The Council has opened "consultation" on the proposed new bin collections. You can vote to have a 41% smaller bin emptied every 2 weeks or keep you larger bin and have it emptied every 3 weeks.

All this with a new food waste bin. I'm afraid we won't be using the food waste bin. Economics dictates we don't produce food waste. I am sure a lot of families are in the same boat.

Not much of a consultation, more choosing the lesser of 2 evils. Who in their right mind at Wirral Council thinks that families produce so much food waste? Come on now, 41% difference? The Councillors really are not living in the real world. God help you if you have a baby still in nappies.

The choice, sorry consultation, is on the Council's website.

Weve had food recycling caddies for the last couple of years . They get quite full with T bags,coffee grounds, banana skins, outside leaves of brassicas, cores, peelings, manky fruit, offcuts of fat,grissle from meat, avocado stones, tops of peppers etc We dont do home composting , and the council says not to contaminate the outdoor garden bins , with kitchen waste (even raw) to prevent cross contamination.

Obviously technically theres no difference between using your garden bin in the veg patch if you have one,for trimmings etc or putting them in the caddy , but I suppose they are just keeping it very clear - if it becomes waste in the garden its the garden bin, if it becomes waste in the kitchen its the caddy . Otherwise youd have dopes just putting all sorts of cooked veg in the garden bin etc .
They dont mind you producing a lot of caddy waste (but obviously not good food ) because they use it to make biofuel .

How often do they plan to collect & empty the food recycle bins?

Ours are done every week. They stink something awful, (specially if youve got fish guts in it ) so I imagine Wirral will be the same. We have a small inside caddy, which takes 2/3 days to fill, and you trasfer contents within biodegradable bags (which we have to buy ourselves) to the outside larger caddy which is about the size of a normal old style kitchen pedal bin .

Info found here
https://www.wirral.gov.uk/bins-and-...stions-about-food-recycling-consultation

You can fill in a questionnaire here
https://www.wirral.gov.uk/bins-and-recycling/food-recycling-consultation


Agreed. At the bottom of the page on the first link it states

"When will the new collections start?
The new collections will start in Spring 2017."

So the decision is already made, ah well

My daughter in Kent has the same as you Venice. It doesn't take much to fill them, particularly if one should dare to have a roast chicken carcass to get shut of, or should anyone manage to afford to throw a party in this day and age.

As you say, they have to buy their own degradable bags, which hold next to nothing. The waste food caddy is pretty small and also holds next to nothing, (not much good for a family of 4 or 5) and emptied every week, which must cost more to operate, I would have thought. The most unfortunate thing is the fact that they are so small,and low to the ground they have problems with foxes. Here it would be cats, dogs or foxes and a whole street of terraced houses with these things sitting outside overnight, is nothing less than taking us back to the dark ages. I hope the street cleaners follow on afterwards, and if the streets are not cleaned it's time the residents made their regular calls to ask , 'why not'.

A plague of rats and the black death could be the next NHS crisis.

Understand it better now.

We ALL have a food waste bin

We then have a choice of a green bin for general waste i.e. smaller in size and emptied every two weeks, or keep the green bin we already have and have it emptied every 3 weeks.

The choice is for the green bin we think is better, and we won't necessarily get the option we should vote for.
I would still like to know with all this re-cycling programme which is good in it's own way, WHY garden waste can be thrown in the green bin as an alternative to paying an annual fee for a brown bin, and why we have to deal with so much packaging from supermarkets ? That is not our fault and we should not be taking the punishment. If it's so important to reduce waste, the supermarkets should be tackled by Government and Councils.

Progress my arse ! Bins, bins, bins, bins, .........

(nice carpet tiles in the offices )

If you want to take a stand against supermarkets granny, you can unpack your goods in the shop and leave the waste there.They have to keep it by law if you ask. Imagine if loads of people did it , the s mkts would soon be getting onto the manufacturers/wholesalers, as they probaly have to pay for their 'waste' too.

The caddies by the way , have an up and over locking handle which is quite effective. Never seen one opened round here by animals.

A lock would be a good idea. If daughters had one, I didn't see it. Why can't they make the bins a bit bigger ? It's not going to reduce food waste just because the bin is tiny is it ?

Simply means the waste will get thrown somewhere else, by many.

Might put the s.markets to the test. Try it with one I never normally go to.

So in one street some will have usual size green bins and others the 41% reduced size bins. Does that mean the bin lorry has to make more trips --to get the green bins emptied. Increasing the carbon footprint?

Me thinks the 41% bin size reduction is more political just to get Wirral a gold star for "reducing" waste when in fact the amount of waste produced will be the same just redistributed.

Have a family of 5 adults all at home still and we fill green bin in 2 weeks. The volume of food waste in that 41%? I doubt it

I don't think we will all have a different one, Fish.

It's a consultation they have launched, therefore if we all put our individual choice, the council will then follow the majority vote .

If there's no food waste, then the large green bin every three weeks would be better. We wouldn't get our old furniture, old tv's or the hedge cuttings in the small green bins, would we ?

If the overall consensus is to have the half size green bins, does that mean they will take away every full size green bin in Wirral and store or throw them away ? I wonder !!

One important point;

With these light weight food bins, on a windy day , those who live on a main road, if they should blow into the main road and cause a traffic accident, whose insurance will have to cover that ? The driver, the user (although it is the property of the council), the council (for not putting lead weights in the bottom) or the refuse company for not replacing it on a doorstep ?

As the heavy bins frequently get blown over in the winds, and onto the road if they are replaced too close to the curb, the small food bins are more than likely to be rattling along the roads. Most people leave for work before the bin men arrive, so they could be blown about all day long. Quite dangerous !

All points to be considered.

If the food waste bin is to be placed alongside the other bin on a weekly basis, but if residents stick with the large green bin, and collections of only every three weeks, there will be one week when the food waste bin will be sitting on it's own. So either they can't do sums or they have already made minds up and are wasting time for Wirral residents and not consulting at all. Is that Political correctness ....

If they issue me with a smaller green bin they are not getting my green bin ---they are great for storing spades hoes, rakes etc in, I imagine there are one or two other good uses they can be put too. Bit of ingenuity and a good composting bin.

Granny, I suggest you fill in that questionnaire with your concerns about this new scheme
Why don't they leave the green bin as it is and just issue everyone a food caddy

Hi Mikeeb, thats what we had a few years ago if you remember, I think I still have the small brown caddy somewhere.

Does raise all sorts of questions of scheduling collections, cost. If half a street is on the small green bin that get emptied every 2 weeks, and then the grey bin on alternate weeks, the current system essentially that seems to work. But if the other half of street use the larger green bin with a 3 week cycle how will that be fitted in. Just looks really complex and probably more costly (for us!)

My real issue is with the smell. Currently the green bin stinks after 2 weeks, imagine the smell if stuff is left for 3 weeks - especially in hot weather...

If you're able bodied and a car driver, put everything into black bags and take it to the tip where it probably ends up anyway. Maybe those nice folks at WBC will give you a rebate on your council tax.

We were recently issued with the small food waste bins with the biodegradable liners. We're supposed to put the full liners in (I think) the green waste bin and the bin stays in the kitchen. (Well, mine doesn't; it went straight into the general waste bin: I CBA with all this nonsense).

Why not keep it how it is?

While one issue is whether/ if the dogs/ foxes etc will be able to get into the proposed small bins ANOTHER issue is that you can guarantee the dogs passing-by will pee on the bins. That means washing & drying them before you bring them back inside.

NOT a pleasant job

Snod

You dont have anything that goes outside coming back in the house Snod - you keep the small food caddy in the house and it only goes outside for a swill and a spray after emptying the contents into the bigger food caddy which is the one that sits in the road once a week - but has a lock down handle.

Carl Beer Chief Executive of Merseyside Waste Disposal Authority said "The contract and developement of this new facility (Wilton)brings more than a £100M worth of savings to the Authority and it,s partner councils (Wirral is one) to divert 92% of its residual waist from landfill". The food waste collection is a side product of a bigger plan to burn what is left in the green bin.The rat,maggot fly problem will be taken care of on paper anyway,to appease the residents of Kirby were the waste will go by rail to Wilton.Always watch the conjurers other hand, check how many councillors past and present are and have been on the board of this LTD Authority.

So will that money go to the £180million Biossence plant at Hooton Park, due to be finished early 2017 after years of hold ups ?

BIffa are investing in a new fleet, with 360 degree camera's for recording 'streetscene' !! Why ?

Not sure how the £!00m saving is arrived at when they update and inform us ;

Biffa added that its current contract with Wirral Council guarantees savings of £2.2 million over the next three years. However, from 2017-18, Wirral is expected to save £11 million over the ten year span of the extended contract, based on a series of stepped savings equivalent to just over £1million annually. The extension includes a break clause in 2023.

Full report

https://waste-management-world.com/a/115m-waste-recycling-contract-extension-for-biffa-in-the-wirral

I think we are mixing Cheshire and Merseyside.The Merseyside and Halton contract is a Billion ££ thirty year contract signed in December 2013, with Suez Environment using Veolia.

I can,t understand ,what is going on??

I agree and think it a health hazard having a bin with stinking rotten food in the kitchen.
Families would struggle if general waste bins were smaller.

Aren't these new bins to conform with EU rules on recycling, and haven't we just told them to get knotted (to be polite) so why new rules? or am I missing something here.

At the moment I have a small bucket with a lid on which I keep by the sink for all my food waste & a large bin with a flip top were all the packaging goes,only reason for that is my dog raids the bin but it all goes in the green bin bagged up.I'd have to keep the big green bin because besides the kitchen waste there's the general waste from having kids so even with the seperate bins I can still manage to have a full bin by bin day grey & green,3 weeks for the green bin would be too long & I'm not going for a smaller one

In my personal case I have for years put most vegetable and fruit food waste in a small worktop bin in the kitchen and every day, sometimes twice a day that goes in the garden compost bins. Meat/ fish waste is minor and goes well wrapped in the green bin. Potentially very smelly waste (fish guts) gets well wrapped and has been known to be recycled through a handy dog poo bin.

I asked the question because I have friends with 3 flats in one building but a shared kitchen. Currently they have 3 green bins but no grey bins (landlord never provided them and the tight sod will not do so). They fully fill the 3 green bins between current collections
Snod

in the 50s we used to have small galvanised bins with a swivelling lid for waste food (not a lot in those days) which were collected weekly by the "Pig Bin Man" I don't know where it went to from there, but I never envied him his job.

The pig bins were taken to the depot in Cleveland Street opposite The Birkenhead Brewery.It was boiled and put in a big silo then transported to the pig farms.Waste paper cardboarand rags and bottles were sorted on a small conveyor fed by a chute next to it.The rags we pinched (taken to bawlies) payed for our gangs comunial camping gear.Most people had coal fires so all you got from the house bins was ashes which went to landfill.We also knew the location the gully suckers dropped their load on the tip, marbless times. late fifties early sixties.

Were we not informed by the council a couple of years back that we MUST NOT put food waste or anything else that had come out of our kitchens in the Brown re-cycling bin because of contamination? Is this the same CONTAMINATED waste they are now asking for???

I understand its to meet the EU guidelines. And EU that we VOTED to EXIT. I believe its to give less and less, although how this is "saving" except by less fuel for collections is beyond me.

No guesses as to what the results will be.

1) Council provides smaller bins and comes round as often or
2) Leave bins as they are and council comes around less often.

The result is more un-trackable dumping or more queueing and chugging fumes out as we all visit the tip to dump our excess waste.

The real question is how much is this going to cost the tax payer in the long run, be it the Council saves a million or ten million a year, if they replace the larger bin with a smaller one, who pays? If they give you a food bin and it goes missing, blows away etc and you need a replacement one, who pays?
And all this new food waste will go into a Bio plant which is being built, well thats a no brainer then its a done deal, Council gets its backhanders from the Bioplant, the Bio plant makes its money selling the power, and we end up paying for new bins.

Garden Waste bin collection is to go up to £45 2017-2018

the people at the town hall are fcukwits,my food waste if any will be going in the road bins with the dog muck,or on the town hall steps,they are going to sell this waste but won't us to collect it for them/they should be paying us,whatever the clowns at the townhall do i do the opposite,should just have two bins where you can put anything in and update the recycle centres to sort it when it's tipped in,but then who would get the contracts to make the new food bins? its all a con,AND I WILL NOT BE ANY PART OF IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Well I don't know how they can do that, unless the contract is up for renewal. They used to be 10 yr contracts and as a council is not supposed to make profits, then that must be severely out of order. If the contract is up for renewal, then the same must apply to when they first introduced the brown bin charges. It's not 10 yrs since, surely ?

2015

https://www.biffa.co.uk/news/biffas-ten-year-contract-extension-to-save-wirral-13-million/

The brown bin charge is a Council charge, not a Biffa charge.

I need 2 and even that isn't enough. Just means I won't get any and will create a mountain of grass cuttings etc. to give off all the carbons, and they can have their precious brown bins back.
Sod them.. if we don't pay for parking they'll skin the pensioners in a different way.
Unfortunately I can't climb those bloody steps with bags of garden waste at the recycling centres any longer.

Yes, and the Council pay Biffa for the contract. If Biffa are saving the council millions, over the next 10yr contract, then it must be that the council are putting up costs and ,making a profit against the savings and then including cleaning of New Brighton.. which wasn't part of the contract before.

Whilst Biffa probably have done a costing exercise, I very much doubt the Council has and there is no way Biffa tells the Council what it actually costs. Council figure is arbitrary based on market demand.

The Biffa contract might not be a constant payment (I haven't checked) it might rise with inflation or time.

Right DD it could be a fluctuating price contract to cater for changes in Govt charges/taxes for waste disposal landfill etc. but that would be based on weight or volume. Smaller bins would possibly incur less govt tax but i doubt that saving would be passed on.
I could be knackered if any more of my gardening customers decide to not renew brown bins. Will have to be a bit tougher with some of them and insist they get a brown bin or take the cuttings to the tip themselves...running out of disguises on my many tip trips.
The minimum charge for tipping garden waste is £25 for a small van trailer load which may be acceptable if your doing a big job but just grass cutting it would take several weeks to get enough to make it feasible.
At £7 per rubble sack full of plasterboard its no wonder fly tipping goes on. Saw a fresh load of rubble bags fly tipped in landican lane this afternoon.

Why can't you get a license Fish and then charge for collection and delivery of garden waste to tip ? I don't know how much they are or how easy they are to acquire.

Could be a business for a young entrepreneur with a truck. I'd sooner pay them than the thieving council.

Let's wait for the announcement on increased council tax. Place your bets here:

Granny thinks 4%

Granny. The thought did cross my mind but the maths didn't add up.