General Chat

What does everybody think about this crazy idea they've come up with now? Some councils. Crewe and Nantwich are one have been microchipping wheelie bins so they can assess the amount of rubbish people are disposing of.Not content with the huge amount of council tax they are inflicting on us they want more.Why do we have to pay for everything twice in this country? Do they really want to encourage even more flytipping than there already is? Kath

Woking in Surrey is one of the councils on the trial of using these spy chips in your bins. I would not like to find I'd had a chip put on my bin - it is none of their business! we recycle what we can and our council does not do weekly collection of rubbish so it causes problems for lots of residents with maggots in the bins in the summer - which is horrible. I think it is wrong of them not to let you know if your bin has been bugged. Claire

Totally Disgusting Just taken this from the net Sunday, August 27, 2006 Big Brother's bin watching you Source: Mail on Sunday Around 500,000 housholds in England have had their wheelie bins secretly microchipped so that they can be uniquely identified. This opens up opportunies for charging residents for the amount of rubbish they produce, something that will most impact young families who can't recycle nappies, baby wipes, etc. Some dustbin lorries already have weighing equipment fitted so implementing this policy will be relatively easy. Local Authorities already have the power to tell you how and when your rubbish must be made available. They can force you to recycle, refuse to accept certain items and in theory could even force you to take your wheelie bin to a collection point 10 miles down the road if they so wish with thousands of pounds in fines for refusing to obey their instructions. Paul

Without wanting to go offtopic .... who can't recycle nappies, baby wipes, etc.<<Why cant they ? No-one HAS to use disposable nappies, nor baby wipes!! We had terry nappies and a wet flannel and we survived reasonably intact! Sorry, if you create Non recycleable waste, then I think you should pay for it. Would focus the mind, that is for sure! Jess

Couldn't the councils provide a collection point for such things as disposable nappies and wipes? They could then be taken away and incinerated. We have a 'real' fire in the front room, and in winter we used to burn the used nappies (not the ones with poop in though!) If we were going out for a few hours, we'd put a couple of nappies on and some coal and it would keep the fire in for ages! Jeanette x

UK has one of the worst recycling records in Europe. There is so much more that most individuals can do. Sometimes shock tactics are necessary to make us aware of this need. Incidentally, we are a household of 6 people. Our bin is maggot free. Flies will only go on uncovered foodstuff. What little waste foodproducts we put in the bin, eg bones, are always wrapped.

what happens when people start putting their extra rubbish in someone else's bin like they do already. jean

It's a typical half-baked 'solution' to a growing problem. Instead of trying to make people recycle more (which is impractical in most places) they should be concentrating on reducing the amount of unneccesary packaging in the first place. Round here I've seen a number of instances of people taking their rubbish in the car and dumping it in whichever road the bin men are collecting that morning. I can see so many flaws in this idea (but hey - I'm just 'the ordinary man in the street') that it can't possiblty work. But of course - Tony wants total control of us all. Start counting the days before his departure folks!

Some councils........ours for instance....... could do more to help with recycling. At the moment we can't recycle cardboard, glass or food packaging which takes up an awful lot of space in my bin. The reason given is that there aren't the facilities in the area. So I'm assuming that it would cost too much to send it out of the area. So tell me, where do the contents of the bottle bin at the supermarket go! lol J x

I think there will be an increase in fly-tipping. Since the local council started charging for the collection of fridges, freezers, washing machines etc. we regularly find such items dumped in the lanes. Heather

Jeanette I agree. ..The councils do give mixed messages. At one time, we could recycle plastic bottles outside a nearby supermarket. Then the bins went and I was told it was not cost effective and whats more, the plastic had to be sent to China for processing. Next thing we know, we have a doorstep collection which includes plastic bottles, glass and tins.- collected weekly.

Being a bit daft, I thought we paid our rates for these to cover such things as refuse collection.... but there we are, I'm wrong again! They started this weighing of bins quite a time ago in parts of Ireland. We are only two people in our house and we do recycle, but our bin is still full at the end of the week. We have a half sized bin. Come Christmas, we have more rubbish as do most homes. If we have to start paying for it by weight.... I really pity the young families with 2... 3... or more children. I had four so I know how easy it is to fill a bin!! Deanna X

Here in Northern Ireland we have THREE wheelie bins...A brown one for Garden Waste, A Blue one for recycling ( paper, plastic, tins etc ) and a black one for everyday waste....... why can't this be done elsewhere in the UK? far cheaper and easier than a chipped bin I would have thought!

flytipping has really got out of hand. We live in a country area, not far from town and the amount we find dumped in the hedgerows is alarming.It's not just bottles and takeaway rubbish anymore, its whole bin bags of the stuff. The council doesn't help by puting up a height barrier at the tip. More people have bigger vehicles these days and are banned from entering. They are obliged to park outside and walk it in. It really doesn't encourage people to be more responsible.

I agree this is totally out of order. We pay massive amounts of rates already, we don't need to be charges more for something that is included in the rates. BUT when we go shopping, after paying for the goods, perhaps we should the take everything out of all the packaging and put it into our own containers to take home, leaving the shop with all the unnecessary packaging.

Well They have to get their money from somewhere!! There are fewer smokers,so not as much tax there. Imigrants are flooding in, this is only the begining;-))

Jeff is right. It's all the packaging you get with goods that creates so much waste. Perhaps the big stores and supermarkets should be targetted.

My daughter owns a local shop. She has a lot of cardboard to dispose of and started taking it to the local disposal site herself for recycling. She was stopped from doing this as they say they cannot except trade waste. WHY? She has had to pay for an extra large wheelie bin to put the cardboard in and now the bin men collect that and it presumably goes into a landfill site. It is NOT taken to be recycled as she asked that question. Margaret

Hi Margaret, the small shop owners pay business rates but still have to pay extra for rubbish to be disposed of - it's not fair at all is it? You can't even take it to the tip yourself as the people in charge there soon get to know you and say you're not allowed to do it any more.

Hi Trish Yes, that's exactly what happened. She has said she wouldn't mind so much if it was being recycled but it's not. She has offered to take it herself if she can recycle it but they said no!!!