Forum topic: Wheelie bins petition relaunched

My concerns have never been about fear of change and anyone who interprets the first petition in this way is completely misguided.
When you introduce change you have to be clear about what the benefits of that change are going to be. The council have confused their need to balance their books with a half hearted explanation of how these changes are genuinely going to lower consumer refuse and increase rates of recycling. If you want to improve something you don’t just stop it and remove parts of it that were working without offering something different ( even better)That is not how the new plans have been introduced.
Seeking genuine clarification is quite reasonable in a democracy. This council has refused that clarification I believe on the grounds that they haven’t got a clue. This is not going to improve recycling rates.

I wasn't referring to the petition as much as the responses to the initial consultation itself. And not such much "fear" of change, just a refusal to accept it.

Yes, the consultation was farcical and maybe some of the rationale (beyond cost) was lip service. But the reality is the Council needs to balance its budget and refuse collection needed to be amended to reflect this, as has happened all over the country, as the existing service simply isn't cost effective.

Two things were 100% obvious and predictable from the get-go: 1) "no change" would always be the most common response; and 2) the Council would just pick the best option for their P&L.

Shouting about clarity about an issue which, frankly, is 100% clear has nothing to do with "democracy". You are as certain in your views, without substantiating evidence, as the Council are in theirs. Hence: impasse.

The petition won't change anything and, if anything, will just end up squandering Council resources further dealing with it...

“The announcement of the decision and the report on the consultation did in fact contain the justification for the decision - which boils down to lack of money, for which the government is to blame, not the council”
Bin collections is one of the few things that is not ring fenced. That is why it is a cheap cut. It will save a maximum of £2million. Basil speaks about this cut to basic services as if it is some kind of luxury. It is not! It is a basic service
and pretty much all residents are getting now for the 3% increase they saw on their tax bills in April. Meeting a 20% recycling target by 2020 will never be achieved if the recycling infrastructure including effective civic provision and more importantly education is merely removed. I fear that if black bins are full then blue bins will become contaminated. By the way no one is suggesting least of all me that all councillors are useless. I have made it absolutely clear throughout the campaign that the cabinet member with responsibility for the environment has refused to engage in a conversation. The petition may have initially asked for a reversal of the decision Basil but there was always the option to negotiate a clearer understanding. You may not have signed the petition but nearly 10000 residents have signed one or both petitions. Their views should not be dismissed by inaccurate or irrelevant assumptions.

What would you prefer they cut £2m from then? Social care? Street cleaning? Bins are an easy cut because, for all the hyperbole, people can live fine with a reduced service. As has been demonstrated elsewhere in the country. This simply takes the slack out of the system.

I am not sure what you mean by "civic provision" and "education". Education is literally everywhere right now. And "civic provision" includes the very good Barrowell Green centre which is well used and the encouragement of people to recycle more pro-actively by disincentivising them to just dump everything into the black/grey bin willy nilly. My wife & I take 2 weeks to fill out black bin and the same for our blue. Ditto the green but only for 6 months a year.

10,000 peeople saying they don't like change is hardly a valid reason for the Council to dump a policy that'll cost it £2m pa. Especially given that's less than 5% of the population they serve....

We’ve moved to the small brown food bins this week, a result of the Mayor’s Environmental Strategy (part of the London Plan suite of reports) which required councils to have separate food waste collection by 2020. So what else is in store?
There’s a target of zero biodegradable or recyclable waste to landfill by 2026, so expect an increasing focus on having your black bin waste being only true black stuff (residual waste, in the jargon); a 65% recycling target by 2030, although some tricky maths makes this instead 50% for north London residents by 2020; and a 50% reduction in food waste and associated packaging by 2030. Basically a much greater emphasis on recycling (also think reuse and repair as even better options) than has been the case to date. (Analysis suggests 85% of household waste, including composting, is capable of being recycled. North London is currently at only 30% and going backwards, so there’s a lot to do.)
The waste produced by each London household, on average, has reduced hugely since 2000 but still accounts for about 15% of total council tax bills. It's expensive stuff to manage.
So there’s much incentive for us all to do more. There are 220 litre food composting bins available free via the Council web site. We’ve used one for over a year now at the bottom of the garden, very successfully, for the vast majority of our food waste. The red worms which found their way in clearly love it if numbers are anything to go by.

This is the link Enfield Council website directs you to for the composting bins: https://getcomposting.com/profile/login

Presumably you can compost whatever you want, not just food?? I.e. I was looking to build my own compost heap/bin out of old wooden pallets to cover food AND garden waste. If I can get one of these for free then I might just do that....

General recommendation is not to compost meat and bones ivo the vermin risk so they go in the small brown bins. The same might apply to cooked food but ive ignored that with no problem - cooked veg, pasta and the like.
I have a separate pallet set up for garden waste which produces cracking soil. Bigger twigs take forever to rot down so they end up in the green bin. Peelings are OK on an open compost bin but i wouldn't lay other food there,again ivo vermin risk, hence that's secured in the plastic one.
Using one or both is perhaps a function of levels of food waste and garden size. Certainly the soil output is quality and the worms and other bugs seem to be very happy with it all. one consequence has been a greater awareness of food waste so we now have noticeably less of it.

Thanks Karl. My composter is awaiting delivery. Will stick to keep veg and plant material in there for now.

Do you use bran too to supercharge the process??