Wrong rubbish leaves 24,000 Wolverhampton bins unemptied
More than 24,000 bins went uncollected in Wolverhampton over the past year because residents put the wrong items out to be recycled, it has emerged.
Recycling bins containing the wrong rubbish have been left at the roadside by binmen across the city.
Residents have had stickers placed on their ‘contaminated’ black bins and also received cards through their doors for trying to throw away items, such as nappies, which cannot be recycled.
They have then been told to remove the offending items before putting their recycling bins back out for the next collection in two weeks’ time. Critics today said the moves were “not helpful” and urged a shift away from “the culture of bin police”.
Last year Wolverhampton City Council gave homes a new, smaller wheelie bin for non-recyclable rubbish and asked everyone to put their recycling into the older, larger black wheelie bin, a move that did away with boxes and bags.
New figures released by the council show that between March 2012 and February 2013, a total of 24,378 bins were not collected due to them being “contaminated”.
Wolverhampton City Council spokesman Tim Clark said: “Between March 2012 and February there were 2.6 million black bin collections in the city. Of that, less than one per cent were not collected due to contamination. We have seen a definite improvement as people have got more used to what can go in their bins. We had 3,932 contaminated bins in March 2012 compared to 2,106 in February 2013.”
Mr Clark said that binmen would only take action if they spotted something in the bin that was not recyclable.
He added: “The card posted through people’s doors advises the households about what can and cannot be recycled.”
He said that once the offending item has been removed from someone’s rubbish they are allowed to put extra rubbish out to be collected the following week, providing it is placed sensibly next to their bin.
“Generally speaking, the people of Wolverhampton have embraced co-mingling recycling and for the tiny proportion of households this has affected we are trying to inform people about what can be recycled,” he said.
Tory opposition councillor Jonathan Yardley said: “We need to move away from the culture of bin police. It’s not helpful and it just makes people feel paranoid. It’s more trouble than it’s worth and can put people off recycling in the long run.”
Earlier this year the council announced radical plans to encourage more people to recycle, including entering rubbish into raffles for the chance to win prizes.
Comments for: "Wrong rubbish leaves 24,000 Wolverhampton bins unemptied"
jason
I am all for recycling but the smaller brown bin we have for non recycling just is not big enough! the bin is ok for a couple with no kids such as me and my partner but not for famillies!
DEE
Why don't the council do two sizes of recycled bins and the same for non recycle items, that way the householder would be able to choose which bins are best for them.
I do a lot of recycling but I think families with small children needs a large non recycling bin,just to stop stray cats from looking in the bins and tripping them over.
DEE
Ask the householders would they rather have a large recycling bin or a large non recycling bin, does it matter as long as the rubbish is going into a bin and not being dumped in the street.
Darrell
I wonder how many bins were not emptied due to the recent bad weather. We had our normal bin emptied but not the recycling bin as the snow was too bad for teh lorry to get down our street, well that was the excuse used by the council when we rang them, yet it didnt stop the same lorry coming down the street to empty our brown bin. Amazing that.
when asked if like Walsall council an extra collection would be put on we were told no as it wasnt in Wolverhampton's policy to do this, but it was still in their policy to collect the council tax to pay for the missed collection. Amazing that.
Oh Really!
Wasn't this what Walsall started doing and their own binmen were caught out by a photo breaking the rules to speed the job up?
It's the same every time, someone comes up with a smart(??) idea and the council(s) bring(s) it in on a volunteer basis. Then when it's a fact it becomes the juristiction of the PC police who go out to enforce any mistake no matter how tiny. Some councils have people out and about fining people for dropping litter yet where are they when the recycle bins are being collected and you can follow the trail of paper and plastic round the estate. What a way to save money for the local tax payer free bin collections because the council claims it back in litter fines, sweet!
Matt
We had our black bin not emptied due to the "contamination" and we had not received anything to say why until we rang up and complained about it that they told us it was due to "comtamination" of bags so it was just left there
nikki
My recycle bin wasn't collected at is was put out the night before then someone walked past and decided to throw their chip paper away along with chips in my bin. Came home to discover my bin got "stickered" nice punishment, a stinky bin not emptied for a month thanks to no fault of my own!!
Aimee
I live in a house where 6 adults frequently put things out to be recycled and in 2 weeks, the black bin only just gets full. I think the council are good for collecting extra recycling as long as its left sensibly by the side of the bin. What I don't understand is how brown bins are getting so full?? Nappies, fair enough I understand....... But we have a facility to recycle paper, cardboard, bottles, glass, tins, food...... What are people putting in their bins to make them so full???
Slightly off topic but its more in response to some comments on here.
Unhappy Tennant of Merridale Court
I have had an occasion to phone and ask for our dustbins to be emptied in one part of the complex as they had been missed. Ihad checked other sheds where dustbins are housed and they had all been emptied.Our dustbins are emptied on a Tuesday and have been for at least 6 years.
The person who answered the phone at City Direct listened to what i had to say and then he said he would check his list, he came back and said our ddustbins are emptied on a Thursday. I said that
as i lived here and had for 12 years i think i would know which day my dustbins are emptied on. He then said he would check by making a call to the team leader of the vehicle, he came back and again told me my dustbins were emptied on a Thursday, i assured him they wern't but would phone him again on Thursday as i knew they wouldn't have been emptied. Duly on Thursday afternoon i phoned and spoke to someone called Dan who really wasn't interested when i tried to explain. He said he would get a vehicle out on Friday and say that we had been missed.
I was made to feel stupid and spoken down too. Either the workers are doing their own thing or they really need to update their lists and some City Direct workers need a lesson in Customer Service.