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Doretta
Posted Jan 20, 2005 3:12 PM
Diana - well done for fighting Woking's scheme. You have raised some important points which I may be able to help you with.
First, on the subject of side waste. It seems rather strange that many councils are now refusing to collect any waste that isn't contained within the bin. It is claimed it is a health and safety measure and protects the binmen from injury. In Eastleigh side waste IS collected. I firmly believe that if it was not this scheme would never have been in operation for so long. Even in our borough parents are getting children to jump up and down on the waste to compress it - considering the amount of bacteria present in up to two week's waste I'm sure there are health implications from this action. In summary, some councils state to collect side waste is a health and safety risk to their workers, whilst others, such as Eastleigh continue to collect side waste.
In parts of Europe, France and Spain for example, general waste is collected as frequently as daily in some areas and twice a week in others. I have not been able to ascertain frequency in specific areas but I am still endeavouring to do so. In some Scandinavian countries they do collect fortnightly but temperatures are generally lower than those experienced in the UK. Even there, as is shown by the study listed on the "press coverage" page of this website, there are concerns that the build up of endotoxins and release of harmful bioaerosols poses a risk to the health of refuse collectors.
It is true that the UK has lagged behind the rest of Europe where recycling is concerned, mostly because we have never been given the facilities to recycle our waste. Kerbside recycling is now becoming the norm and many councils still manage to collect general waste on a weekly basis (75%) whilst achieving high recycling rates - the Isle of Wight has achieved 35% and beats most of those on alternate weekly collections as shown in the latest league tables!!
Good luck with your efforts and please contact me privately via the "contact us" link if you need any further information.
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