Councils charging for waste disposal

Seems we always end up paying for everything twice these days.

Councils are having a field day raising money out of services we have already payed for.

My local council appears to be considering starting congestion charges now.

 

Our council started charging for green waste this year and dressed it up as encouraging higher levels of recycling.

I fed back my thoughts via the consultation but I suspect that the decision was already made.

We don't pay for the green waste service and, judging by the number of green waste bins, not many do pay.

A more efficient approach would've been to increase all council tax by a percentage of the green waste charge and offer the service to all.

Ive had discussions with our council about restrictions and charges for waste increasing fly tipping. Their answer was that fly tipping is illegal. Such a naïve approach and totally missing the point.

 

All our waste is free, but big stuff to be collected you will pay for, but all recycling centre are free for houses and pay a bit for trade (but you have to book)

Police the fly tipper and hit them hard with fines etc we seemed to be soft on policing

 

Totally agree. We are already paying for waste disposal and then to have an additional charge for different waste disposal doesn't sit well with me.

 

We have not separate charge for green bins. But I think your green bin is different than ours. Ours is for food waste. Our garden waste such as weeds etc go in a brown paper bag or other compostable bag.

 

If it helps to have a different overseas input, (@CanadianLori )....

Firstly, we pay a land tax for the property - down to the square metre - which is why every Belgian knows exactly how big their garden is.

- Then we pay a council tax.

- Then we pay a refuse collection tax, for them to collect from the door.

All our rubbish has to be sorted.
Plastic, metal and tetra-pack cartons go in a blue sack (each sack costs us around 30-40p) this is collected once per month.

Garden waste goes in a thick paper sack (each sack costs around £1.60-1.80) and is collected once a fortnight in the summer, once a month in the winter.
We can also tie bushels/faggots of branches, so long as they weigh less than 12kg, are no more than 1.20m long, and are tied with biodegradable string - these are taken at the same time, free of charge.

Cardboard, paper, etc has to be tied with biodegradable string, or in box/sack, and is collected once per month. No charge for this.

Other waste goes in the general waste sack (each sack costs £1.80, and holds less than a UK bin bag) and is collected once a week.

There used to be a large item collection once every 6 months, but this was stopped 5 years ago. It was great. People put unwanted furniture out the night before, and those who were in desperate need took what was still useable/repairable, before it was collected...

If you want to take anything to the tip, it costs £5 for a “normal” car, or £10 for an estate, even if it’s a small estate. I don’t know what the rate is for a van...

The rules vary depending on the council, but they are generally the same. The sacks are specific to each council, so a Waterloo sack is useless in Braine l’Alleud, even though the towns are next to each other. So moving house has an extra expense!

On most items, we pay a three tier tax (council, collection and sack).

On the plus side, glass bottles are the resident’s responsibility to take to the bottle banks, which are emptied very regularly. There is no extra charge for this.
There is a 10 cent deposit on most beer bottles, and some wine bottles. You take the bottles back to the shop, and get your deposit back.

 

My local council, Thanet have sent every home recycle plastic bags to use in the food waste Brown bin, now many people including myself did not have this bin returned by the bin men last week.........so we have the bags and no bin...........I'm not buying another one for it to either be stolen or not returned................Sorry rant over.

 

@Sian in Belgium There's a lot of similarity over here regarding recycling efforts.

We use green coloured bins for food waste - they are a 13 gallon size and I usually fill half of it every week. well, if you tasted my cooking, you will understand this seemingly large amount. Seems it doesn't stand the test of time...
We have blue bins that are used for pulp paper products, glass, plastic and yes, we do separate them all.
We have a deposit on our alcohol containers. Beer bottles do get reused by the breweries but the booze and cans are simply recycled. I strongly object to the deposit on the recycled items because that is where I would have put it anyway and because there is a deposit, there are regular scavengers rummaging through bins looking for whisky bottles, etc. They get disappointed at my place because every once in awhile there's a couple of beer cans after one son has been around and I'm not driving all the way back to the store to take 20p worth of cans back just to go to the same place!
The brown paper bags sound the same as ours.
All of the above is picked up each and every week.
Our rubbish and large item pick ups are every other week. The bulk limit is for 3 items such as a sofa, mattress or a broom or anything that is too large for a garbage bag-the limit is per pick up day. And the limit for bags of rubbish is 3 as well however I rarely get a full one in the two weeks.

We pay what is called property tax which is based on the value of the home and it includes all of the waste pick up, school tax, local roads, parks, etc etc.

If you have a lot of rubbish to get rid of, there is a waste disposal (we call it the dump) facility about 8 kilometers from my house and I usually get charged $5 per load.

We get our bins free and sometimes when I go to the waste facility I get an extra green bin. They're perfect for storing sacks of fertilizer, charcoal for one of my BBQ's, and all sorts

A couple of months ago whilst standing in line to cash out at the hardware store, a lad came up behind me with a green bin with a $25 price tag. I told him about the freebies up the road and he was quick to put it back and left with a smile on his face