again. :lol:

I'm no expert but I would think plain glass is one of the easiest things to recycle which requires any sort of processing.

Jaws,

I noticed that our local council also will not recycle sheet glass - it has to go to land-fill (I presume that there is some little-known bacteria that breaks it down?). Is sheet glass made in some special way that renders it useless for recycling?

[mccaugm]

After watching the news about the "Stern" report...

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/6096084.stm

I feel the council should get its act together. If people had the options to recycle on their doorstep more recycling would be done.

A large bin with 4 options for say glass, paper, plastics and tins etc would mean more people would recycle out of habit. I am in disbelief that there are plans for less rubbish uplifts especially if they are geared towards recycling.

[JAWS]

Another thing that puzzles me, especially in view of the fuss the Government makes form time to time, is why there is nowhere to recycle plastic carrier bags.
I would guess that they are all mostly made of the same type of plastic so I would suspect the plastic could be reused in some way.

Or is this just another case of “Lets talk up a problem and make people feel guilty so they won't mind when we slap a new tax on it”?

[Buttercup]

I, for one would gladly recycle glass if the council would collect it. We used to make wine and over the years amassed a large collection of demi-johns and bottles (and I do mean large!) which were made redundant owing to lack of time etc. I decided to have a clearout but this has had to be done over months as the only way to get rid of them is in the bin every week, I don't have my own transport and draw the line at carrying 1 demi-john down town let alone dozens of them! Still, almost there now, no doubt I'll soon find something else to take up the loft space. [lol]

[Fran]

Have you tried Homeaid in Thurso. They collect unwanted household items and furniture. Im sure they would take kitchen units and a door. What we need is another auction hall. We all seem to be missing it and needing it. Im surprised no one has opened up a second hand furniture shop. there used to be one in Wick,
I notice the former auction hall at Watten is now sold. Does anyone know what it is going to be?