Rubbish Charge Plans are Rubbish

So it's nearly here. The opportunity for local councils and authorities to extort more money out of its customers - the people who live in its districts. The government is about to allow councils to charge its punters for the privilege of having its bins emptied, albeit on a trial first of all.

What does this mean for us, the people?

It means we're going to get stung. Instead of dealing with the recycling problem, the government are going to force us to pay again for something we already pay for. This is both ridiculous, and utterly unfair. Clearly the people that generate the most waste are the ones that'll have to pay the most money. So that's a group of people who include parents with young children, those with large families, the elderly who's council tax is already disproportionate to their income and who may be too frail to turn over a compost heap. These people will be nailed.

Lets take a little example from the recent past here in Nottingham. Our household has an income slightly higher than the regional average, we're in a slightly larger house, but there are four kids and two adults (well, there were, now two of those kids are over 18, so they're adults too). So we generate slightly more rubbish than an average family. Now I wouldn't mind paying a little extra council tax for this privilege, after all I live in a slightly larger house with slightly more people living in it than the regional average.

Hang on a minute. I ALREADY DO.

OK, so my bin gets emptied every other week nowadays. On a Thursday. There's actually a collection every week, but one is for the 'other' bin, containing recyclables and the next for normal household waste. Often I rely on the kids to put the bin out, but occasionally it gets missed. Sometimes the Council's refuse department drive right by it (I think they 'refuse' to take it...) None of this happens very often, but it does happen. Now if they miss my bin, I have to phone Nottingham City Council on the Friday for a re-collection, otherwise they wont come out again. So if I happen to be hurrying on Friday morning, I may not notice that the bin hasn't been emptied, and when I'm home Friday evening, it's too late - the council just tell me that I'll have to wait another fortnight for my bin to be emptied... It doesn't look like they actually care about foxes and cats opening up the pile of black bin bags piled on the pavement and dragging their contents down the street. They really can't possibly care about the cleanness of the streets or the health of the inhabitants. I suppose there is a chance that they might care, they just don't behave as though they do.

You see with there being six of us, we fill the normal once-a-fortnight bin in about ten or eleven days. And yes, I have a compost bin in the back garden. And we recycle absolutely all we can 'cos if we don't the bin is full even earlier. Our response to this situation was a request to the council for a new bin, alongside the one we have. We have six living in our house, so (according to the council's rules) we're entitled to it. Well I've only asked them three times, and the result is that we've now got two brown recycling bins. Whoopee.

That situation is, quite frankly, not good enough. Yes, it would seem that Nottingham City Council really don't give a shit about the health and welfare of it's residents. There are plenty of older residents that live on our street; I cant do anything about the rubbish dragged down the street by foxes and other vermin. How is it supposed to help them? How is it supposed to keep the place clean for kids to play in?

And now, the government are going to allow them to charge me extra for the same utterly crap level of service. I expect no different, because this is Nottingham City Council. I'd wager that they're about on a par with similar sized councils up and down the country. Personally, I think it would be nice to pay directly to get a full bin emptied when it was actually full. I could have my bin emptied more often then, when I needed it not when the council thought my rubbish had been scattered over a large enough area. But we all know this wont happen. They'll just be able to charge us extra for coming round once a fortnight to empty the bin and leave the black bags piled next to it on the pavement. Or even just drive by without even stopping. Like the currently do.

The government has a choice - they can do something radical, like raise a levy against companies and suppliers that use an inordinate amount of plastic and non-recyclable packaging and use it to fully promote recycling so it's done properly (we don't actually mind doing stuff like that, you know...) or they can just nail householders for an extra fee, which will result in no improvement in service, and provide no help or incentive to properly set recycling targets. Which is it to be, Mr Brown?