Fortnightly Rubbish Collections planned for Haringey

[Adrian Essex]

FORTNIGHTLY collections of non-recyclable rubbish will be introduced in the borough from January next year in a drive to increase recycling and cut costs.

Haringey Council will also introduce wheelie bins for weekly recycling collections, replacing the small green boxes that are currently in use.

Food and garden waste will also continue to be collected weekly, with free bulky waste collections for reusable items being introduced.

There will be no changes to the current system for residents living in flats, estates, or in homes above shops.

The changes will begin in Muswell Hill in January, with other areas gradually being introduced afterwards.

Other changes included as part of the new contract will see 450 extra bins installed on streets in a bid to tackle litter, as well as twice-weekly street cleaning.

 

In a meeting with Haringey last week I was told these things about the new contract:

• the bidders expend a lot of resource in making the bid and want to see that effort rewarded, and so make the terms attractive to Haringey.
• it specifies the results Haringey want to achieve, i.e. lots of recycling, clean streets, empty bins, and so on, rather than the actions Veolia must carry out - so if a street is clean enough then Veolia can leave it unswept, if it is not clean enough then they must keep sweeping it until it is. Indeed, they don't have to sweep it, they can use magic, or any other cleansing mechanism, if they have it available.
• the targets to be achieved become more demanding over time, so that Veolia operates to ever higher standards. 
• Haringey has several ways out of the contract at different times - the exact nature of these exits is "commercially confidential", so we can't know the details, but some are conditional on Veolia's performance and some are unconditional.
• Veolia's performance is monitored throughout and there are adjustments made if it is not up to snuff.
• it is for 14  years long enough for both Haringey and Veolia to commit to making it work.
• there will be a "Partnership Board " to oversee the contract's execution. It is not yet clear who will be on this board, nor whether it will make its reports public. My suggestion would be that it would consist of Veolia staff, Officers of the Council, Councillors (of all persuasions) and interested citizens, possibly drawn from Area Assemblies and that it will produce quarterly reports, showing how performance goals are being achieved, how costs are contained and how standards are improving all within the terms of the original contract.

 

There is a brief note in the Independent

 

http://www.haringeyindependent.co.uk/news/topstories/8971422.Rubbis...

 

 

[CrouchEnd Cupcake]

If you can recycle correctly, this wouldn't be too bad would it? 

Food waste would be picked up weekly so your rubbish shouldn't smell. Bulky items collected weekly so wouldn't fill up the bin and if recyclables went in a wheelie bin, there'd be more room in the bin that goes every two weeks. 

My initial horror at fortnightly collection was a bin full of rotting stuff that would stink to high heaven in the summer but we've supposedly been trialling the recycling lark for some time now and should be fairly good at it.

I'll just need to get smarter at recycling food stuff as currently the little black bin gets full of fruit flies and if it's left in the outside food bin, foxes pull it over and spread rotting yuck all over the street. 

Are you allowed to put meat in the food waste bins?  I know you can't put bones in.