30 March (Part 2) - Now it is four bins to clutter your garden
The second part of the Places Overview and Scrutiny meeting was devoted to all things rubbish.
There was an overlong session on how the recycling message was being spread via school
children, a technique which probably has merit. It has certainly worked
for left wing school teachers who set out to indoctrinate various aspects of
political correctness. Retaliation perhaps for my days at grammar school when
all the teachers came out as Tories in 1959, but that is enough digression for one blog.
As you have been told so many times before, Bexley has taken a leading role in
pushing upwards its recycling rates. In most recent years it has been the
highest in London although the figures took a bit of a knock when residents were
asked to separate food and garden waste, save £440,000 a year by so doing, and
be charged extra for their efforts. The brown bin tax.
As a one time supporter of the Community Charge I am probably on shaky ground if I criticise
the policy but once again Bexley Council was intent on deceiving the general population.
Not a whisper about how the service became cheaper to operate, only the
implication that it wasn’t, hence the charge.
All policies need to be reviewed occasionally and Bexley Council believes it can
save another £450,000 a year by moving all waste collections to a two weekly cycle. The
widely disliked plastic boxes are to be replaced by two wheelie bins. Green with
a blue lid for paper and cardboard and green with a white lid for plastic, glass, cans and cartons.
If it is a service cut, and moving to two weekly collections may well be regarded as
one, it is nevertheless relatively painless - unlike the bin tax in 2015.
The standard arrangement will be a 180 litre bin for paper and a 240 litre bin
for the plastic and stuff. Where that may not be enough space, or perhaps too
much, alternatives may be chosen. 140, 180 or 240 litres are available with both lid colours.
I shall order small ones and with any luck be able to get them into the roof
space where they can join the three black boxes that went up there ten years
ago. I don’t suppose I am alone in having no free space for more ugly wheelie bins in my front garden.
The three bin sizes will be on show in the Broadway on 25th, 26th and 27th of
April and you will be able to order your preferred size at www.bexley.gov.uk/request-your-bin-size
but not yet, it will be a week or so before the web page goes on line. If you
need a bigger paper bin or a non-standard plastics bin (either bigger or
smaller) be sure to place your order before the end of May because Bexley
Council’s flexibility does not extend to changing the bin size later.
There is no point in restating what is in the leaflet when you can
read it for yourself.
Note: If you wonder how I get away without ever having used
the three waste boxes, the answer is a compost bin kindly provided to me at a very
low price by Bexley Council when it was under Labour and a ‘roadside’ communal collection point just 20 seconds walk away.