Rubbish service

7:55am Saturday 29th December 2012 in Letters By Reader's letter

ALL those York households whose normal refuse collection day is Tuesday are in for a shock this coming week.

I understood the council’s decision not to make any collections in Christmas week, but they are also planning no collections on Tuesday, January 1. The card sent round in November just says those due for collections on January 1 will “have their waste collected as soon as possible later that week”.

I contacted the council and was told that all homes whose normal collection day is Tuesday January 1 should put out their black bins that night (and also their recycling bins if due that week) – and collections will be made some time on Wednesday 2, Thursday 3 or Friday 4 January – but they cannot tell us which day!

This means leaving out bins and recycling boxes out for up to three days –- in one of the worst weeks of the year for weather, and with many households having extra waste from Christmas.

I feel councillors should have thought this through and come up with a clear date for revised collections for everyone.

Gareth Morgan, Acomb Wood Drive, York.

Comments(40)

Martha1 says...
12:08pm Sat 29 Dec 12

According to the council website both rubbish and recycling will be collected on Thursday from Acomb Wood Drive. There is a full list available- which is ok if you have internet access!

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Buzz Light-year says...
1:56pm Sat 29 Dec 12

What a whinging whiny letter.

It's Christmas. There's going to be some disruption. Get over it. It could be much worse.

For some people it's a real good job the Mayan thing was just a silly internet meme.

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Sillybillies says...
2:18pm Sat 29 Dec 12

I agree, it is deplorable service, but the council prefers to waste £50,000 to get the Tour de France to York where it will lose our tourist industry many hundreds and thousands of pounds.

We have never had such serious disruption of the bin collection service before, so why this year?

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ColdAsChristmas says...
8:01pm Sat 29 Dec 12

No Buzz, people have paid for 52 collections per year and uncertainty in the week when they traditionally have most rubbish to dispose of is simply not good enough.

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twotonethomas says...
8:46pm Sat 29 Dec 12

Maybe the Councillors could have thought this through, and come up with a better day for christmas. :)

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Buzz Light-year says...
9:06pm Sat 29 Dec 12

ColdAsChristmas wrote:
No Buzz, people have paid for 52 collections per year and uncertainty in the week when they traditionally have most rubbish to dispose of is simply not good enough.
No ColdAs they haven't. They paid a tax.

Tax is not a retail model for goods and services.

Taxpayers are not customers.

Where does it say I'm entitled to 52 collections per year on my council tax bill?

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akaroa says...
10:31pm Sat 29 Dec 12

Collection day is irrelevant, the back lanes are filled with rubbish sacks, regardless of any pick up times. A man is fined £50 for dropping a fag end, but no one is ever fined for what amounts to fly tipping on a large scale by irresponsible, ignorant people who have absolutely no thought for their own or others environment.My neighbours filled the lane with rubbish a week ago, it will be there for another week,. regardless, The council do nothing to irradcate this disgusting behaviour, the odd fine might help, but it will never happen.

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ColdAsChristmas says...
12:02am Sun 30 Dec 12

I stand corrected on the 52 annual collections Buzz. It appears the Labour government changed the rules in 2008.
Didn't stop a Council tax rise though.

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Magicman! says...
2:59am Sun 30 Dec 12

Up here in Huntington our bin has been standing out waiting for collection since our normal day on Wednesday. It is now saturday and our full bin has not been emptied - and considering there's another bank holiday next week it probably won't be emptied then either!

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twotonethomas says...
10:09am Sun 30 Dec 12

akaroa wrote:
Collection day is irrelevant, the back lanes are filled with rubbish sacks, regardless of any pick up times. A man is fined £50 for dropping a fag end, but no one is ever fined for what amounts to fly tipping on a large scale by irresponsible, ignorant people who have absolutely no thought for their own or others environment.My neighbours filled the lane with rubbish a week ago, it will be there for another week,. regardless, The council do nothing to irradcate this disgusting behaviour, the odd fine might help, but it will never happen.
I fully agree akaroa, there are ignorant people who will ignore any law that they think doesn't apply to them in every walk of life.

Just look at David Cameron's favourite fox hunt which was prosecuted for criminally hunting wild animals only this month. The authorities weren't interested in that criminal behaviour either.

Thank you RSPCA :)

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Silver says...
11:56am Sun 30 Dec 12

Did nobody else read the schedule for collections? I noticed it said they were doing both recycling and normal collections the week before Xmas and none were being collected during the xmas week. It's not like we weren't told....

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Willy Eckerslike says...
12:04pm Sun 30 Dec 12

Magicman! says...
2:59am Sun 30 Dec 12

Up here in Huntington our bin has been standing out waiting for collection since our normal day on Wednesday. It is now saturday and our full bin has not been emptied - and considering there's another bank holiday next week it probably won't be emptied then either!

So you put your bin out on Boxing Day and expected it to be collected, ?, did you not read the notice that was left on your bin, to save you any further heartache, they are not working New Years day but if your normal day is Wednesday then you will receive a collection. You can also look on the Council website.

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ColdAsChristmas says...
3:15pm Sun 30 Dec 12

I think the big problem is that for the first time as I can remember there has been no collection over Christmas week.
Refuse collection however is an essential service. Can you imagine the Hospitals closing down over Christmas?
There are rules that say only one bin per household and the lid must be closed etc.
It will be interesting if many bins are refused collection because the Council made the decision not to collect during the busiest week of the year for refuse accumulation.
Collection of our rubbish is the one tangible item most households can associate with their Council tax.
We have already seen the idea of charging for garden waste and supported by at least one Green Councillor, now we see no
Christmas week collection.
What's next?

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Sillybillies says...
4:01pm Sun 30 Dec 12

What's next?

Fly tipping by some no doubt, I'll get a garden incinerator, the extra CO2 will do wonders for climate change.

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Matt_S says...
7:32pm Sun 30 Dec 12

Maybe people should just throw away less stuff.

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Sillybillies says...
7:57pm Sun 30 Dec 12

And do what with it, dump it by the roadside, or in open fields? Perhaps in councillors' gardens, now that could be a good idea to get the message home that we demand a better service for the extortionate council tax we have to pay for naff all as far as I can see.

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Buzz Light-year says...
9:12pm Sun 30 Dec 12

Wait, rubbish collection is as essential as hospital services?

Has anyone ever died or been left with permanent injuries from their bins being emptied a few days late?

Or is that a sensationalist, incompatible comparison?



And I think when Matt_S says throw away less stuff, he probably meant the question isn't what to do with the rubbish instead but how to generate less in the first place.

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ColdAsChristmas says...
12:28am Mon 31 Dec 12

Buzz, where did I say that rubbish collection was as essential as hospital services? I didn't, wouldn't and couldn't make that choice. I could have used the Fire service as an essential example instead. An example was all it ever was,
nothing sensational about it.
The point is rubbish collection and propper disposal is essential if we are to avoid vermin infestation and related diseases.
We pay a high enough price for this service. So Buzz, what do you consider more essential within the local authorities responsibilities? Hope it's not 20 MPH speed signs!

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ColdAsChristmas says...
12:47am Mon 31 Dec 12

Considering Matt's point regards creating less rubbish: Curtailing growth and Capitalism is a part of the Green agenda, (already checked out that one) add to that the zero Carbon target for UK business premises by 2019 and there may not be much produced in the UK to even throw away.
Of course we can always throw away the rubbish from goods produced in China and India.
So much for our balance of trade and employment opportunities though.

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Matt_S says...
1:02am Mon 31 Dec 12

ColdAsChristmas wrote:
Considering Matt's point regards creating less rubbish: Curtailing growth and Capitalism is a part of the Green agenda, (already checked out that one) add to that the zero Carbon target for UK business premises by 2019 and there may not be much produced in the UK to even throw away.
Of course we can always throw away the rubbish from goods produced in China and India.
So much for our balance of trade and employment opportunities though.
I'm amazed at your ability to take every conceivable subject off-topic and onto carbon emissions :)

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Matt_S says...
1:11am Mon 31 Dec 12

As an actual response though: increasing wealth doesn't have to proceed via creating more rubbish. You can use the same amount of material product more efficiently to create more physical goods, and you can develop products that are essentially material-free (mp3s rather than CDs, online news rather than papers etc).

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Buzz Light-year says...
1:18am Mon 31 Dec 12

ColdAsChristmas wrote:
where did I say that rubbish collection was as essential as hospital services? I didn't, wouldn't and couldn't

Give us a break! You know didn't say it directly:
ColdAsChristmas wrote:
Refuse collection however is an essential service. Can you imagine the Hospitals closing down over Christmas?


Lame, hackneyed, tabloid, schoolboy technique.
You could just as well say "Ice cream is cold. Can you imagine freezing to death?"

So Buzz, what do you consider more essential within the local authorities responsibilities? Hope it's not 20 MPH speed signs!

I expect them to address the long term issues of rubbish collection and disposal and not to pander to the whims of frustrated "I want it off my desk/ driveway/ conscience right now" whiners.
A few days delay at Christmas is par for the course in a million contexts.

You get the same seasonal skeleton service every weekend at hospitals nationwide.

Every weekend. In hospitals.

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Magicman! says...
3:56am Mon 31 Dec 12

Willy Eckerslike wrote:
Magicman! says...
2:59am Sun 30 Dec 12

Up here in Huntington our bin has been standing out waiting for collection since our normal day on Wednesday. It is now saturday and our full bin has not been emptied - and considering there's another bank holiday next week it probably won't be emptied then either!

So you put your bin out on Boxing Day and expected it to be collected, ?, did you not read the notice that was left on your bin, to save you any further heartache, they are not working New Years day but if your normal day is Wednesday then you will receive a collection. You can also look on the Council website.
If you can tell me when this fictional notice was put on our bins I would really like to know.... as we had been expecting a notice on the bins since November and there's been nothing.

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tangwaynehall says...
9:06am Mon 31 Dec 12

It's our recycling bins that are already over flowing and still over a week till collection. Guess will shouve it all in grey bin!!!!

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dodgydavereturns says...
11:00am Mon 31 Dec 12

I shove all mine in the green bin and cover it over with waste from the garden! They only send them to the same tip anyway, it's just another way of doing less for more money!
Although to be fair, the bin men are great, I asked mine to empty the green with the grey bin today and they did.
If we had weekly collections as we are supposed to, then we wouldn't have such a problem.
I suggest we take all our rubbish (With any addressed items removed) and dump them on the steps of the council building! They might start to listen then!

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PKH says...
11:59am Mon 31 Dec 12

ColdAsChristmas wrote:
I think the big problem is that for the first time as I can remember there has been no collection over Christmas week.
Refuse collection however is an essential service. Can you imagine the Hospitals closing down over Christmas?
There are rules that say only one bin per household and the lid must be closed etc.
It will be interesting if many bins are refused collection because the Council made the decision not to collect during the busiest week of the year for refuse accumulation.
Collection of our rubbish is the one tangible item most households can associate with their Council tax.
We have already seen the idea of charging for garden waste and supported by at least one Green Councillor, now we see no
Christmas week collection.
What's next?
You must have a short term memory loss as last year there was NO collections Christmas week, so this is the second year of this system.

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Trace18 says...
4:10pm Mon 31 Dec 12

Im sure they will get collected at some point mine is due tom but will be later in the week its christmas after all :)

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ColdAsChristmas says...
10:22pm Mon 31 Dec 12

PKH, I wasn't home last Christmas, so what I said was correct but I take your point.
Matt, The Green answer is not win win I have to tell you. Poland and the Czech Republic have banned Germany's Green energy!
Without going into detail there will be more on this story in the News or alternatively visit the Global Warming Policy Foundation.
Closer to home, consider ethanol added to our petrol. Nobody asked for it, there was no debate it was just added since 2006. Putting aside the damage this solvent has caused, mostly to older vehicles there is another side:
Ethanol has less energy than pure petrol and therefore means a lower MPG. Add to that, ethanol production is highly subsidised by the state adding to our taxes. If you are still not convinced then consider the crops that could be grown to feed the people instead of contaminating petrol!
Paperless communication is good but still requires more energy than a pen and paper.
I still wonder where the energy will come from to charge the battery's of electric cars?
The problem with inefficient and expensive green energy supporters is that they fail to consider competitive disadvantage.
Anyway, this is a long way from the topic of rubbish collections. What are we to do about improving the service? Andy D supports charging for green bin collections, he said so on BBC Radio York. Is there any hope?

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yorkie0802 says...
8:52am Tue 1 Jan 13

We fail to understand how come our normal bin collection day is Tuesday, we have been told no collection today but it will be tomorrow, Thursday or Friday, so how come at 6.30 this morning a bin truck comes and empties one industrial bin?

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Pedro says...
10:31am Tue 1 Jan 13

Re headline. You're right!

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deathwatch says...
10:25pm Tue 1 Jan 13

So the bin collections are a few days late, or, shock horror: a WHOLE week is missed. Looks like the Mayans WERE right, they just got the dates wrong. The world will end 'cos the bins don't get emptied on a particular day. Hey morons: Go live in Haiti for six months - then see if whinging about bin collections is such a big deal. Pampered bunch of prats...

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Matt_S says...
2:53am Wed 2 Jan 13

deathwatch wrote:
So the bin collections are a few days late, or, shock horror: a WHOLE week is missed. Looks like the Mayans WERE right, they just got the dates wrong. The world will end 'cos the bins don't get emptied on a particular day. Hey morons: Go live in Haiti for six months - then see if whinging about bin collections is such a big deal. Pampered bunch of prats...
I concur.

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ColdAsChristmas says...
1:00am Thu 3 Jan 13

I wonder if they pay thousands of pounds in Council tax in Haiti? And of course they are disease free as a result of not having proper waste management like us. NOT!
You can blame the Earthquake but there has been £millions poured in there in aid there. Christchurch, NZ received nothing after their devastating quake and I can't read anything about disease there! And if you say climate, remember we are all supposed to be getting warmer.
Concur with that Matt if you like living in third world squalor. We pay not to be!

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Chris82 says...
4:03pm Thu 3 Jan 13

I can understand the author of this letter. I'm in the same area and we all got a leaflet saying that rubbish will be collected from 31st December not 1st January obviously (both black bin and recycle boxed) Well nothing got collected as of yet and a lot of rubbish is lying outside on the street. People have numerous black bin bags next to their actual bin and boxes because there is no space to put the stuff. They're not keeping bags full of rubbish in their kitchen like it do and probably filled the bags with anything, some of which could have been recycled. I actually genuinely care for the environment and will try to hold on of all the stuff at home until everything will be emptied by tomorrow. Fingers crossed. It is quite a horrible sight out there so much litter flying around and emptied on the roads because no one has a clue when the bin men are coming around. I wonder if York Council will come out and clean it all up? Probably not.

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Chris82 says...
4:08pm Thu 3 Jan 13

deathwatch wrote:
So the bin collections are a few days late, or, shock horror: a WHOLE week is missed. Looks like the Mayans WERE right, they just got the dates wrong. The world will end 'cos the bins don't get emptied on a particular day. Hey morons: Go live in Haiti for six months - then see if whinging about bin collections is such a big deal. Pampered bunch of prats...
It's been two weeks not one week since the last time the black bins have been collected in the area and 3 weeks for the recycle boxes which of course means that everything is mounting up enormously. Especially if you live in a household with kids and pets. I've got so much rubbish sitting around at home that I could fill all 4 recycle boxes again.

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Magicman! says...
2:18am Fri 4 Jan 13

Well, we got our black bins emptied today.... 3 weeks after they were last done instead of 2. BUT the recycling boxes are still out there awaiting the recycling crew to come and empty them WHICH SHOULD HAVE BEEN DONE TODAY.

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hikerman says...
7:59am Fri 4 Jan 13

The council have to have a holiday same as rest of use so whats the problem cheer up its a new year it will get worse with the councils cutbacks so chin up and smile.

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Chris82 says...
3:51pm Fri 4 Jan 13

It's Friday and still no collection. Probably won't be picked up until next week Tuesday then I guess which takes it up to 4 weeks. Awesome. What was the point of handing out the leaflets and making people put their rubbish outside to leave it out there for days and days on end? The only ones who are going to be happy about this mess are the rats. I don't blame the bin men but the Council. Whoever is in charge of this has amazing organising skills. I want to be as talented as this person.

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jayeskaycee says...
6:06pm Fri 4 Jan 13

There is certainly a distinct lack of organisational skills within our 'revered' council members. Another example : I have to inject a couple of times a day so need a collection of the full sharps boxes. It used to be that we rang the department direct to request the collection and that was that. If no-one was there, we left a message and they rang back to confirm. NOW we have to ring the main switchboard, hang on with awful muzak playing , give all our details then told they would pass this on to the appropriate department from where someone would phone to arrange a pick-up. As they only collect on the same day of the week, it would seem there is no need to make that call. I just put the boxes in a bag and leave at the front of our property. This is what we were asked to do when I first needed the service and it worked perfectly so why this stupid roundabout, time-wasting system was introduced is difficult to comprehend.
By the way, we didn't actually have a problem with the collections of the bins. It worked as per the notice attached to the bin but there was a long gap between the collections and our lid wouldn't close and we've got absolutely loads of stuff for recycling which we've had to put in a plastic bag so we're waiting to see if it will be taken.

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frogs77 says...
2:59pm Thu 24 Jan 13

The services in York in general are fairly poor in comparison to other places in the Yorkshire region such as Leeds. I know Leeds is a larger city but the bin service is very good for example ALL year round. Other services in York don't seem as good either even though the council charge more council tax here.The associated websites linked to services are shocking and behind the times if you can find them at all. What exactly are we paying extra for???

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