Forum Topic

Stirling Road tip disappointment

It was so disappointing to read that the Stirling Road tip won't be reopening properly afterall. I don't think I am the only one who will conclude that this will end up being a site with a few recycling bins that hardly anyone ever visits. It is hard to get to from any direction and in the middle of a massive building site which  is about to get bigger when TfL's Bollo Lane project gets started. The notion that it will become a 'Circular Economy Hub' is laughable.

Anita Blake ● 26d39 Comments

The politicians made it a political issue Philippa. Hadn’t you noticed?

Simon Hayes ● 11d

Simon  Resorting to personal insults is a sign of desperation in losing an argument.  We do have a much better kerbside collections and manufactuers and those putting packaging on by the market have stricter regulations regarding better and easier to recycle packaging.  There are some very clever and innovative changes - like that Jacob's cheeselets canister that no longer has the metal base. Chiswick and Kew had their Repair Cafes the weekend just gone and more people are finding they can reduce their waste as new markets are created.Diverting a lot of food waste is an important part of the reduction as so much edible food is thrown away.  I remember going to an event at The Upper Room catered especially for the occasion by Leith's Cookery School and was impressed at how they had made use of the food donations - which is something all good cooks and chefs need to learn and which I was so pleased to see happening.  It made me realise how important ome of those cookery programmes on TV where the chefs had to create a dish from the contents of a carrier bag was. And why do have bring politics into everything?

Philippa Bond ● 11d

I’m out and about more than you Guy. Perhaps you should get a dog to help with your waistline.Funny you mentioned keyboards. Ealing council has lost £65,000 of computer equipment . Vanished. Unaccounted for and untraced. Great competence in these times of squeezed budgets eh?As for you, well you didn’t exactly cover yourself in glory as a trustee of Waterman’s did you? What were you doing there exactly? No effort to raise awareness of the financial situation or take a lead on diversification to bring in more punters. Or were you just there for the beer and curry?

Simon Hayes ● 11d

Philippa, I know Stirling Rd never used to dispose of the ceramic garden pots there was always a collection of them on the right hand side on your way out, not sure what they did with them but think probably re used.

Janice Evans ● 11d

Yes, Have you ever noticed a council doing anything competently, from your keyboard?

Guy Lambert ● 11d

And there’s us thinking all the leftover food went into you!It’s not knee jerk disapproval, unlike your jibes at people who disagree with you. If you weren’t so blinkered you would see that a lot of people are unhappy about the change of use of Stirling Road. It was always busy and offered the full range of recycling everyone needed. Now, because of council incompetence, it’s a niche offering that won’t be anywhere near as used. Not difficult to understand, even for you.

Simon Hayes ● 11d

Yes, well you would say that, wouldn't you, as you disapprove of anything done by Ealing (or Hounslow)council as a kind of knee jerk response. Always predictable but not enlightening.In my opinion the new approach at Stirling Road is an interesting development, which we discussed at some length at the recent meeting of the West London Waste Alliance board and is likely to be replicated across West London (and beyond).In fact for many months I have been posting about the missed opportunity to use food waste collection better.

Guy Lambert ● 12d

Well that’s very nice for you but nothing to do with Stirling Road, which is operated by a different borough. One might suspect Cllr Lambert is blowing his own trumpet because there’s an election coming up.

Simon Hayes ● 12d

Every house (and most flats) in Hounslow has weekly collection of food waste, but something like 2/3rds of our food waste is put into black bins. This gives them another week to smell, emits a lot of the worst greenhouse gas, methane (even if wrapped) and costs taxpayers about £100 per tonne more than when the food waste service is used. Lampton360, which I am confident is the best service in London last year successfully collected 99.975% of the bins presented to them, a record. There are also arrangements for the council to collect textiles and small electrical items, as well as the separate service for bulky waste and we have recently started collecting coffee pods - details of all are here.https://www.hounslow.gov.uk/info/20128/

Guy Lambert ● 12d

I do share bins with a neighbour but you have to be strict and check everything that goes in, also that the food is wrapped how you want it.

Janice Evans ● 12d

For years now we have had to think about where we buy our goods and how we are going to dispose of the unwanted ones but instead too much emphasis has been put on the buying and the price of that without the cost of disposal not just to us but to the environment.  It has nothing to do with politics.Look at where you shop and what options they give you.  If you shop at supermarkets check why not check out what options they give you for when you buy goods such as electricals there as well as the local electrical shops as there is legislation and things have changed.Composters often are discounted by Councils and you can sometimes see these being offered free on www.trashnothing and other websites.  Sharing the Councils' garden waste collection with more than one neighbour is always an option too.  Nowadays there is plenty of online help and there used to be community garden waste recycling but I have not seen/read about any recently.Some bigger electrical shops will take electricals other than like for like and there is still the arrangement with TRAID who will collect some small electricals with clothing collections.  There's nothing to stop you joining up with friends or neighbours for a joint collection.

Philippa Bond ● 12d

Er, I don’t think so Philippa. Nothing wrong with change if it’s for the better. This isn’t, as many others have commented. If you are too blinkered to not see that then little hope for you. Hope you are volunteering at the new centre.

Simon Hayes ● 15d

When you order a new large electrical item you can arrange to have your old one taken away.  Check with the company.If it is not too big it can go in a carrier bag with your recycling in LBH.  https://www.recycleyourelectricals.org.uk/how-to-recycle-electronics/retailer-take-back/Some companies will give you 28 days to bring in your unwanted like-for-like electrical and others will take any that you want to get rid of.

Philippa Bond ● 15d

Mr Negativity - who just can't deal with change.

Philippa Bond ● 15d

Anita  It was my local Household Reuse & Recycling Centre for absolutely years and I was very disappointed when it closed. However an awful lot of stuff went into that crusher and I saw the faces fall of people who thought they were bringing stuff to be reused and recycled when they felt it still had life in it - only to be told to just chuck it in the crusher.I remember turning up with a load of cardboard and when I was told that they did not collect it for recycling and to put it in the crusher I took it away again.  I wrote to the Council to complain and ask for a collection skip there as the alternative was to take it to Greenford which was further away and not somewhere I regularly travelled past.  I have always found the Greenford site very grim. It had much more builders' waste and was always more of a business waste site than Stirling Road.  Stirling Road had a skip for plastic packaging long before there was a kerbside collection in Ealing or Hounslow for that.  I also took the spent new fluorescent low energy light bulbs there.  I found it disappointing when they used the site for stuff that was both collected kerbside and in streetbanks.  Kerbside collections have greatly improved and now also include tetrapaks as well as the stipulated plastics and cardboard.  Low energy light bulbs I now take to Robert Dyas - or maybe Ikea or B&Q if I am going there. B&Q (while it is there) also takes small electricals as do plenty of other shops.  Those can now go in Ealing's Electrical/Electronic Streetbanks and in a carrier bag in Hounslow's kerbside recycling collection.I used to take garden waste about twice a year including occasionally some of one or other of my neighbours' garden waste until Stirling Road closed when I bit the bullet and paid for a collection.The one thing I now bin which I didn't before as I could recycle it at Stirling Road is cooking oil.  I follow the WLWA instructions and put it into a screw top jar which when full I bin with the unrecyclable waste.I also argued that we should be able to use the other West London Waste Authority R&RC sites which we AFAIK we still can.  However we do now have to book for them all now and it is worthwhile always checking because every so often there is a fire (often caused by lithium batteries) or some other problem that can stymie a visit. I just hated reversing into those spaces!I understood the workers at Stirling Road were employed under a sub-contract and I believe that it was when that came to an end that the site was closed.  Times have most definitely changed.

Philippa Bond ● 15d

Philippa gets the prize for the most obtuse post today.The Stirling Road tip did enough in its previous incarnation. Offering a variety of recycling and waste disposal options meant one visit would be worthwhile. The proposed new facility won’t be worth bothering with for most.The idea of a waste and recycling centre is there in the name. A centre, where people go and know what they can and can’t take. The centre doesn’t ‘do’ anything itself, it’s just a repository for all manner of things people no longer have a use for. It’s up to the contractor to recycle or dispose of that material. By making it harder to take things somewhere the council is actually discouraging recycling.I wonder if Philippa would be so enthusiastic about this if it was being pushed by a Tory council. I doubt it.

Simon Hayes ● 15d

Philippa, I get the strong impression you never used the Stirling Road site before its demise. It had separate containers for wood, cardboard, garden waste and metals and would take paints, oils and bottles. It wouldn't take items like mattresses and white goods but that was about it.We used to visit at least a couple of times a month often on the way to a walk in Gunnersbury Park.Of course we have kerbside collection but sometimes due to a clear out or a heavy stint of garden or building work, more needs disposing of than can be collected so it was invaluable to have this facility and it has been hugely disappointing to hear that it won't be restored.

Anita Blake ● 15d

And if you have a small hoover that has had its day - and you have no car - how do you get rid of it now ?

Helen Bamberger ● 15d

I've just realised that the old Christmas Cheeselets tube tub I've been using to keep unused paper napkins in for wiping out the grill pan was created without the metal base.  So I don't have to use a can opener to remove the base any more.  Yay! I wonder if Pringles have changed their 'iconic' packaging though.  The plastic stuffed pasta packs now have lids that peel off neatly and completely as well.  Packaging keeps on changing...

Philippa Bond ● 15d

It used to be the easiest place to visit especially Sundays no hangingaround, we did leave some electrical items they used to take them but there were never very many.

Janice Evans ● 15d

How can it when the criteria for collecting and disposing of what was once just general waste has long since moved on?

Philippa Bond ● 15d

"You can't expect it to do everything."Surely the fact that it used to would suggest otherwise.

Mark Frost ● 15d

Stirling Road is very small.  You can't expect it to do everything.  We already have good kerbside collections and there are already several alternatives for electrical items.

Philippa Bond ● 15d

Not sure what relevance that has Philippa. The point about the Stirling Road site is that people won’t make a journey there to drop off small electrical items because it just won’t be worth it. If there were other recycling facilities on site then it would’ve worthwhile making the trip, as people do elsewhere.Both the recycling centres you mention accept all other household waste.

Simon Hayes ● 16d

https://www.ellenmacarthurfoundation.org/how-does-the-circular-economy-create-valueHave you looked at what is happening at Brent's Park Royal sitr and Wandsworth's Smugglers Way? (Wandsworth is in the Western Riverside Waste Authority not ours).

Philippa Bond ● 17d

It seems odd that nobody anticipated an issue with contamination when it was decided to sell - surely that is the first thing you would verify before making the decision?Probably the funding for the new temporary sheds comes from central government money meant to encourage recycling. The council seem set to staff the 'circular economy hub' with people from non-profits and charities but whether they will find anyone willing to sit there all day with relatively few people passing through is another question. Success has already been achieved by the headcount reduction and being able to boast of a 'UK first' recycling facility which will fool some people into believing that closing the tip in the first place wasn't a major mistake.

Francis Rowe ● 17d

The proposed sale was to a storage company that was looking to expand operations due to the boom in storage unit take-up. The LibDem opposition in Ealing said the sale fell through due to land contamination. Unless that issue is resolved, and it’s a very expensive process, then any redevelopment won’t happen.As others have posted it’s unlikely most people will make the effort to get there for the sake of a small electrical repair. What Ealing council hasn’t said is what criteria will be used to assess the facility’s ‘success’. No doubt some spurious triumph will be proclaimed.

Simon Hayes ● 18d

There is a massive student accomodation tower, in fact three, being built on the Hanger Lane gyratory. No need for sites like Stirling Road.

N V Brooks ● 18d

The bottom looks as though it is about to fall out of the student accomodation market with numbers significantly down due to new visa restrictions. However, demand was definitely there before - the numbers coming from overseas were huge and it was one of the few parts of our economy that was seeing some success.

Francis Rowe ● 18d

Claiming that a housing unit is 'for students' enables the developer to get away with smaller units and less community facilites. It is almost to a point where if all of the 'student' accomodation in Ealing was actually occupied by students then they would live in very few other places in London.

N V Brooks ● 26d

It seems possible that it couldn't be sold because of contamination but it might not have been possible to put social housing there because it is zoned as industrial. They could perhaps have put some light workshop space on the lower floors and flats above but it seems like a lot of the units in the area are going to be for students.

Anita Blake ● 26d

Sadly, the current administration has donenothing but close or reduce recycling facilities, Ealing crow about its recycling and reduction targets. Friends of the Earth claim that thereduction targets are impossible whileEaling allows virtually uncontrolled construction of tower blocks and 50% recycling rates will be a pipedream while they make it more difficult, rather than easier, to recycle.

N V Brooks ● 26d

If Ealing's new Stirling Road recycling facility is going to be fussy about what it will and won't take, or things have to be assessed by someone as being suitable for 'recirculating', then for most people, it'll be a waste of time going there.You'd have hoped that, if the Council owned the land, building social housing there would be the best option, but it seems even that isn't so easy for cash-strapped councils nowadays.

Peter Evans ● 26d

The figures I saw put Ealing third but either way it is up towards the top. Much as I love my area and the people who live there I don't believe that we collectively have qualities to be more committed to recycling than other parts of London so the good rate is down to the legacy of past good policies. That may be squandered by changes such as the one made to garden waste services but all councils are being forced to make budget cuts and increase charges so it remains to be seen if Ealing can retain its high ranking. One thing is certain, they are unlikely to hit their 50% target for many years.

Andrew OSullivan ● 26d

Take 2:  The HWRCs used to be filled with vacuum cleaners which either nobody had ever bothered to empty or which just needed a new bag.If you know someone who is having difficulty finding new bags for their vacuum cleaner and this is because they do not have access to the internet (or a friendly vacuum cleaner servicer) who can get them for them - do offer!  I think this is what happened to my in laws who then bought a different one which was bagless but which they were unable to open to empty as it was too stiff and fiddly.  So they then went back and bought another upright one with a bag.  Sometimes things that look good in a catalogue are just a waste of time and effort and money.

Philippa Bond ● 26d

We've moved on from a linear economy to a circular one.You can use other recycling sites and we now have much more comprehensive recycling with the Take Back legislation for electrical goods.https://www.gov.uk/electricalwaste-producer-supplier-responsibilities/take-back-waste-in-storeWe have good kerbside collections for recycling and waste and also have some streetbanks.  We never used to have such comprehensive ones.We can use alternative waste and recycling sites belonging to some of our neighbouring West London Waste Authority members.https://www.ealing.gov.uk/info/201167/rubbish_and_recycling/324/alternative_reuse_and_recycling_centresSometimes their (HWRCs) Household Waste & Recycling Centres are closer or more convenient than your own one. You need to book and should check what ID you may need so as not to make a wasted journey.There are masses of websites where you can offer stuff that you don't want either free eg www.trashnothing.com or gumtree and more or you can sell stuff online on ebay and preloved and more.There are still some charity shops although many closed during the pandemic and did not reopen.Take a look at their websites.Times have changed.The HWRCs used to be filled with vacuum cleaners which nobody had either never bothered to empty or which just needed a new bag. 

Philippa Bond ● 26d

Ealing has the sixth highest recycling rate in London overall comma far better than Hounslow which languages in nineteenth place. However, Ealing now decided to charge more for less in terms of green wasterecycling which now only operates for eight months of the year at a significantly higher price. Two full-time recycling sites are now reduced to one part-time site and residents who request bags to sweep up leaves outside their own properties either see them undelivered or languishing by the kerbside for weeks on end before collection. If anything, Ealing residents do well with recycling in spite if, not because of the council.

N V Brooks ● 26d

If they have the highest rate of dry recycling in London then it is a bit of a stretch to describe their commitment as just lip service. However, there is no doubt that the closure of Stirling Road has been an unmitigated disaster. It looks very like someone didn't do their due diligence about contamination on the site when it was decided to sell it. The failure to properly reopen it is probably down to there not being money in the budget to rehire the staff they laid off at the time.

Andrew OSullivan ● 26d

Such is Ealing's lip service commitment to recycling with one part-time site open

N V Brooks ● 26d