The first part of this week’s Places Scrutiny meeting was about the rubbish
recycling services. Dare I say that the big paper bin near to me has fulfilled my
expectations and been declared contaminated again? The broken lid allows the worst of society to dump whatever
they like in it with the inevitable result.
The CCTV notices have not stopped mattresses magically appearing overnight.
Most likely everything will now go to landfill. The cost of replacing an unlockable bin must surely
be less than the accumulated landfill charges over the past two years.
Country Style appears to recognise the problem of unlocked communal bins because they
claim to be trialling new locks but fixing those broken two years ago is just a little too difficult for them.
5% of flats have had their bins removed due to persistent contamination. (How to
encourage more fly tipping without really trying!)
Fortunately one of the first things that the Country Style man said to the
Councillors was that issues are being addressed and equally fortunately that the
withdrawal of all services during the snowy period in December meant that no
staff were injured. “Risk avoidance is the priority” - so Bexley can look forward to more of the same.
(If risk avoidance is a priority why are footpaths allowed to be treacherous?)
The target is to collect missed bins within 24 hours but the repeatedly missed
bins suffered by some residents is still “work to do”.
Paper is sold to a mill in King’s Lynn and in 2021/22 raised £671,000. However
the price per tonne fell from more than £100 in the second quarter of 2022, to
£70 in quarter three and only £18 by the end of the year and has not risen since. High energy prices for
reprocessing is a significant factor.
Garden waste charges will go up by 20% next month while Bexley Council complains
about Mayor Khan increasing his precept by 9·74%. The Agenda recorded that “there has been a
noticeable drop in the number of garden waste subscribers.”. Cabinet Member Craske said they had “remained pretty constant”.
He more than once said that Bexley is cheaper than other boroughs but omits to say that many remain free,
Councillor Slaughter (Conservative. Sidcup) said that the garden waste service was “extremely good
value and very reasonable” but Country Style is still guilty of leaving bins
haphazardly all over the place in her ward. “You said it was an issue that you
would get to grips with but it still happens.” Councillor Slaughter also thought the
Government should be pressured into allowing Councils to penalise residents who don’t recycle.
She was particularly critical of those who do not recycle food waste. It is the
most common contaminant and causes whole lorry loads of waste to be rejected at the processing plants.
Councillor Borella (Labour, Slade Green) said that some vehicles are too big for
some roads and result in missed collections. Apparently Country Style do use two
smaller vehicles but he also referred to vehicle accidents. If there was a response I did not hear it. (Someone didn’t
bother to get anywhere near to his microphone.)
Councillor Borella, like me, thought that facilities should be made available
for recycling electrical items, some of which include precious metals. He also
thought that hiking garden waste fees will make some people think it is a
service they can do without. He must have me in mind again, I meant to stop mine
this year but I wasn’t quick enough.
Councillor Frazer Brooks (Conservative, Falcon Wood & Welling) asked the most intelligent question of the night. With
all categories of waste collection reducing, presumably due to the strikes, “where did all that waste go?"
The most unlikely answer of the night was that people were eating out more although waste
collection is now on the up again.