Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!
New waste collection arrangements: where we're at now
With the enforced retirement of the Community Volunteers from active duty, thank wheelies that Sustainable Haringey have stepped into the breach to open dialogue with Haringey Council over waste management and recycling.
Representatives from Haringey and Veolia met with seven members of Sustainable Haringey to examine how the changes to waste collection are going and what had been learned from the changeovers in Phase 1 and 2. The third phase covering the rest of Haringey will be rolled out in October.
First of all Michael McNicholas, Neighbourhood Action Team Manager, explained how the change had been publicised (letter and leaflet to all households, booklet delivered with bins, attending area forums and RA meetings). Extra council staff were taken on to deal with complaints and a HMO (houses in multiple occupation) action plan was developed.
He then went on to outline some measures of performance and lessons learned. These are listed below, taken from the official and agreed minutes of the meeting.
a) Impact on recycling – in phase1 and 2 areas 40% increase in dry recyclables; increase in green and food waste. On course to meet recycling target of 31.7% (ASK)
b) Missed collections – rise in March (with introduction of Phase 1). Various measures introduced to minimise this problem.
c) Call centre performance. Veolia received 10,000 calls per month in March (twice previous rate); this declined to 8000 in May before another rise. Problems dealing with all these calls so Veolia has increased staff, some staff work weekends to deal with emails and changes have been made to computer systems.
d) Container requests and delivery. Around time of Phase 1 great increase in requests for hessian garden waste sacks, kitchen caddies and outside food containers. He estimated that there have been requests for between 500-600 120 litre wheelie bins. Veolia have appointed dedicated container manager to ensure correct deliveries of containers, etc. Residents can now collect kitchen caddies and outdoor food waste bins from the Re-use and Recycling Centres in Hornsey and Tottenham.
e) HMO action plan – door knocking, letter to all registered landlords and letting agents, close collaboration with Housing Improvement Team, exploring powers to enforce HMOs through landlords.
f) “Side waste” and overflowing bins– Veolia visits, engages with and monitors these households. He gave examples. They have cards showing what goes in each container if people don’t speak English (and some staff with other languages).
Sustainable Haringey then raised some issues following the presentation, some of which will be familiar to HOL members:
a) Whether all households had been audited before the changes introduced (told this had taken place in late 2011 for all three phases).
b) The unsightliness of the wheelie bins especially in conservation areas. We saw photos of Noel Park – Michael agreed to do a street visit with the residents association. The option of smaller wheelie bins or shared larger one was discussed.
c) Why glass and other recyclables are not collected separately.We were told that one bidder for the service did offer this but it would have increased carbon footprint because of increased collection vehicles, etc.
d) Are people putting waste in the recycling wheelie bin?Has the percentage of waste in the dry recyclables sent to the Materials Recovery Facility (Murf) gone up because of this? We were told that council receives regular reports from Murf (these reports also go to DEFRA). The Murf refuses to accept loads if they are contaminated. Michael said that there had been no reports of contaminated loads from the Murf.
e) Sustainable Haringey representatives asked about commercial waste and it was agreed to have a separate meeting about this.
The final 15,000 households are in Phase 3 due to start late October. A key point to note is that Veolia will need to reschedule all rounds across the borough and this will result in changing the day of collection for most residents. Households will receive a new collection calendar. The design of the sticker on the recycling wheelie bin is to be improved (the writing fades on present stickers).
So, there's good here. Clearly, the news that recycling is going up is great and also that contamination is low. Veolia do appear to be responding to problems with extra staff and are listening to residents observations re bin design for example.
However, despite the action plan re HMOs, we don't have figures yet on whether this plan is working and what targets have been set re the success of the plan. On my pet hate (I must admit), the sheer unsightliness of the bins, there is some movement but I'm guessing places like Harringay without conservation status will be back of the queue when solutions are being discussed. Please feel free to add other comments and observation below based on what you have read here.
With thanks to Joyce Rosser, Convenor of Sustainable Haringey Waste Group for these minutes. Joyce says look out for another compost giveaway in Alexandra Park in October or early November. Shovels at the ready!
Tags for Forum Posts: bins, new recycling bins, recycling, veolia, veolia missed collections, waste collection
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Christopher Riley on
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Haringey has established a Scrutiny Panel to review the current situation and if you have not already done so I strongly urge you to send your comments and concerns to them before the 26th October deadline to scrutiny@haringey.gov.uk
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Permalink Reply by Helen on
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System doesn't seem to be working. Here's an HMO in St Ann's ward with 7 households. 3 rubbish bins get collected fortnightly, 3 recycling bins full of general rubbish don't get collected by either the recycling lorry (or they empty one of them out of pity and then the recycling presumably gets contaminated) and don't get collected by the refuse lorry either. Bins overflowing / rubbish across the pavement for weeks. Why aren't the landlord and Veolia made to sort this out?
26th Nov 2012
3rd Dec 2012
8th Dec 2012
28th Dec 2012
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Permalink Reply by Alan Stanton on
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Helen, if you haven't already done so, please email this - with photos - to the St Ann's ward councillors, adding the address of the premises if they are not already aware of the problem. Thanks.
Zena.Brabazon@haringey.gov.uk; David Brown@haringey.gov.uk; Nilgun.Canver@haringey.gov.uk
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Thanks for this. I wrote earlier. Pleased to report that the rubbish was cleared today, though the furniture remains.
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Permalink Reply by Abi on
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Helen - good to see that you have involved your councillors, they need to know about this.
I'd mention also that it IS worth engaging with Veolia directly: we have had some success dealing with two similar situations in Seven Sisters Ward, where residents had identified areas where the system clearly wasn't working. In our case it was to do with inappropriate solutions being put in place - properties with no front gardens at all being given normal wheelie bins which then get used for general dumping, etc: these have now been addressed. It's well worth seeing if a better solution can be found; they seemed open to all kinds of possibilities in problem areas although of course it remains to be seen how well the solutions will work in the long-term. Good luck!
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Permalink Reply by pamish on
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Does anyone know if there is a system for re-educating those who don't get it? A case like this (and I can point to more) needs s/o to go and visit and teach the rules - maybe help set up the inside bins, as that's where it has to happen. As they will need 157 languages, it may take more than one visit. Apparently this lot don't read Haringey People.
We need to keep reminding people that it's a privilege to have your rubbish collected from your doorstep - most other countries (and eg Brighton) don't do this.
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Permalink Reply by Liz on
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Pam, there is an HMO action plan apparently although details of it appear to quite closely guarded :0
I suggested to Nilgun here that the plan's progress be reported via Area Forums but I'm not sure that we're going to get more than 'it's working'. How we can judge that without an idea of 'the plan' or some facts and figures to prove it's working is more difficult .
While a privilege, for sure, rubbish collection from your house comes with its own set of problems. While it is convenient for householders, the issues around people scavenging bins or not respecting the 'rules' come into sharper focus when they are happening right outside your front door.
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Not just HMOs - some of my errant neighbours are single family households. Just cant be arsed, or don't understand - either way they need to be sorted out. Beyond my skillset.
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I was in Brighton over xmas - everyone there seems to approve of the system there and it clearly does work!
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We have been experiencing the same problems in the Milton's in the Highgate ward for the past 10 months. Cllr Canver did a site visit back in March/April and has done very little to support us. Cllr Canver was warned at the time that this problem would spread as the new system was rolled out and that St Anns would be affected. Interesting that it is now happening on her doorstep! I hope residents vote effectively at the next local election to show that ignoring our genuine complaints and concerns is not acceptable.
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Permalink Reply by John McMullan on
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Ha ha ha, no Christopher, they just vote Labour. The only way to get rid of Councillor Canver is to join her local Labour party and de-select her. This is what did for Brian Haley in 2010.
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Ha ha I thought as much!
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