Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!
Rubbish collection: stories wanted
While out leafletting this afternoon to let people know about the consultation on changes to our rail services, I was reflecting on how beautiful many of the front gardens in the Ladder are, and on how, by contrast, some of the groupings of bins were not exactly enhancing the effect, especially on a warm day, when suddenly a young mother to whom I had just given a leaflet walked passed me, vaulted up onto her garden wall and hovered precariously above an overflowing bin.
When I asked if I could help, she muttered about the fortnightly collections and then proceeded to gain what passed for balance as she trod on some of the bin bags so that she could close the top of the bin.
I was in no doubt that this lady knew all about recycling. Every bin was being used for its proper purpose. The trouble was that because she had small children, she simply did not have bin space to hold two weeks' worth of refuse.
If therefore you wish to keep in your mind's eye an image to show just how terrible an idea it was to abandon weekly collection, you could do worse than to imagine this scene of a young mother, balletically poised between a garden wall, unpturned boxspring and rubbish bin, tap-dancing on bin bags.
David Schmitz
Liberal Democrat Councillor for Harringay Ward
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by pamish on
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Doesn't this Liberal party-line automatic opposition to fortnightly collection clash with your party's embracing of Green politics? I note a few opening shots being fired over this east side, in advance of the roll-out later this year of the changed bins here. OK Its not working well in an area full of HMOs, and hopefully the mighty combined brains of Veoila and the LBH Cabinet will come up with better ideas for Tottenham, learning from the western experiments. But people, everybody simply has to learn that we can't go on chucking out our body weight in landfill every week. There are ways to reduce it, but it takes a few seconds of thought at the points of both acquisition and of disposal, as well as pressurising the producers to change old lazy habits.
Don't like all the rain? Worried about floods getting ever closer? Watching the price of food shoot up as the drought frazzles half the land area of the USA? What can we each do about it? Think global, act local.
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Permalink Reply by John McMullan on
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Pam is right. There will not be personal responsibility for what we throw out until we do things like this. I disagree with the Dalek invasion approach but the two week collections needed to happen. I don't think having small children is an excuse, having wild parties full of booze and presents constantly perhaps.
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Permalink Reply by David Schmitz on
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Dear Pamish,
Thank you for putting the contrary case so succinctly.
Our party line, however, is somewhat different from what you suggest. It is that one does not adopt a "one size fits" all approach and that one asks the opinion of people who are likley to be affected, in order to ensure that one makes wiser decisions. Different areas require different solutions. If recycling is already up to 40 per cent, fortnightly collection can work. If it is substantially below that, it will not.
The government offered money to keep weekly collection for another year. That money could have been used to prepare the ground for the new arrangements. Incomprehensibly the money was turned down by the Labour council.
Whatever the merits of abandoning weekly collection elsewhere may be, it was clearly a bad idea in this ward at this time, as anyones senses of sight and smell will attest.
It is possible to encourage and increase recycling and yet continue to remove refuse once a week. Some people, as I hope I've demonstrated, need that service. Remember, the person I was referring to knew what she was supposed to do and did it against the odds. Others do not, and we live with the consequences.
David Schmitz
Liberal Democrat Councillor for Harringay Ward
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If the money is there, let it be spent on some door-to-door explanations and checking, if necessary with interpreters - not on subsidising weekly collections to go on for yet another year. If that can be done it would save my blood pressure as I walk past the bins at #3.
Still rooting for on-road collective bins, me. If they can do it in Brighton, and everywhere except the UK, why not at least give it a try here?
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Permalink Reply by JJ B on
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The problem is not about whether people should recycle- that is a given- but about the system adopted to collect ALL the refuse. Wee need more frequent collection of both recylclables AND non recyclables with smallwer bins all round.
Collecting rubbish once a week assumes that people have space to store it. Collecting it every two weeks means you need even more space or bigger bins. The large bins in the small "gardens" make the neighbourhood look like a bin dump = negative effect on amenity. I am not even going to mention the bins that are just overflowing. Now that the warm weather has set in there is a distinct SMELL in the air too!
It is all well and good to spend millions on "regeneration" but it is the small improvements to the systems and our environment that will cumulatively will make our streets better places to live on and improve quality of life.
Haringey is failing on this as well!
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Permalink Reply by ant on
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Whatever the merits of abandoning weekly collection elsewhere may be, it was clearly a bad idea in this ward at this time, as anyones senses of sight and smell will attest.
Totally agree with that. Eyesore of the "Dalek invasion" aside, by the end of the end of the two weeks my street really stinks, it can be so bad that its unpleasant to walk down. If this was really just about encouraging recycling they could have just given us all smaller black bins instead of reducing collections, and that would help reduce the bin visibility too. IMHO this two week rubbish collection has been the worst piece of vandalism in the area i've seen since living here.
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I have to ask - without going in to too much detail what are people actually putting in their bins that has the capability to rot and produce odour? As far as I can tell pretty much anything that will decompose can be put in the (collected weekly) green/food waste recycling bin (apart from nappies, which in any case should be bagged before binning).
Totally agree about the dalek eyesore though! Smaller black bins could be an option in the not too distant future when it becomes economically viable to recycle things that currently go in the landfill bin, e.g. plastic food wrap and even disposable nappies.
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I must admit that I do not segregate my food waste and will not do so until coerced by legislation or a more civillised system for collecting it is put in place. I refuse to have three bins in the metre deep area directly outside my front reception room windows.
I am an ardent composter and do not thow out much packaging because I buy stuff with as little packaging as possible. I have been recycling where possible fro most of my 50 or so years.
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HI, I just moved in Priory Park area and the person who moved out of my flat before left loads of trash out the front and un recycled rubbish and i have a feeling the council have seen them both and not removed them for what ever reason. Is there a local place i can load my car up and take to the tip as it's looking a bit rank.
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Priory Park? You've got to be kidding. What did Mr Sexton say about snobs yesterday?
Kidding... There is a one-button-council-contact thingy always on the right hand side. Use that.
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Hi christopher,
Send me your address (by private message if you prefer) and I'll speak to Veolia and see what can be done.
Best,
David Schmitz
Lib Dem Councillor for Harringay Ward
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Permalink Reply by John D on
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Christopher - well done for taking personal responsibility for removal of this rubbish.
There's a Council waste dump facility which must be within half a mile of you. Head along Priory Road / High Street towards Turnpike Lane and it's on the left behind a derelict Council bath house / laundry building opposite Greg City Academy.
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