Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!
Haringey blogger: why council’s recycling plans are just a bit rubbish
Just sharing my latest blog for Tottenham & Wood Green Journal on the state of the state of rubbish services in Haringey
Why council’s recycling plans are just a bit rubbish
With hoards of giant wheelie bins blocking paths and doorways and the foul stench of rubbish filling the air, our blogger Rachella Sinclair calls into question Haringey Council’s recycling plan
When Haringey Council started their plan to cut rubbish services to fortnightly collections, their battle cry was that people living in the borough needed to be encouraged to recycle more.
After all, if recyclables are collected every week, but rubbish is picked up fortnightly, it stands to reason that residents will think more carefully about what would go in the landfill and what should be reused and recycled.
On the surface this logic seems sound, but in my neighbourhood the happy ideal of working together to reduce our carbon footprint has been blighted by hoards of giant wheelie bins that block our small front paths, our doorways and public pavements, foul the air with rotting rubbish and set neighbour against neighbour as people throw their overflowing rubbish into any bin that has space left.
Instead of encouraging us to reduce what we throw away this policy is encouraging people to collect extra wheelie bins.
In my house we are extremely conscious about how our purchases and the things we throw away affect the environment. We do our best not to over-buy; we compost kitchen waste in a wormery in the back garden; we choose products that are not over-packaged and we buy locally-sourced items whenever possible to help reduce the carbon footprint caused by shipping.
Our rubbish output is so low that I requested a small bin and never fill it from our household alone. However, the rubbish that can’t be recycled—such as cat litter—is so foul that when the weather is warm I often smell it through the front door. My rubbish and that of my neighbours attracts so many flies that I can’t open my upstairs bedroom windows at the front of the house.
When I walk around the neighbourhood I don’t feel any satisfaction about helping to save the planet. Instead, I’m angry about how our Victorian estate looks more like a rubbish dump than the Article 4 conservation area that it is. In order to create a truly green borough Haringey Council needs to do more than just reduce rubbish collection. Residents need to feel that the council is sincere in its motives and not just using environmentalism as a scapegoat to once again punish us in its ongoing quest to cut costs.
Public education, consultation and investigation of alternative options seem to have fallen by the wayside. Instead, Haringey seems to have simply accepted the requests of outside rubbish contractors that fortnightly collection would be part of the contract that Haringey council estimates will save £900,000 per year.
In the end, what is the true cost of forcing people to recycle more while suffering the indignity of rotting rubbish on the front doorstep? Haringey’s rubbish contractor, Veolia, has set a goal of achieving a 40 per cent residential recycle rate by 2015. Other cities boast a much higher recycling rate and still maintain weekly rubbish collections. I have first-hand experience in San Francisco, California, where I lived for 17 years before moving to Haringey four and a half years ago. San Francisco currently achieves an 80 per cent recycling rate with weekly rubbish collections.
Instead of bludgeoning residents over the head for the result of badly run programmes and poor public education about the cause and effect of waste, San Francisco uses the carrot and stick approach.
Unlike Haringey, San Francisco encourages residents to request smaller rubbish bins. Those using the smaller bins receive a small discount on the cost of services. The income from recycling is divided among all residents who pay for rubbish services so everyone who receives a bill for services see a small rebate on their quarterly bills. Couldn’t Haringey council do this with council tax?
When it comes to enforcement San Francisco is also vigilant. The city is the first in the U.S. to require that all residents and businesses separate their rubbish and recycling put it in the appropriate bins.
Those who don’t comply with this face fines between $100 and $1,000 USD (£62 - £620). Unlike Haringey’s pathetic goal of 40 per cent by 2015, San Francisco is aiming for zero waste by 2020—all without expecting residents to live with rotting waste on their doorsteps.
Blog post reproduced by Site Admin
Replies to This Discussion
-
Permalink Reply by Abi on
-
Great piece Rachella, I tweeted this when I first read it and think that the San Francisco solution is pretty much genius. I think it would work here, too.
While I was initially a vocal opponent of the new larger wheelie bins ( purely on the basis of limited space) I do like having a bit more room for my recycling - but incentives to cut down would be no bad thing. And while things seemed to start off OK, since xmas and the mess-up over collections it does seem that things are going downhill again. A significant number of residents were not recycling before, and it's becoming revolutingly obvious that the new scheme has done nothing to change their habits.
-
Permalink Reply by Liz on
-
I was in San Francisco recently and it was clear that people were very clued up on their rubbish and recycling and there was high compliance.
As I've said before though, the dreaded wheelie bin in front of each house is not to be seen in places of dense housing with bins being kept out of sight and apparently communal. Britain has enjoyed individual household collection for many a long year but it's not the norm for many parts of the world. In areas of dense housing, it now causes the wheelie bin landscape and brings people scavenging in bins onto people's property causing anxiety for many householders. It creates hostility between those households who do comply and those who don't when there appears to be no reward for doing it right (apart from the warm glow of saving the planet) and no sanction for refusing to do it ( a good argument for San Fran's rebate mechanism).
On the issue of fining, Eric Pickles has made it difficult for councils to levy fines on people putting things in the wrong bin by announcing legislation prohibiting it. All the council would be able to do is use existing enforcement around people dumping rubbish or allowing front garden rubbish to pile up which is already becoming more difficult for them to follow up on since cuts to Enforcement.
The government is to introduce legislation to end "unreasonable" fines on people who place bins out on the wrong day, Eric Pickles has announced.
The communities secretary also said a neighbourhood test would be introduced to end "ludicrous" fines on people who put rubbish in the wrong bin.
Pickles told Sunday Politics on BBC1: "I'm delighted to make the announcement that, given the unreasonable nature of these charges, we're actually going to legislate ... in the next parliamentary session which is in this year.
"We're going to have a test with regard to the neighbourhood. So if you put the wrong yoghurt pot into the wrong bin it is ludicrous to fine people. It is ludicrous to fine that woman who is I think a few inches out of a drive with regard to things. But what it would be reasonable is if people scattered their litter about then of course."
From the Guardian Sunday 13th Jan.
-
Permalink Reply by James R Grinter on
-
What is "unreasonable", Eric, is for people to be so lazy as to not bother even putting their rubbish in a communal bin, or taking their recycling to a nearby recycling point, or sorting it into things that can and cannot be recycled.
Here in 'high-density housing land', I've got neighbours who can't even be bothered to put their rubbish into the large, plentiful paladins, or fold up cardboard waste and put it in the recycling bins. But I was rather shocked at how much of a mess things are on the Ladder, wheelie bins multiplying in the front yards, waste overflowing, when visiting Harringay Market last weekend.
Maybe that's the problem - that you have any form of front garden. In an Islington street last night, I noticed that they just had simple bin bags out on the step for overnight collection... :-/
-
Permalink Reply by Peter L. Bailey on
-
I've been fined for parking a few inches over a double-yellow line, for driving a few miles per hour over a 30mph speed limit, and for stopping for a few seconds on a double red line (bitter? no, just stupid). Annoying, but I didn't make the same mistake twice (just different mistakes!). So why Pickles thinks that the ability to sort your own rubbish should be exempt from fine-ability I don't know.
-
Permalink Reply by ant on
-
Well one reason is because it can be hard to know who actually put the wrong rubbish in there, eg its not unheard of to have people walking past your house just reach over and drop stuff in your bin. Or people struggling with their own overflowing bins just dumping stuff in others nearby.
Also, its not even totally clear what is considered the correct recycling. I've recently learnt wine bottle corks are not for the green bin - who knew? Or must you really carefully cut out any plastic windows from cardboard packaging? Which of the many different types of plastic wrap or plastic bags can and can't be recycled? I'd hate for people to start getting fined for mistakes like those, and you know thats what would happen if the council were allowed to fine for it.
-
-
Actually that's very true Ant - especially your first point. Fair enough!
-
-
Your point about wasting water when washing tins is interesting. I've always thought it was a waste of water too.
Another problem with this is the waste of energy - and I don't just mean the efforts expended by the person recycling. Power is required to pump the water to the tap. Add to this the much larger amounts of heat energy needed at this time of year to warm that water if we are to avoid extreme discomfort (and health issues for some people) from putting our hands in icy water straight from the cold tap.
-
-
I thought about this one, and found a way to avoid extra use of water. We swill the tins and pots out in the washing-up bowl after the dishes and cutlery have been cleaned.
-
Permalink Reply by matt on
-
Haringey's recycling - where it goes ... scroll up to 'Where is the recycling taken?' and read down from there.
-
Permalink Reply by Colinloves on
-
Its pretty clear to me what the problem is. And here is how to fix it.
We just take our rubbish, directly to their plant and dispose of all our recycled rubbish into the correct bins.
They can then reap the profits of the recycling and get rid off most of its staff.
They clearly have us doing half of their job for them already. I dont think its unreasonable to ask people to take the final step, to truly feel like an environmental warrior.
-
Permalink Reply by VIX on
-
Cant agree with you more. We have the same issues in our Lane, the council have decided to put us all on daily pickup because three cottages couldn't work out the bin day; despite neighbours trying to explain to them what they have to do (they couldnt be bothered to follow the new system and just left their rubbish outside on the pavement to rot). Their refuse was left to the foxes and no action was taken by Council or Viola despite neighbours asking them to sort the issues out. Haringeys new crappy plan C is to let us use the side of the cottages to dump bags on a twice daily. This was has already had dumping issues. Its so backward thinking its crazy. Its just going to encourage fly tipping.
© 2024 Created by Hugh.
Powered by
