STOCKPORT’S recycling revolution has had its first opposition after a woman binned her new bins.
Disabled Susan Fergusson, 62, of Marsland Street, Hazel Grove, says the new bins – the plan is to have four by next year – are ‘ugly’.
She has been told by council officials that she doesn’t have to have the new bins but faces a fine if she fails to recycle her rubbish correctly.
In the scheme to be rolled out across Stockport over the next 12 months, around 105,000 homes will have four bins for household and garden waste.
Mrs Fergusson, a former Tenerife bar owner, has taken delivery of a new blue bin, returned a brown one and is refusing to have any others.
She lives alone and will share bins with a neighbour. Most of the residents in the street, which has 12 houses, have agreed to share bins.
Bins have so far been delivered to parts of Bramhall, Hazel Grove and High Lane.
Ms Fergusson said: "Many of the people here are elderly, living alone and just don’t have space for those ugly bins.
"I have a small front garden and use a mobility scooter, If I had to have all those bins I wouldn’t be able to leave the house.
"When I got home one day I was astonished to see a blue and brown bin outside my house."
Up until now, residents have used recycling boxes and paper sacks provided by the council
A new blue bin will take paper, cardboard and drinks cartons, a brown bin will take plastics bottles, glass cans and aerosols, and a black bin, which will be delivered next year, will take residual waste.
People will keep their green bins for garden compost and, eventually, food waste.
Thousands of other homes will have just a couple of the bins with around 8,000 homes and people living in flats sticking with the existing system.
The new scheme aims to boost the borough’s recycling rate – currently the best in Greater Manchester – and meet targets set by the government.
Stuart Jackson, service director for public protection at Stockport Council, said residents can refuse to have the bins but will face action if they fail to recycle properly.
He said: "If people say they don’t want to take part, then they don’t have to, but if waste is put in the wrong bin there is a risk of contamination.
"If they do not recycle correctly they will visited by a recycling officer. We can also issue notices or a fixed penalties.
"We don’t want to get heavy handed and would rather people do their bit for the environment.
"The people of Stockport take their recycling seriously and we hope to build on that with the new system."
But Mrs Fergusson is adamant she doesn’t need four bins, adding: "I always recycle my waste at Torkington tip and told the council I didn’t need all of them. They took the brown one and said I would have to sign a disclaimer.
"Every household will not fill them and I would urge people who don’t want them to reach a compromise with the council."
- WHAT do you think? Do you like the new bins or do you think four is too many? Let us know by post, email or comment below.
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Showing comments 1 to 11 and replies | View All
chris.city, Manchester (09/07/2009 at 16:04)
Law Student, Stockport (09/07/2009 at 19:41)
Glasgow 2014 (09/07/2009 at 20:37)
How does this lady get to the Council tip when she has to use a mobility scooter? !!
Paul Watman, Heywood (09/07/2009 at 21:32)
Ian Johnson (10/07/2009 at 08:16)
Bins will be left outside on the front of residents properties where they have no where else to store them.
This will ruin neighbourhoods.
Ian Johnson
Stockport
bernie , manchester (11/03/2011 at 23:36)
vicki foster (10/07/2009 at 12:59)
John Ellis (10/07/2009 at 13:14)
There, every house was provided with the bins, resulting in some real problems. For instance, people in terraced or "link" houses were faced in some cases with trundling them through the house to leave them at the front on collection day, or at least having to wheel them fifty yards along a back entry to get them to the road. And in some blocks of flats, there was just no place large enough to store them all.
So Stockport decided not to issue them to houses where it seemed that there might be significant problems with storage or getting them to the front to be emptied, and said that they would consult with residents first as to the best way of applying the scheme to these properties.
The result in last year's roll-out of the blue and brown bins was loads of complaints from people who didn't have them and wanted them, despite the access difficulties!
Fact is, just dumping everything in landfill produces greenhouse gases, and we're running out of landfill sites anyway. Not unnaturally, no one wants to have a site like that where they live. The cost of dumping on landfill is spiralling anyway, and government and EU regulations financially penalize councils that don't reduce what they dump. Consequence: yet higher council tax bills, which go down with most of us like a lead balloon.
No real option, then: we have to recycle more. But there's surely more than one way of doing it. If you want, you can ask the Council to take the one or both of the recycling bins back, and they will. But what you can't do, for everyone's sake, is just sling everything into a blue bin bag to be dumped on a landfill site.
Mrs. Hatton (10/07/2009 at 14:19)
I fully support recycling but don't want ugly containers permanently in front of my home!!
jean hynd (10/07/2009 at 18:52)
J. Peasmold Gruntfuttock, King of Peasmouldia (11/07/2009 at 19:56)
What really bothers me is the subsequent recycling process. Anyone who may have seen documentaries about recycling will know that in countries like Germany even the different types of plastic are sorted before collection enabling the processing of the different materials. Because in the UK we don't do that, the sad fact of the matter is it still all either ends up in a landfill here, or somewhere in the Far East. Recycling in the UK is for a feel good feeling and nothing more. Go search the web, the truth is out there.
Ken Wood (13/07/2009 at 12:41)