Forum Topic

Mixed recycling any time soon?

Anyone know when/if Hounslow will be getting mixed recycling any time soon?

Yasmeen Alzubaydi ● 106d15 Comments

Sainsburys opposite Chiswick Park of course has helpful containers for batteries,unused perfume,clothing and vapes etc.I guess many shoppers are unaware because they self check out but I love the human till facility with friendly staff which hopefully also helps  maintain staffing levels in the store.I wish all the other large department stores would copy this.

Tony Antares ● 88d

Yes, they have lithium batteries in them and batteries can cause fires in the waste and recycling lorries and my back pocket (well, they didn't quite - I didn't have enough hands when I was carrying things downstairs and then forgot to take them out and they just got hot! That was a warning.).A reminder that all stores that sell more than a certain (large) amount of batteries have by law to provide collection points for spent batteries. They are sometimes not that obvious and you have to ask.  Don't forget to remove them from things you are recycling where you can! Every so often its worth revisiting your Council website to check whether there are any changes so you can recycle all that you can making the most of your Council Tax. www.hounslow.gov.ukwww.ealing.gov.uk

Philippa Bond ● 94d

Yes same a batteries they are a fire risk.

Janice Evans ● 101d

It's good to see single use vapes are now being collected in their own containers next to batteries in some stores.

Philippa Bond ● 101d

We've always used a metal bin to protect our residual waste bin bag and we make so little now that we don't have to worry about putting it out on bin day.  It's true that foxes eat rats.  However too many other creatures also like to tear open bin bags and I don't ever want to have to sweep up the remains of a bin bag from the pavement or share all of my life with my neighbours having to tiptoe through it!  It also doesn't take long for it to be spread by animals, birds and cars along the whole length of a road if it is attacked.  We still occasionally get nappies delivered by foxes to the garden because someone hasn't protected their rubbish.

Philippa Bond ● 104d

Keep them or you will be overrun with rats, I encourage the foxes to stay.

Janice Evans ● 104d

Not keen on encouraging people to feed foxes.  Foxes in our area seem more than happy to feed on disposable nappies and left-over fast food boxes they find for themselves and leave in our garden. The biggest improvement with introducing wheelie bins in Ealing has been that the foxes cant’t any longer ransack the bin bags, so maybe they’ll move across the border to Hounslow.

Peter Evans ● 104d

With food, think before you bin it, could it feed the wild birds or foxes.

Janice Evans ● 104d

Don't really see the reason, but for clarity, the way recruitment works for senior roles in councils or the commercial sector is by specialists seeking out people who would fit the requirement. The client looks at maybe a dozen CVs which have been long listed and selects 3 or 4 for interview. Often in Local government that is followed by meetings with a bunch of elected members and a few officers before a decision is made.

Guy Lambert ● 105d

Thanks for that Guy.  I couldn't agree more about the food waste and you can often tell in this heat as you walk along a street where it isn't happening!  It goes to make biofuel and compost I believe.  This was one of the measures that eventually came out of the Govt consultation and money was provided to further extend food waste collection. That must be 20 years since it started in west London!  Wandsworth has only just started doing this.  It's a win win since separating food waste shows us how much and enables a rethink and tweak of our buying/storing/cooking habits. (With us bread was the worst! Now we just have the occasional glitch.) There's lots of online help.I don't feel that enough is generally being made of the waste hierarchy which in its simplest form starts with Reduce followed by Reuse and Recycle as having less to deal with makes it SO much easier.  The flattening of boxes and juice/milk cartons and plastic bottles also makes less volume.I completely agree with Jim about people not removing and separating the  polystyrene packaging (where it is still being used as soMany suppliers have moved away from it).  I love that lots of plastic bottle tops like the milk ones are now the same colour as the bottle and can be recycled on empty rinsed squashed bottles.  Save the air!  Let it out and stop trying to recycle it!

Philippa Bond ● 105d

It is , as you say, much more rigorous, although we all know that even in the public sector, people are ‘approached’. I’m sure the other candidates who applied would be interested to know whether or not they just went through a process when a decision had already been made as evidenced by your use of the word headhunted. You might want to clarify your post.

Stewart Jones ● 105d

I don't know. Just that she resigned. I was upset at the time and she said she had been approached. She would have gone through the standard Local Government recruitment regime, which is much more rigorous than the private sector.

Guy Lambert ● 105d

Headhunted? Was the post advertised?

Stewart Jones ● 105d

Recycling is certainly not a waste of time - every tonne of food recycled saves £100 from council costs and you get your recycling taken weekly before it smells and produces methane rather than standard fortnightly collection. It's of course not only about money - recycling is much better for the environment than incineration, which is what West London boroughs so with the rest (no landfill)The savings apply to all recycling but I always focus on food because far too many people don't bother with it.The Environment act 2022 said councils should move to household sorting of recycling rather than collecting mixed recycling. It also called for more in the way of 'polluter pays' culture, so that manufacturers and retailers who create the waste should bear the cost of dealing with it. They never got around to implementing it but I'm sure the new government will.Richmond was so impressed with our recycling approach in Hounslow that they head hunted our lead officer who now heads up the service in Richmond and Wandsworth

Guy Lambert ● 105d

A key question Yasmeem is how well "mixed recycling" can be properly sorted.I suggest that "we" don"t know as we don't work at the Refuse Depots, and neither do we get feedback reports from the dedicated Borough Council spokesman. (It was Councillor Guy Lambert).The Borough of Richmond have " mixed recycling facilities"- namely•(paper, card and cardboard)•(soft plastics, hard plastics,glass,tins)•(faulty electrical items)•(clothing, old shoes).How thorough and successful they areat separating the items in the bins ... we don't know ...or do they?So often we see recycling bins in Hounslow Borough contaminated by incorrect items that "mixed recycling" is already happening.OLD CANDLES - chiswick libraryOLD LIGHT BULBS - ikea. w6OLD PENS & BIROS - any rymansOLD FOIL FROM PILLS .. superdrugUSED THIN PLASTIC SHOPPING BAGS .. morrisons SOFT PLASTICS (FOOD.PACKAGING)some branches m&sTo see large cartons put into the CARDBOARD RECYCLING BINS with thepolystyrene packing still insideis alarming.Perhaps efforts to recycle is a waste of time.

Jim Lawes ● 105d