Councils and Re-cycling

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Councils and Re-cycling
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Jools

Joined: 28 Jul 2006
Posts: 1028
Location: South Wales

Posted: Fri Jun 10, 11 4:37 pm Post subject:
It's odd how the councils who won't let you take anything from the tips cite H&S. How is it not a H&S problem at the tips where you are allowed to take things?

Marionb

Joined: 27 Aug 2006
Posts: 5267
Location: Mid-Wales

Posted: Fri Jun 10, 11 4:47 pm Post subject:

I have 2 gas cylinders here that I dont use as they are a different make of gas and need a different regulator to connect to the pipe.

I asked at our recycling yard if I could swop them for empty calor bottles that they had there and was told I couldnt due to h&s rules.

Seems a bit stupid as the empties are sent back to the depots for checking before being refilled anyway.

I still have the 2 cylinders here... they have to be worth something!!

Mustang

Joined: 15 Jul 2005
Posts: 768
Location: Sunny Suffolk

Posted: Fri Jun 10, 11 8:07 pm Post subject:
Our Council waste tips are run by a private company. Nothing can be taken from the skips without permission and a payment of some form. The guys manning the tips seem to spend a lot of time rummaging through the skips themselves, sorting out stuff. I guess that's how the company makes more profit?

jamanda
Downsizer Moderator

Joined: 22 Oct 2006
Posts: 35056
Location: Devon

Posted: Fri Jun 10, 11 8:10 pm Post subject:

Mustang wrote:

Our Council waste tips are run by a private company. Nothing can be taken from the skips without permission and a payment of some form.

The guys manning the tips seem to spend a lot of time rummaging through the skips themselves, sorting out stuff.

I guess that's how the company makes more profit?

I think that's fine. if we take stuff we make a small payment. I always assumed it was perks for the guys who work there, and am perfectly happy with that. I don't suppose they get paid much and it must be an unpleasant job at times.

cheap-n-cheerful

Joined: 14 Feb 2011
Posts: 40
Location: North Lincolnshire

Posted: Thu Jun 16, 11 6:35 pm Post subject:
I try not go to our tip too often and wait till I have a car load of absolute rubbish. It breaks my heart to see what folks have thrown out, and I am not allowed to take any of it. I think it is criminal that our council wont allow true recycling by passing stuff on to people who want it. Ilona

Hairyloon

Joined: 20 Nov 2008
Posts: 15425
Location: Today I are mostly being in Yorkshire.

Posted: Thu Jun 16, 11 7:17 pm Post subject:

The tip at Saltash used to be spot on: anything salvageable was put to one side for sale.
Then, for reasons which were never made clear to me, all the salavge was put into a separate skip and taken to Liskeard, where tucked away at the end of a quiet industrial estate they had a warehouse where you could buy the things that had survived the trip.

I don't know if they're still running, I'd be surprised.

onemanband

Joined: 26 Dec 2010
Posts: 1473
Location: NCA90

Posted: Fri Jun 17, 11 10:44 pm Post subject:

Marionb wrote:

As I understand it there is legally no value in gas bottles as they are the property of the gas company. No reputable scrap merchant will take them.
Give them to your nearest stockist or if lucky swap for desired bottle.
Or turn into woodburner. look on youtube on how to cut open and make.

This trend for not allowing items to be taken from tips is all about fear of being sued. The yard operatives are not trained to say a tyre is legal, a gas bottle empty or an electrical item or chair is safe, So they just impose an outright ban.

Kenworth

Joined: 04 Apr 2011
Posts: 855
Location: Michigan

Posted: Sun Jul 10, 11 7:34 am Post subject:
When I was a kid we could wander through the township dumpsite at will and take what ever we could make use of. Along about the 80's they quit open dumping and went to using recycle bins that are monitored. Things only go in, not out.

1000seeds

Joined: 21 Aug 2011
Posts: 76
Location: Garden of England

Posted: Sun Aug 28, 11 11:34 am Post subject:

Roughly speaking, the fact is under Legislation, anything that is taken by a Council, its employees or vehicles, is designated as waste and has to follow the rules of movement to landfill sights and the disposal of under said legislation. Other then designated schemes and vehicles, etc, such as for the use of green waste and recycling points.
If any item is taken to another person, place, site or even a charity, it is illegal as it has become waste and can only be moved via official means from waste site to waste site.
I have tried in the past and present to redirect - legitimately I hasten to add! - items for charities, etc. It cannot be done anymore. The 'Powers That Be' prohibit it. Councils hands are tied.

RichardW

Joined: 24 Aug 2006
Posts: 8443
Location: Llyn Peninsular North Wales

Posted: Sun Aug 28, 11 12:40 pm Post subject:

1000seeds wrote:

I think you will find that just how they are reading the legislation not the actual intent of it. Lots of companies collect waste & then resell as a product some times they need to process & others not. As long as its documented it fine.

Out local council run tip is just starting a reselling venture. Not been since it started so cant comment on how its run.

onemanband

Joined: 26 Dec 2010
Posts: 1473
Location: NCA90

Posted: Sun Aug 28, 11 1:37 pm Post subject:

1000seeds wrote:

Yes this is roughly correct in that once something has entered the waste stream and becomes waste it can then only be dealt with by the appropriately licensed people.
However under the Landfill Directive it is also law that all waste going to landfill is pre-treated. Basically the Landfill Directive says that anything that can go somewhere other than landfill should be removed from the waste and not go to landfill.
Councils probably meet the directives conditions by saying waste is treated at source (ie householders are removing the recyclables before waste is handed over to council) But if there are still items that can be re-used then surely the councils are not fully complying with the directive.
I am not aware of any reason why things can't be removed from waste and then be reclassified as recyclable - this allready happens with metals, plastics etc. Recyclable materials are not subject to the same laws regarding transportation and storage as waste is.
IMO it is fear of litigation rather than waste regulations that are tying councils hands

Landfill tax is currently £48/ton plus there are the landfill site's charges to pay. I pay nearly £150/ton to dispose of my business waste.
Councils are wasting money by not controlling household waste sites properly. Every item they refuse to allow somebody to remove costs money to dispose. And when householders do multiple trips to the site because of their consumerists lifestyle we all pay for its disposal. IMO If you can afford a new kitchen/settee/bathroom etc you can afford a skip rather than letting other tax payers foot the bill.

Mutton

Joined: 09 May 2009
Posts: 1508

Posted: Sun Aug 28, 11 8:49 pm Post subject:

Our tip used to have a separate stack of help-yourself-timber, and various items around the edges. You were asked to put timber in this one hopper by the gate and there was a big "help yourself" notice on it. I'd drop by when I went shopping and load the car with timber - often useful offcuts of tanelised decking that sort of thing. Great for little jobs. Then the place changed contractor and that all stopped.

On a different group read about practice in one part of the US. The council there would have a couple of days per year in which they would advertise to towns that they would pick up large items from the kerbside. It was custom and practice that the items would be put out a day or two early, and the surrounding countryside, and presumably neighbours, would turn up with pick-up trucks trawling round for useful items and the council only had to take away what was left at the end of it.

1000seeds

Joined: 21 Aug 2011
Posts: 76
Location: Garden of England

Posted: Mon Aug 29, 11 5:34 pm Post subject:

Quite right. RichardW, Onemanband and Mutton. My mistake. Councils can as you say, redirect from landfill to 'recyclable/salvageable'. It is allowable. The problem for a council is setting up as a 'recycling to buy to take away' enterprise, or salvage yard. The costs, etc of sorting, man power and space makes it very difficult to compete and use taxpayers money wisely. Council taxpayers wouldn't be happy if it costs more money to operate than it takes. Local and County Councils do have systems in place where they sell on recycled metal or paper, etc. Plastics collected from households directly can be difficult due to the volume to weight ratio in a lorry. It isn't that viable to operate, I have been told. The costs of operation aren't paid for by the amount of plastic that would have to be collected.

As it stands, unless you have the capacity and capability to put this into action on a business footing, it is a case of, sorry you can't have those dumped books or furniture. I am not legally allowed to let you take it. Of course, there are entrepreneurs with lorries going around picking up metal off the streets that has been dumped and taking it to scrap yards. Good luck to them!
The other problem of course is that any local business who has a salvage yard would not take kindly to the possibility of a council putting them out of business through setting up in competition. Councils are not too bothered about that aspect anymore, as the cuts to their funding mean they have to find additional revenues to keep everything going. Only so many managers can be sacked and buildings sold off before they have to face facts and 'diversify' onto a business footing.

Hairyloon

Joined: 20 Nov 2008
Posts: 15425
Location: Today I are mostly being in Yorkshire.

Posted: Mon Aug 29, 11 8:18 pm Post subject:
They were inviting tenders to run the yards in Sheffield not so long back... I thought I'd mentioned it here, but I can't find the post.

Banzai

Joined: 13 Aug 2009
Posts: 3

Posted: Thu Apr 05, 12 6:22 pm Post subject:

Hairyloon wrote:

They were inviting tenders to run the yards in Sheffield not so long back...
I thought I'd mentioned it here, but I can't find the post.

Hairyloon wrote:

I had an email this morning from Sheffield Council inviting tenders to manage the Household Waste sites.
Perhaps we should stop moaning and take the bull by the horns...

Think it is too big a project for me on my own though.

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