Visiting Recycling sites on a bike

[[XAP]Bob]

And on the 16th working day after my emailed complaint, I have now been favoured with a response - and a good one too. Basically the jobsworth at the dump was out of order, he's been "spoken too" by the site manager, and I have it in writing that it is not the policy of either Veolia or the local council to deter adult cyclists from using their household waste sites.

One interesting fact that's come out of this is that since Veolia are operating the sites on behalf of the council, their employees do not have the power to ban members of the public from the sites. The worst they can do is turn away persons whom they believe to be intent upon depositing trade waste.

So now you need to find some trade waste to take there on a bike

[Tonyf33]

generally never had a problem with the one in Letchworth, took my dead burnt out vacuum cleaner in the bags only today 20+yr old large electrolux cyclinder in one side, hose and bits in t'other. Nobody bats an eyelid, you can walk in too. The only time I had a problem was a few years ago when some smart -arris operator had moved my bike whilst I was dumping stuff despite it being well out of the way. told him in no uncertain terms that if he touched my vehicle again there'd be trouble and that he wouldn't move it if it was a motor vehicle so why mine. Came up with some bullcarp that I don't recall, told him basically to go float in a not so polite way. He doesn't work there any longer from what I can see as I rarely need to go tbh given we have plastic recycling nearby which is on my way to the shops and they'll be giving us another bin soon for that this summer.

[BeeKeeper]

So now you can re-CYCLE to the tip?

[iviehoff]

He probably only registered the word "tyres" and if like it is here in somerset they charge you to take car tyres to the tip. Once you repeated the word bicycle tyre he probably gave you the benefit of the doubt of whether to charge you or not.

I once tried to put a couple of bicycle tyres in the tyre recycling section at our local tip and the guy said that if I did that he'd have to charge me the same price as for car tyres, which you have to pay to dispose. This is because the people who took them off their hands charged them per tyre, regardless of size, and they'd got stung on this before. But I could chuck them in the landfill skip free of charge.

[Mick F]

Excellent!

Victory for common sense!

[thirdcrank]

I've recently been to one of our civic ameneties sites, still run by the council. The other day, I ended up waiting outside - which happens from time to time when they swap skips or use the digger with a ram on the front to compress the junk. For the first time, I was first at the gate which enabled me to read all the signs. One prohibits pedestrian access. Bearing in mind that you become a pedestrian as soon as you get out to sling the stuff into the skip, I wonder who writes this ...er.... garbage. No signs banning cyclists, so presumably they are protected from summary orders to dismount. I'd be wary of cycling in there anyway - too much risk of a puncture.

I can see the importance of health and safety in these places and I'd be slow to criticise the people who work there, but illogical rules avhieve nothing.

For me, one of the biggest issues is that anything which makes orderly waste disposal more difficult just encourages fly-tipping.

[Tonyf33]

never heard anything regarding charging for tyres, car or otherwise here, certainly there's a 5mph limit (or there was) there's never been any bother, people queue and wait so tbh can't really grumble, I did go in the car a couple of week ago when needing to shift large items but collected my friends stuff from her flat move and it was on the way to the supermarket anyways so didn't feel too guilty
Our grey household waste bins are going to be the new recycling bins for plastics, cardboard, metals and glass, with a half size purple one for household. Box still for paper though and food waste/ vegetation in the brown (which currently we put cardboard in too)
I think it's right that people produce ID of where you live if you're bringing large loads, so long as peole are made aware in full what is acceptable to bring without the need for ID Afterall commercial waste disguised as household waste impacts local people through the additional cost that causes. Fines for fly tipping seem to be another ridiculously low penalised crime..

[meic]

Unfortunately most of the time it isnt even a crime!

Fly tipping on people's land is a civil trespass rather than a criminal offence.

[Retour64]

In the past I have taken rubbish to a Recycling centre by bike and trailer. Nottinghamshire County Council then decided that anyone taking waste to a Recycling centre had to register their registration number with them. Cyclists and pedestrians were banned.

When I remonstrated with them, they at first said it was a health and safety issue.

I pointed out that car occupants were more vulnerable than cyclists when they leave their cars to put rubbish in the skips and is it not an anachronism that a green process like recycling could not be carried out using green forms of transport.

The next excuse was that at times the recycling centres had to be closed to move skips do a queue develops and if I arrived on a bike, some drivers would see this as queue jumping and this could cause unrest. If I wish to cycle to a Recycling centre I would have to ring up and beg to be allowed to come at a quiet time to lessen the chance of drivers having a hissy fit.
Does any other county council have such a poor attitude towards cyclists? Perhaps they should have a Cycle to Work scheme for the bosses of council departments so that when they pontificate on cycle use the spokesperson's backside has actually graced a bike saddle since the age of twelve and the do not regard a bike as a toy rather than a vehicle? Forcing cyclists onto unsuitable cycle paths is not a positive policy.

[Retour64]

Thank you very much and yes, I have had trouble from Veolia even when I was a car driver when they would not let me get rid of a wing mirror removed by a taxi driver as he fiddled around in his glovebox and crossed the centre line. The explanation was that the remains of the mirror was trade waste.

Strangely next week my wife took it and the same man allowed her to leave it. It might have had something to do with summer and low cut tops. My wife commented that she doubted that he would be able to pick her out in a police line-up if they just showed her face.

[Psamathe]

Explained to me by my local council: they are actually under no obligation to provide these recycling centres ("dumps") so you can't complain about restrictions they place for whatever reasons they chose.

Ian

[RickH]

I've not had any trouble when I've been to our recycling centres by bike.

But I haven't been for a couple of years, maybe more, since they closed the one nearest to us. The 2 remaining ones are both the other side of town and both around 8 miles each way. I don't have nearly as much stuff that I could take there as I was mainly taking garden waste when we were taming our overgrown garden. Now I just put anything that doesn't go in our recycling collection bins in the general waste as I've no plans to do a 16 mile round trip either by car or by bike, especially as I'm rarely heading in that direction.

[Psamathe]

I've actually found my local (Veolia I think) used to be really strict about what and how much you could take. But more recently they seem to have got a lot more common sense and become a lot easier to use. They might look at what your bringing and start commenting "your only allowed ..." but if you've prepared properly and say "I've measured/weighed it and it's less than ..." and they quickly shut-up and often help you unload the car!.

They used to argue over limits and happily send you home with a car half full that you'd have to bring back next week.

Ian

[Stevek76]

I've noticed the Bristol one often has various 'no walking in signs', however I tend to drive there so never been able to test if it's strictly enforced or more intended to stop people parking outside to skip the queue.

Even if i had a bike trailer I'm not sure I'd be wanting to take loads on it that I couldn't have just used the usual doorside collections for.

[The utility cyclist]

Unless the people on site are actually being obstructive, just turn up. People such as youve encountered are just idiots.write a formal letter of complaint to the head of the county council and cc to your local MP with a side note about contactingthe press.