Forum Topic

Acton Recycling Centre and street sweeping

Why not open Acton Recycling Centre if Garden Centres can open? We need to be able to dispose of our larger recycling and garden clippings! It is a necessary service for residents. Why has it been closed for so long? And while I am discussing the council - when will they ever sweep the gutters? We have garden centres springing up in the leaf mulch collected in them. It degrades the road surfaces and the pavement edges, plus it is a trip hazard and unsightly. Come on Ealing Council - time to get back to work where it is outdoors and safe to do so!

A Maurin ● 2371d20 Comments

Do you have any neighbours who are not doing any major gardening work that have space in their garden waste wheelie bin or bags?  How about a share and a swap of some sort?I tend to just do one visit a year to the recycling centre if that with garden waste.  Just about everything else can be recycled kerbside.  Sometimes I've shared a trip with neighbours.Incidentally it is International Composting Week this week and some Councils have reduced price composters, water butts and accessories on offer.  I wouldn't be composting ivy though. Ealing apparently has an arrangement with getcomposting.com but I haven't price matched to check whether it is worth it.  The website is accessible through the www.ealing.gov.uk.http://www.lesswaste.org.uk/2020/05/03/international-compost-awareness-week-2020/https://getcomposting.com/composters/Amongst all the composters are bokashi bins, green cones, green johannas and hotbins and more.  Some of these  eyewateringly expensive.  Has anybody any experience of using these.  I just use a wormery which I have been using since long before the start of food waste recycling.You'll hate me for this but I absolutely love the wild flowers in the gutters - particularly the group of violets by the yellow no parking lines.  We have plants planted around the street trees and are concerned that on the last visit the Council may have dislodged/pulled up the daffodil bulbs.  :( 

Philippa Bond ● 2370d

Time for another street party to celebrate International Composting Week?!

Peter Evans ● 2370d

This site is reporting the Townmead tip is opening and I am told that the Greenford site is too. Not sure why the Stirling Road tip is not been included but it shouldn't take that much longer to get to the ones that are open depending on which part of Chiswick you live in.

Dan Evans ● 2370d

Opening with restrictions!  You need to read the info!  With Townmead you need to not get in the way of the traffic to the nearby crematorium which currently has a lot of funerals per day. We are not going back to the old normal right now. Maybe we never will. You definitely don't want to turn up and be turned away.Adding compost to the soil in your garden increases the amount of water that it will absorb and helps to mitigate the run-off and flooding that we are getting with increased non-porous surfaces and sudden heavy downpours.  When I had to cut down quite a lot of pyracantha (firethorn) and bag it for a new fence to be put in I tried to hire or borrow a garden shredder.  I don't have room or want to make space for one.  You may be luckier than me in finding one if the greenery you have to dispose of is suitable.  Then you will have a lot less volume of garden waste. Next Door is a website that might be useful.  I don't belong to it but there may be others.Hippobags from www.hippowaste.co.uk are another alternative as a registered waste carrier.  (There are others.) Check the Environment Agency website to see that a waste carrier is registered or you could find yourself as well as the perpetrator being prosecuted for flytipping or just find that your favourite beauty spot or sports field or even just around the corner has been spoilt by dumping.

Philippa Bond ● 2370d

Thank you very much for your ideas. We are short of space and just want the community service that we all pay for to be operational as soon as reasonably possible.  It helps to prevent fly-tipping and allows people with limited space to safely dispose of damaged, broken or unusable waste. I would imagine that the very nice workers there would want to start earning a living again, too. Like so many.

A Maurin ● 2370d

They will be so busy when they return to normal hours, think we will leave it a while longer, have a fridge/freezer to go.

Janice Evans ● 2370d

I love the wild flowers in the gutters too Phillipa.

Juliet Hogg ● 2369d

Me too.

Richard Kay ● 2369d

A lot of the staff at Acton RC don't want to be there so they'll be closed down for as long as possible as far as they're concerned. I went there a while ago and it said on the gate they close at 4. However, it should say 3.45 as you can't enter during the last 15 mins. It was 3.50pm so I went to the exit with 3 very small items and asked politely if he would pop them in the bin for me. What followed next was the most aggressive response I've ever encountered. With great force he KICKED the items into the road and uttered expletives which I can't repeat. I complained to his HO and fully expected him to be dismissed but no, he was still there when I returned a month later.

Juliet Hogg ● 2369d

I agree with you Julia.  If they’re being paid the lazy unhelpful people I’ve encountered at Sterling Road tip will stay off work as long as possible.  Closing the entry gate early was so annoying !

Maggie Dodge ● 2369d

Apologies that should have read Juliet not Julia!!

Maggie Dodge ● 2369d

That is my favourite recycling centre cannot say I have notice they were like that, most employees of RC centres never really look overjoyed to be there though.

Janice Evans ● 2369d

I’ve found those at my local tip generally sit around and do nothing. Little assistance, and Lana sho tragedy of civility.

Richard Kay ● 2369d

I like it because it's small and when we went Sunday's,never had to wait, then if we walk there they always took the bags from us,

Janice Evans ● 2369d

Yes they like to close early but so do other places like museums.  They will close the "in" gate before the "out" gate.  I do think that as users we often probably try and cut our visits too fine.  There's nothing worse than filling the car with garden waste - which can take more time and effort than you expected - intending to carry on to Sainsbury's to do some shopping - and then finding it closed.  Even worse would be trying to do that before a school pick-up.  Luckily only the former happened to me - but just the once!I do remember them being helpful in the past at times.  Other users can also be very helpful but we are all in a hurry to get out.  That probably helps the throughput of cars.  They like me must be exasperated at the people who can't flatten the simplest of boxes or take the polystyrene out but will drive there and queue in an open top sports car to deliver it.

Philippa Bond ● 2369d

I find the staff at Townsmead Recycling Centre consistently friendly and helpful.

Christopher Hugh Dakers ● 2369d

Yes, Townsmead is far better, the staff are always helpful.

Juliet Hogg ● 2366d

The Townmead one seems to be very popular to use but it is near to the crematorium and the warning in the write up about it reopening is that since sadly the crematorium is very busy at the moment it would be thoughtful and considerate to bear this mind and give traffic going there priority. I know that certainly elsewhere the time allocated to each funeral has been reduced.

Philippa Bond ● 2366d

Well as a lady of a certain age, I’m often surprised that the able bodied men who work there and of whom there seem to be quite a few,  sit and watch me struggle with a black bag of rubbish up the steps to the container.  Maybe I’m expecting too much.  Also by closing the entry gate a quarter of an hour early I have carried said large black bag past them and entering through the exit gate.  At that point I think they might be inclined to assist, hey ho 🙄.

Maggie Dodge ● 2366d

I found it easier to find other ways to legally dispose of waste - so we don't visit often at all.  We are after all supposed to be reducing waste and embracing the circular economy.  We now have a much more comprehensive kerbside collection.  We used to have to take our plastics to Stirling Road.  I complained when Stirling Road had no cardboard collection and I was told to either take it to Greenford or put it in the compactor.  I wrote to the Council.  They now take cardboard both at Stirling Road and in our kerbside collections.  A Hounslow friend and I used to swap cardboard and plastics for a while until the collections caught up.http://www.wrap.org.uk/about-us/about/wrap-and-circular-economyI'll bet that some of that garden waste is edible...

Philippa Bond ● 2366d