Rubbish Maggots
Angie has a problem that may be familiar to many of us regarding the two-weekly collection of 'black-bin' rubbish:
"Although there is only a small amount of general rubbish we are having a horrible time with maggots as the rubbish is sitting in the sun for two weeks. Does anyone have any ideas?"
The Phantom doesn't, really. Other than trying to keep it in the shade (presumably a no-no or you'd have already done it) yours is probably a common problem.
I tend to keep my organic rubbish in the fridge until the last minute to prevent extra 'cooking' (though of course that was always a problem before the new bin regimen - the downside being that I sometimes forget to put the fridged stuff out...) but you can't do that with general rubbish. No. Sorry. No clue.
Maybe someone should write a book "Zen and the Art of Garbage Control." First lesson. Be grateful you're not in Naples...
"Although there is only a small amount of general rubbish we are having a horrible time with maggots as the rubbish is sitting in the sun for two weeks. Does anyone have any ideas?"
The Phantom doesn't, really. Other than trying to keep it in the shade (presumably a no-no or you'd have already done it) yours is probably a common problem.
I tend to keep my organic rubbish in the fridge until the last minute to prevent extra 'cooking' (though of course that was always a problem before the new bin regimen - the downside being that I sometimes forget to put the fridged stuff out...) but you can't do that with general rubbish. No. Sorry. No clue.
Maybe someone should write a book "Zen and the Art of Garbage Control." First lesson. Be grateful you're not in Naples...
Labels: Ask The Phantom
posted by The Greenwich Phantom at
11:34
31 Comments:
Angie
What sort of general rubbish do you have? All organic waste is collected weekly (same as before) as are your recyclables.
What sort of things do you have left that can't be washed or cleaned?
I'm assuming ladies unmentionables...
Thanks phantom but it doesn't add up. If you follow the councils advice (below), you still wouldn't have a "horrible" time with maggots.
The council suggests - 'sanitary towels and incontinence pads (you may want to put them in a sealed bag first)'.
The collection system does work and needs people to get on board. We can't change the world for the better without a little pain.
I don't have maggots problems as my organic waste is in the green gaddy, which is very very well sealed and I also use compostable bags in it.
The ladies unmentionables and cat litter goes into little airtigh bin in my garden and which is equipped with black bin liner and when the bag is full, I tie it airtightly and but in the shade until the collection date.
I don't have any maggots problems with any of my rubbish.
So I have to agree with anonymous that it doesn't add up.
My organic waste stinks as it sits in a bin in the sun all week. Then I take it out of the bin to leave in the road and the foxes kindly distribute all over the street.
I dont have maggots but the flies seem to love it.
I do get a warm glow when I am picking up my rubbish again from the pavement when I get home from work that I am saving the World from climate disaster. Its just a pity that the Chinese are not so keen and that the EU completly distorts the market in recycled goods so that these shemes are deemed necessary.
I went along to the big get together and spoke to the waste collection people there who told me that for the rest of the year black bags would be collected weekly and this has been the case, so I suggest you put black bags out weekly. Apparently in January we are all going to get another black bin for general waste.
Hurrah bring on the black bin I say! I and my neighbours have had foxes rip apart black bin bags too - despite there being nothing forageable in there.
And all this bother is so unnecessary - caused mainly by the fact that the rules for waste disposal are now governed by the EU, which lays down restrictions on landfill which are no appropriate for this country:
http://raedwald.blogspot.com/2008/06/no-shortage-of-landfill-in-uk.html
I would be in favour of charging directly for waste collection. I have always recycled and have never been one for throwing away food for no reason. I do object to sorting the rubbish out for the council with no reduction in my tax. So charge me for kilos thrown away of non organic/recyclabe waste scaled by number of people living at my house and reduce my tax bill.
Hmm - it might have been useful for the council to mention the weekly collections!!
I'm not sure I would have room for yet another bin though...
Apparently they are going to let us opt for a smaller organic waste bin. Anyway they haven't mentioned weekly collections on their website but I can assure you that in my area - westcombe park - they have been collecting weekly for the last month.
I love some of the fantasies about the benefits of landfill promoted in the attached links - non-permeable liners, recycling of methane. As if!
One benefit of our new system is that everyone now puts out their compostable waste in the morning, rather than the general waste the night before, so the foxes seem to have moved on.
First I have heard about weekly black bag collections. Sometimes, nowadays, I look out of my window idly on a Saturday morning and see one of those fill-in private contractor bin lorries. Then I curse because my waiting-for-collection-day bin bag is at the end of the garden, in a galvanised dustbin I had to buy specially to keep it in, and I can't get it to the street before the private bin lorry is gone.
I am not looking forward to everyone being issued with a black bin as well - pedestrians won't be able to use the pavements at all, there'll be so many bins standing around on it. I feel sorry for those who find walking difficult, or for the partially sighted.
I really want to move out of Greenwich - the quality of life here has nosedived in the last 10 or 15 years - but this has to be a long-term plan. Cue everyone saying that it is just as bad elsewhere. To which I would say, no, it isn't - in Brittany. :-)
I had the idea of 'repurposing' two of our now largely unused green bins (all the food from our 8 flats fits into one bin) into 'black bag storage bins'. Printed up nice weather-resistant labels saying 'Leave your black bagged rubbish in here', and hoped that the binmen would find it in themselves to empty the bins full of bins, so to speak. If not - well, we get on well enough to empty out each others' black bags from the wheelie onto the floor ready for collection.
Alas, despite the brilliance and common sense of this idea, they did empty them, but also left generic 'Use green bins for food only' tags* hanging on the handles. So - obviously the binmen don't have quite the same imagination.
My next trip is to the local DIY shop to buy a tin of black paint for use on plastic... I may be the first to get a black bin in Greenwich**.
(* - Quite clever actually - they're the same kind of label that you find on hire car rear-view mirrors, which also fit nicely on the wheelie-bin handles; good idea, someone.)
(** You can see the Council's quandry: make it harder to dispose of 'general' waste, and people will recycle more. Provide a 'black' wheelie bin, and the lazier among us will just dump everything in there, defeating the purpose.)
No Phantom. you have got it all wrong, I am not a sanitary towel user or incontinent. There are some containers which say "not yet recyclable which I try and take a bit of time to try not to buy and do wash before putting out. Also things like cat food pouches and cat litter which again are not recyclable.
Angie
A lot of M&S packaging is specifically marked "not recyclable" - they've been chasing it up closely under that Plan A stuff they're into. However, I'm not sure how/why it's being left to sit out in the sun for a fortnight...
Agreed, though - the council just simply isn't able to communicate anything properly about the collections fiasco or Cleansweep; I'm having a battle with them over the mess they're making of my little corner of Charlton. I'm guessing from the response from my local councillor that even Greenwich Council's most faithful adherents are getting hacked off with the situation. It's especially frustrating when we've got the Love Lewisham stuff going on across the boundary, while the attitude from Greenwich is one of apathy.
I'll post some stuff up on my blog soon...
If Inspector Sands Loves Lewisham so much - why doesnt he move there?
Lewisham Council is loved so much that it is now hung with the former ruling party losing loads of seats at the last election.
As for all the moaners wanting to blame the council for their inability to do a simple task like seperate their waste - GET A LIFE.
The sooner you get with the programme the sooner your laziness will STOP PUTTING MY COUNCIL TAX UP.
Landfill costs money - so stop moaning - start sorting and do us all a favour!
Ha! STOP MOANING, you are brilliant - I'm assuming you are refferring to the superb website http://ifyoulikeitsomuchwhydontyougolivethere.com/
?
The black bin liner thing is a bit of a fiasco at the moment - what I'd give for an extra wheelie bin (or preferably an old fashioned clattery dustbin)...
As far as the biodegradable bin liners go, have a look at my origami solution!
http://blackheathbugle.wordpress.com/2008/07/21/building-a-better-bin-bag/
Living on a main road, we are lucky enough to get our black bin bags collected daily, which is a godsend living in a flat without garden facilites.
They only collect our recyclables once a week (which is okay, if not a bit of a tight squeeze in the kitchen by the end of the week!)
The main problem is with the organic waste bags for peelings etc. They will only collect this fortnightly, which is impossible to have in a flat rotting away. I suppose there's not much they can do. The people next door to us somehow try to do it, but the last time they left a bag out on the allocated day, Greenwich council decided to leave it there for well over a month, being kicked around the street until it was finally presumably binned.
You're all lucky to get your bins emptied at all! Mine remained full for three weeks until, on leaving my house this morning, I found that it had eventually been emptied - all over the road and the ars3 who did it also decided to half inch the bin!!
I have had no problems with the black bin bags, but last night I discovered a massive infestation of maggots in my green top bin - well, I say "in" the bin - they were crawling up and squeezing under the lid to drop onto the pavement. I doused everything with bleach, wrapped the top in clingfilm and put a notice on it for the bin men.
I contacted the council this morning to be told that the bin would be taken away and replaced "within 4-6 weeks". Oh lovely.
What we need are MUCH smaller food bins that are easy to keep clean, with very tight fitting lids (I am not talking about the kitchen caddy things, I mean the big green wheelie bins that used to be for general rubbish).
This is the first bit of hot weather we have had this summer - it's only going to get worse. I heard about another area where they had a similar scheme in place and several times last summer the council had to take away everybody's food bins for de-maggotting.
Stop moaning - touched a raw nerve, did I?
Indeed, Lewisham's a hung borough with Labour just about getting its way. That's a healthy democracy for you - Greens, lefties and Lib Dems.
I'd rather the council tax was put up so they can employ some street cleaners and do this damn recycling thing properly...
Greens, lefties and Lib Dems. Aren't they just the same thing?
We've had absolutely no problems with the new waste disposal systems. Now that we've got no little ones in nappies, we're down to one carrier bag of actual rubbish per fortnight.
I dont have any problems either with the new service
I some time wonder about the motives of people that come on here and do nothing but complain?
Political? Personal? Who knows.
What I do know is that there are some people's views that I read and some I automatically skip over before I fall asleep reading the same old tosh...
The original question was how to keep the maggot population down, which are expected with rubbish plus warm weather, not having a go at Greenwich Council.
I really only have one to two "black sackers" per fortnight - have found it all fairly easy bar the stench coming from the food waste bin. I now pay a man to come round once a month to give it a good clean... for 3 quid. Well worth it - tho an idea for the council would be to have a water jet on the back of the truck to do this anyway. Just a suggestion.
I really only have one to two "black sackers" per fortnight - have found it all fairly easy bar the stench coming from the food waste bin. I now pay a man to come round once or twice a month (weather dependent) to give it a good clean... for 3 quid a turn. Well worth it. Perhaps a suggestion to the council is if they could run a jetwash service for us?! It would save our nostrils being assaulted walking past some of the bins lately.
Does anyone know where our Recycled and Compostable waste actually ends up once they've collected it?
If the recycled stuff is just ending up being sold and shipped across Europe then it's not exactly helping to reduce our consumption of resources.
Got maggots? Time to take up fishing...........
Greens, lefties and Lib Dems.
No mention of the Tories Inspector, or are they the lefties?
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