Refuse Collection

[sophie]

I am just wondering if anyone else completed the survey about refuse and recycling carried out by Lewisham Council at some point in 2015. If so, any idea of the outcomes? I wonder if the garden waste collection is part of it in response to comments. I am also wondering if they are going to reduce other collections to fortnightly. Our black wheelie bin wasn't emptied last week for some reason. I am assuming it's an oversight. As it wasn't full I didn't report it although today I wish I had because it's really smelly! My final query is when did the recycling system change from including textiles to not including them? I don't recall receiving any literature about it. I think it was a comment somewhere on here that alerted me.

[mosy]

Hi. I don't know, but perhaps your bin was missed as a one-off due to the Bank Holiday?

On textiles, they've never been allowed in our big communal recycle bin and weren't included on the Lewisham list of permitted items. Maybe they're just stressing "no textiles" as they get cross if bins are contaminated with unacceptable items. Some charity shops accept unsaleable clothes/textiles as they recycle them as rags, so it'd worth asking ones near you.

[hilsbee]

Since they have introduced the new garden waste scheme at £45 per year, they have refused to take garden waste in the dustbins - in fact, they actually removed it from my dustbin the other week. As I don't have a car to be able to take waste to the tip, it seems the only alternative is to pay the £45 a year. However, the problem with that is the extra bin will have to be accomodated in a very small front garden that has to serve 2 flats - so we already have dustbins and recycling for 2 households in a very small space!

[Rachael]

They have always refused green waste in the grey bins. They are probably being more zealous about checking now the new scheme is in place. They are still accepting green bags until some time in July, if you have some. I agree the new scheme isn't great for people with small amounts of green waste.

[Rachael]

Hi. I don't know, but perhaps your bin was missed as a one-off due to the Bank Holiday?

On textiles, they've never been allowed in our big communal recycle bin and weren't included on the Lewisham list of permitted items. Maybe they're just stressing "no textiles" as they get cross if bins are contaminated with unacceptable items. Some charity shops accept unsaleable clothes/textiles as they recycle them as rags, so it'd worth asking ones near you.

They did explicitly accept textiles for at least a few years. The sticker on my bin still shows this. I was unaware that had changed.

[robbieduncan]

We had a note on our bin when we moved to Sydenham as we out garden waste in the normal bin so it's not been allowed for quite some time.

[hilsbee]

That's interesting Robbie as they've always taken it in the bins before - or maybe it was lower down in the bin and they didn't notice it

But just looked at taking it to Landemann Way and it's 2 buses from Sydenham, and there doesn't seem to be a bus stop near the tip!

[mosy]

@ Rachael: I was told to disregard what it said on our recycle bin and follow what it said on their website: http://www.lewisham.gov.uk/myservices/w ... g-bin.aspx
I was surprised to see that polystyrene isn't allowed incidentally.

[Rachael]

@ Rachael: I was told to disregard what it said on our recycle bin and follow what it said on their website: http://www.lewisham.gov.uk/myservices/w ... g-bin.aspx
I was surprised to see that polystyrene isn't allowed incidentally.

I'm just saying textiles were allowed in the past, your post implied you thought they never were. Sorry if I misinterpreted that. I put polystyrene in my green bin once a long time ago and they moved it to the grey.

I don't remember receiving information that the stickers are out of date.

[sophie]

Thanks for all the replies. I'm glad I'm not the only one who didn't know about the changes to the green bin accepted items. I've signed up for the brown bin garden waste collections. Bin day today. Fingers crossed my smelly grey wheelie bin gets emptied, not just the recycling one!

[mosy]

@ Rachael: Our bin has always said "no textiles" so you didn't misinterpret what I wrote. It's about 12 yrs old by the way. I don't doubt that yours allowed textiles. Our recycle bin was not emptied once, just left with a tag label tied on saying "contaminated". It scared me a bit at the time wondering what the heck someone had put in it! Turns out contaminated just meant unacceptable item, not something hazardous.

I spoke to a helpful chap in the refuse dept at the council and he explained various do's and don'ts as there are so many confusing items and he said to go by the website as it got updated as recycling capability increased. He also said that if a recycle bin was "contaminated" it could affect the whole truckload, which was one reason why they don't like black sacks, i.e. can't see what sins might be hidden inside. If the whole lot had to go to landfill, it cost more as councils paid enormous fees for landfill waste, being the so-called deterrent fees paid into central gov't coffers.

@ sophie: If you check on the website, it tells you which colour bins are collected on which days.

I looked at the Lewisham site last night but can't see anything about general waste collections becoming non-weekly, thank goodness. There was an ITV prog last night saying that some councils in the country were trialling 3-weekly collections for general waste. Blimey.

On garden waste, I bought a smallish wood chipper (about £200) when I had a big garden which turned medium sized branches into chips that I used as mulch. Grass clippings and leaves, I 'd leave to rot down to about 1/5th of original size. I'm afraid I failed dismally to make decent compost.

[Pat Trembath]

I may be wrong but I think all contents in Lewisham's black bins go to Selchp and are incinerated. I'm not sure how much goes to landfill. I expect I'll be put right.....

[sophie]

Well our bin was collected today. Hurray! I think we must have just been an oversight as the neighbours' bins were emptied last week.

[sophie]

@ Rachael: Our bin has always said "no textiles" so you didn't misinterpret what I wrote. It's about 12 yrs old by the way. I don't doubt that yours allowed textiles. Our recycle bin was not emptied once, just left with a tag label tied on saying "contaminated". It scared me a bit at the time wondering what the heck someone had put in it! Turns out contaminated just meant unacceptable item, not something hazardous.

I spoke to a helpful chap in the refuse dept at the council and he explained various do's and don'ts as there are so many confusing items and he said to go by the website as it got updated as recycling capability increased. He also said that if a recycle bin was "contaminated" it could affect the whole truckload, which was one reason why they don't like black sacks, i.e. can't see what sins might be hidden inside. If the whole lot had to go to landfill, it cost more as councils paid enormous fees for landfill waste, being the so-called deterrent fees paid into central gov't coffers.

@ sophie: If you check on the website, it tells you which colour bins are collected on which days.

I looked at the Lewisham site last night but can't see anything about general waste collections becoming non-weekly, thank goodness. There was an ITV prog last night saying that some councils in the country were trialling 3-weekly collections for general waste. Blimey.

On garden waste, I bought a smallish wood chipper (about £200) when I had a big garden which turned medium sized branches into chips that I used as mulch. Grass clippings and leaves, I 'd leave to rot down to about 1/5th of original size. I'm afraid I failed dismally to make decent compost.

@ Mosy Our day is Tuesday for grey ordinary bin and green recycling bin. I think I was just jumping to conclusions when I was wondering if the refuse collections were changing. I am relieved that our rubbish collection is still weekly and hope it doesn't change. On the recycling bin contents I think I will email the council and suggest they provide new stickers for the green wheelie bins. Mine still has the one that includes textiles and had I not read something on this site I wouldn't have then checked the website to see. I get the Lewisham Life magazine and don't recall reading it in there either. There must be loads of people in the same position. I will have unwittingly contaminated my recycling bin several times in the past couple of months.

[mosy]

@ sophie: Please let us know of their reply. We're lucky to have a sophisticated plant which can handle mixed waste, rather than those households with four to six separate bins adorning their front gardens.

@ Pat Trembath: Thanks for the heads up re Selchp, link from Lewisham's site:
http://www.selchp.com/

*Soapbox on* The trick of course is to generate less in the first place as even the residual waste after Selchp's process will accumulate over time. I recall the alarming pictures from the early 1990's when the US was exporting their landfill to any countries that'd take it and England was heading in the direction of becoming a landfill island due to its own waste. A lot of progress has been made in dealing with waste, but probably nowhere near enough progress in preventing waste in the first place if looked at long term. *Soapbox off*

[alywin]

Some charity shops accept unsaleable clothes/textiles as they recycle them as rags, so it'd worth asking ones near you.

I know the "Little Ones" shop in Penge (nearly opposite Homebase) does, certainly. Probably there's somewhere in Sydenham, too.

[Hissing Syd]

If you've got usable clothes etc to throw out, there are several refugee organisations that do pick ups across London.

As I recall, we had a leaflet through the door at some point in the last year, saying textiles were no longer acceptable.

[SydenhamBorn]

Where I live we have the recycle bin that takes glass, plastic, paper mixed together and still shows textiles which I also didn't know had stopped. So presume ours gets taken somewhere to get sorted so any 'contamination' just removed.

[sophie]

Well, reporting concerns to the Council is not as easy as it used to be. I emailed envirocall as I have done in the past to get a reply saying I have to log the concern on the relevant form. I have done that so we will see.

I also should have pointed out to them how ambiguous their recycling information is. On this link it states you CAN recycle textiles:

https://www.lewisham.gov.uk/myservices/ ... rvice.aspx

But here you can't:


https://www.lewisham.gov.uk/myservices/ ... g-bin.aspx

[mosy]

Not to be picky, but although the first URL link does say that one can recycle textiles, looking at the detail, not in a domestic bin but in a textile bank - the nearest listed being SE26 5SL.

It would make more sense if LBC simply stated it clearly on the website's leader page, thus itemising textile/shoe recycling as "textiles/shoes - only in textile banks" (or similar wording), rather than having to dig through to the sub page: https://www.lewisham.gov.uk/myservices/ ... banks.aspx

*Sighs*