Dustbinmen!!!

Guinness · 13-11-2003, 19:45

Anyone remember when the bin men emptied your bins. They worked in teams, at a run, so that they could be in the pub by dinner time?

The streets were clean, they emptied every single bin and returned it to the place they found it and we didnt have a rat problem!

Then technology came along!!!

"that bin is overflowing we cant take that, next time firmly push the rubbish into your bin"

"that bin is too heavy we cant take that, next time dont push your rubbish in too firmly"

Black bags are stuffed into gate handles, between fence posts or under door knockers. The minute a slight breeze blows, black bags are everywhere. Do the binmen pick them up??? Yeah right...

Last straw for me today, I'm off to complain tomorrow, after all the yada-yada-yada about blue bins.....where does the wife find ours today?? Three doors away!!!!

All they have to do is lift it up, empty it into the wagon and put it down. How the hell do the idiots employed on the bins manage to move the damn blue bin 20 yards away??

Considering that I would have to pay for a replacement if it was lost, I am sodding well outraged at the slapdash, pathetic, overpayed, underworked, nonchalant, jobsworth attitude displayed by the Hyndburn Services Cleansing Technicians (or whatever passes as newspeak nowadays for binmen)

Caz · 13-11-2003, 21:57

Have myself put in complaints about various aspects of the refuse & recycling system.

Blue boxes not returned to correct property.
Blue boxes being returned with stray tin lids in.
Blue boxes thrown into gardens willy nilly, therefore ensuring that said lids fly out and end up in the garden, and also increasing the likelihood that these boxes will not have a very long life expectancy.

Emptied waste paper bags being left at my property, (even though I don't use them as I recycle paper elsewhere)
I now have  a collection of six, and in keeping with the theme,  am looking for ideas on how to put these to good use!
Maybe I should return them to the depot and suggest they find out where they should have left them. (or tell them where to shove em.)

Wheelie bins also left several doors away.
Wheelie bins put in yards and gates not closed, which is supposed to be the case.
Wheelie bin liners taken out of wheelie bins and left several hours on the back alley. To what aim? Rather defeats the object of the system I think.
Rubbish in bags being removed, which shouldn't be happening in a wheelie area - Some people don't use their wheelie bins at all.
Rubbish left out several days before collection.

Greatly varying times for collections.
We are supposed to have blue boxes out by 7.30 and bins out by 9.00. collection times for both have been anything between this and 3.00pm.
With the wheelies at the back, this is an open invitation for burglars, especially when they don't even close the gates afterwards anyway.

As yet I have been lucky and have always got my own wheelie bin back (even if I've had to find it myself) The day I get somebody else's maggot infested one in error I really will blow a fuse.

Have sent many emails outlining problems, and have had various replies from certain people, and complaints have been "passed on".
Certain points I made were supposed to be raised at meetings with the appropriate people, but as yet I have seen no change in the system whatsoever, and have had no feedback as to what came of my queries.

Questions I have asked also are.

Will they replace bins and wheelies damaged by their teams carelessness.
Will they clear up rubbish strewn on the alley by dogs & cats when they decide to remove the bags fronm the bins.
Will they repair my gate, damaged by being left blowing in the wind?
Will they cover any losses incurred by my property being insecure due to my back gate having to be left open?
I actaully left my bin outside my gate one day. I was in so I didn't lock it. One of the team came and placed it back inside my gateway. Apparently we aren't supposed to do this as the alleys aren't wide enough. Couldn't be that they got the wrong size vehicles could it?

I am all for a recycling & wheelie bin system and in theory the system should work well.

But it's the same old story. The powers that be haven't done their homework properly, and, as yet don't seem to have taken any critisisms on board, (or at least not to any noticable effect).
But then council administration never was swift or efficient, was  it?

Mik Dickinson · 14-11-2003, 06:59

Surely there must be  a complaints box somewhere.Or have they finally done away with all the good old methods?

Tealeaf · 14-11-2003, 07:12

The complaints box got recycled...

Jo · 14-11-2003, 07:25

Bring back the black bins with fat door numbers painted on!

Tealeaf · 14-11-2003, 07:41

Now when I were a lad there were'nt any of these plastic bins..they were metal, so your hot ashes would'nt melt the bin..aye,they were proper bins then...

Jo · 14-11-2003, 08:03

Think my littel bum is covering the "no hot ashes" sign! The metal ones were before my time!

Tealeaf · 14-11-2003, 08:29

They still had metal ones on Ozzy in 1972....that was just before your time....and they got pretty heavy when they were half full of ashes (there was'nt much other rubbish then because a) there was'nt much packaging and b) what little there was got burnt on the fire anyway.....aye, we had proper bins in those days..

happyone · 14-11-2003, 08:37

I REMEMBER THE FIRST  PLASTIC BIN  WE GOT  MOTHER PUT HOT ASHES IN IT  WHEN WE WENT OUT  IT  WAS GONE SHE THOUGHT SOMONE HAD PINCHED IT  BUT IT WAS JUST A ROUND BIT ON THE FLOOR  OPS SORRY ABOUT THE CAPS

janet · 14-11-2003, 09:00

This morning i walked down gloucester avenue, i had the choice of walking in the road or walking through peoples front garden WHY! because the footpath was completely blocked with bags of rubbish. maybe when someone gets killed walking in the road to avoid it, the council will do something about it.happens all the time where i live.

Tealeaf · 14-11-2003, 09:24

You could play drums with metal dustbins....or even put cats in them with a few bangers....you could'nt do that with the plastic bins....and what use is a wheelie bin?

Mik Dickinson · 15-11-2003, 07:34

More than likley the wheeelie bins are easier to transport to the van.Back in the owd days ya needed muscle to move them metal ones.I remember the metal ones as well.When they came down the road and started moving them it was like there was a riot going on, and they lasted longer than these plastic things.If there had been any decent wheels on them we would have had them for our trollies LOL!

Guinness · 15-11-2003, 07:57

The way I remember it was..

Two guys were sent about 10 minutes in front of the wagon. They rolled the metal bins into the best pick up position (there was an art to rolling the metal bins without dropping any rubbish)

Four guys and wagon then followed, two guys lifted the bins between them and tipped them into the wagon. Bins were then placed back in pick up position.

The other two guys were responsible for picking up fallen bits of rubbish and returning the bins to the correct places/houses.
AND THEY PUT THE LIDS BACK ON!!!

No mess...no lost bins...no rat problem...coupla quid taped to bin at christmas.

In those days binmen wore donkey jackets and big thick gloves, they got dirty, they looked like workers, this lot today look more like tiller girls working in food preparation, when was the last time anyone saw a dirty mark on a binmans jumpsuit?

Can anyone tell I'm a tad irked at our cleansing technicians?

booth76 · 17-11-2003, 17:57

Yep, being just outside of the Blackburn boundary we too have to contend with this idiocy.

Firstly the bin-men left a note telling us that they wouldn't take our bins because the lid was up.

We told them that if this was the case we needed a bigger bin.

We were told that because our family is three adults and a child at fourteen, that we weren't able to get it because we weren't supposed to create that much rubbish by the councils reckoning.

We argued that it was no-ones business how much rubbish we created. What about if we had a party one week - this is the 21st Century!!!!

They said we weren't squashing our litter properly. They sent us details on how to squash plastic bottles and cardboard boxes. We entertained them and told them we would try this (even though we did it anyway).

The bin-men still refused to take the bin.

They then said that we did indeed need a bigger bin. I took the phone-call. I heard it with my own ear.

A fortnight passed - no new bin arrived - we were having to keep a bit of our rubbish in a bag in the kitchen (for the moment( as the bin-men wouldn't take the bin otherwise.

We then got a letter saying we couldn't have a new bin! After being told a fortnight before!

This went on for a while.

We got very angry and threatened them with numerous things, questioned whether this was against the geneva convention etc etc. Called them lots of swearwords in private.

Then out of the blue, they said the bin-men would collect our rubbish - after months and months of crap. However, we were told that it was compulsory to have a visit from a person from the council if we were to still have our rubbish collected. We are still waiting a visit from this 'Rubbish Counsellor' (not a slur on this persons professionalism) who was going to come around and teach the whole family how to throw things away.

THEY ACTUALLY PAY PEOPLE TO DO THIS!!!!

Apparently there is a looooooooooooooong waiting list for this rubbish 'rubbish counsellor' so we might be waiting a while till they get through all the other people who can't throw their rubbish away properly.

Can the money not be spent? For example on better bins????

janet · 18-11-2003, 11:01

HYNDBURN council could'nt run a P**S up in a brewery.Time they got people in WHO!!  know what there doing. ???