Bins / Rubbish update

Just a quick post today to talk about Bins and Rubbish within the Drake ward. Many of the properties within Drake Ward do not have space to house wheelie bins and therefore we rely on the hessian sacks provided by the council. I personally find the sacks to be awkward to store as we have no front garden and a very small rear courtyard. The sacks are also difficult to keep clean and despite the small weight contained within the bottom of the bag I often find my hessian sack has travelled half way down the street after the bin men have been. In addition to the general awkwardness of the hessian sacks they do look unsightly especially after they have been emptied and their presence certainly does not enhance the look and feel of the neighbourhood.

I have looked at several solutions and one of them seems to have worked in other areas with similar issues. The Gull Guard (see picture below) is a simple device that fits on the outside of your house and contains a sack to enclose your rubbish keeping it safe from seagulls. The beauty of the device is that you do not need to carry the hessian sacks in and out of your property and once the bin men have collected your rubbish bags then the external sack simply slots back into its steel housing leaving no unsightly mess! Anyway, see what you think by clicking here to view the gull guard in action.

On the subject of bin collections I want to talk about recycling. We currently have a fortnightly recycling collection in the Drake Ward but in that time period I can fill up to 3 green hessian sacks. I would love to see a weekly recycling collection alongside the collection of my general household waste.  In addition to asking the council to look into a weekly collection that may encourage more people to recycle I think we need more action against supermarkets and retailers to enforce a reduction in excess packaging.  How many items that we buy now have multiple layers of packaging which are simply not needed? If we can reduce packaging at source then we reduce the burden on the council for rubbish collection, we help reduce the environmental effects of landfills and we might even see a slight reduction in the cost if items as we would not be paying for the excess packaging.

I would love to hear your thoughts in the subject of rubbish and bin collections within our ward. Don't forget if you want to contact me you can do so using my contact details which are shown at the bottom of my blog page.