What are the new rules at your local tip and how will it affect you and your waste?
As of 20th February, Greater Manchester will enforce new waste rules that limit your visits to local tips. These rules aim to stop traders from dumping commercial waste at household recycling centres.
The limits will be based on the type of vehicle you drive. Cars will be limited to 52 visits per year (once per week). Vans will be limited to between 12 and 18 visits per year. Read more..
The new rules aim to stop tradesmen and businesses, Who should pay for waste disposal. Because household recycling centres are meant for domestic use
How Can We Help?
In our industry, we must legally pay to dispose of waste under our licence rules. This cost is our biggest overhead. Therefore, we consider it first when we prepare any clearance quote.
We also take on an ethical duty to dispose of all rubbish in an eco-friendly way. Because of this, we chose a transfer station with very high recycling rates. As a result, we now divert over 90% of waste away from landfill. This rate is around 30% higher than state facilities.
While all tradesmen and businesses should also pay these rates to dispose of their rubbish, the high cost is often overlooked.
The trader then has 4 options:
1. Take the rubbish to a transfer station with a weighbridge and pay to dispose of it by weight. However, the trader must pay for a minimum load, usually one tonne. In most cases, this option is not financially viable.
2. Take it in the boot of their car to a household recycling center. This is the option the council are trying to combat. These recycling centers are becoming overused and funding for these facilities is becoming more and more stretched.
3. Find an unlicensed “cheap man and van” service that will collect the waste for an unrealistically small fee. Consequently these types of traders then go on to dispose of the rubbish at a household recycling centres illegally. Or even worse fly tip the waste which can lead to massive fines for the customer.
4. Lastly use a company like The Rubbish Removers to collect and dispose of your rubbish both legally and ethically. We take great pride in the high quality of service we provide to every single customer.
The effect we humans have on the planet is becoming more critical every day, This is why we need these waste rules.
It is more important than ever for every person and business to handle their waste properly. This requires disposing of waste legally, ethically, and responsibly. If you choose The Rubbish Removers, you can feel confident. We recycle your waste in the most environmentally friendly way possible.
I have to say, I am on my soap box for this blog. I felt shocked when this appeared on my Facebook feed. The amount of fly-tipped rubbish was alarming.
Even worse, many of the people there campaign against this exact problem.
Eco-warrior: is a self-description for an environmental activist that adopts a ‘hands-on’ effort to save a plot of land.
An environmentalist: or environmental scientist, helps companies and the public make educated choices regarding the environment and the effects of rubbish.
Anti fracking campaigners supports: the impacts of climate injustice which will be felt around the world.
Pupils from around the UK went “on strike” on Friday 15th February as part of a global campaign for action on climate change and how rubbish effects it.
Students around the country walked out of schools to call on the government. Declaring a climate emergency and the need to take active steps to tackle the problem.
But at Glastonbury, many people did the exact opposite of what they claim to believe in. Why? Was it the excuse, “I was having a good time and didn’t notice”? Or maybe, “My few cans won’t make a difference”? Or simply, “It’s not my problem; someone else will clear it”?
Therefore, I would say you are no better than those who fly-tip rubbish down country lanes or behind people’s homes.
Here’s a look at what it takes to return those fields, where you danced all weekend, back to normal. In 2017, the clean-up cost of rubbish and waste dumped was about £785,000 and took around six weeks. Despite organisers urging people to take their rubbish home and aim for “zero waste,” photos after the event showed fields covered in rubbish.
In 2018 the festival did not go ahead.
This year The entire clean-up is expected to take four weeks. Praise has to be given that out of the 55,000 tents only 500 were left behind.
The Daily Mail however called the site “a squalid mess” that “makes a mockery of [the festival’s] eco-posturing”. Also claiming there was a “sea of bottles, plastic bags, cans, tissues, wet wipes and paper cups … mile after mile of it”. Moreover they cheered David Attenborough like a god at Glastonbury, but as the crowd headed home, they left a squalid mess that makes a mockery of their eco-posturing.
So my little rant ends with ‘next year lets make our actions louder than words.
Most people don’t think about recycling centres every day. However, we never leave home without our mobile phone, laptop, or iPad.
These devices make communication easier for work and leisure, and we won’t move backwards. However, because these devices are portable, they use batteries that need charging. These are not simple AA batteries. They are lithium-ion batteries, and they must be disposed of with great care. If you throw them away incorrectly, they can catch fire.
Here is just one example of that:
Li-ion batteries were implicated in a plane crash in Dubai in 2010 and consignments of these batteries are now banned from UK and US aircraft, although individual passengers are still allowed to take their laptops on board. Passengers may take spare batteries in their carry-on luggage if precautions are taken to prevent short circuits.
Recently, you may have heard about the many fires hitting recycling centres. These fires often happen because lithium metal heats up when exposed to water. And yes—here in the UK, we get plenty of rain.
Many facilities that recycle waste sit close to residential areas. Therefore, these fires cause major disruption to local communities. This story even made headlines in February of this year:
Lithium-Ion Batteries Blamed for Major Recycling Waste Fires
This week, a major fire engulfed a recycling centre. This time, the blaze hit the Parr Industrial Estate on Merseyside. The fire at the Viridor site in St Helens started around 5:40 a.m. on Saturday. Investigators believe Lithium-Ion batteries most likely caused it.
Another Viridor site in Dunbar also suffered a fire in January, again linked to Lithium-Ion batteries. This latest blaze was huge, sending a 30-metre tower of black smoke into the sky. Fire crews battled the flames for 17 hours. The area of recycling waste affected measured roughly 50 by 50 metres.
The Environmental Services Association (ESA), the trade body representing the UK’s resource and waste management industry, reports that of the 510 fires reported by ESA members across the UK in 2017-18, a quarter (25%) were attributed to li-ion batteries, up from 20% in the previous year.
So what can we do?
One suggested solution is to add electronic tags to these batteries. This would help waste firms detect them if they enter normal rubbish. The ESA has pushed battery manufacturers to use this technology, but so far nothing has changed.
For now, as a householder, always check your items before bagging any rubbish. Remove any Lithium-Ion batteries and keep them in one pile. You can then dispose of them safely under the hazardous waste category instead of mixing them with general recycling waste.
This will help to reduce the risk of fire and anything which reduces risk is always a positive never a negative (Excuse the pun.)
For 20 years, Chris has built The Rubbish Removers around his vision of a professional, reliable, and ethical rubbish removal service.
However, media coverage of our industry often focuses on crooks who dump rubbish illegally. You don’t need to search long to find stories or CCTV of full truckloads dumped on land or in lay-bys. Thus some TV programmes even centre on councils trying to tackle this problem. Although this can feel like paddling upstream, our pride in our service and strong work ethic push us to paddle harder.
Subsequently our public image means everything to us at The Rubbish Removers. It has taken years to build a brand we are truly proud of. Every day, customers give us fantastic feedback on our rubbish removal service, from the first call to the final sweep-up.
Moving Forward..
Meanwhile a huge revamp of our digital marketing campaign in recent years has raised the bar in our online presence. From having our website entirely re-built to me writing this blog now, our goal is to give new and returning customers confidence that they need not look any further. You have already found the best in the business.
Furthermore this leads me to Instagram. The platform is the perfect place for us to showcase the more physical aspects of our work. A lot of our rubbish removal clearances can be visually quite drastic. Therefore before and after pictures are the perfect way to display this. Take a moment and have a look. If you like what you see give us a follow.
Also as we continue to build our brand we are committed to treat all our customers equally, domestic or commercial, size doesn’t matter.
Give us a call today on 0161 339 7938 to discuss our services and see how we can help.
We all saw the news last Friday when thousands of children went “on strike” for the planet. For years, many people ignored deforestation and the huge amount of rubbish, junk, and plastic waste dumped in our seas and countryside. Now it’s sad that it took the next generation to speak up and demand action. As a Result their concerns led to marches and protests as they pushed the government to declare a climate emergency.
These protests made national headlines because they took place in major towns and cities across the UK. However, this movement is global, with demonstrations in Belgium, Germany, Sweden, Switzerland, and Australia.
However what doesn’t always reach national news, but spreads quickly across social media, is the effort of small local groups. Furthermore these volunteers work hard to clean their own towns. Here is a great example from my local town, Ashton-under-Lyne, where we are trying to reduce the rubbish and junk that people continue to fly-tip. Adding to more rubbish worries for communities.
‘Ploglution is in the Air’ was the headline and this is their story regarding rubbish.
If you were near Lord Sheldon Way in Ashton on February 3, you didn’t sense a revolution in the air, you sensed Ploglution.
Plogging is a new activity that mixes jogging with picking up litter. It began in London, but it is now growing. After meeting with the council’s Operations and Greenspace Service, Tameside launched the North’s first plogging club, Plogolution.
Members held their first event with support from the Village Hotel in Ashton. Along with bin bags and litter pickers from Operations and Greenspace, almost 30 volunteers took part. They chose either a 2km walk or a 5km run and cleared a large area.
Most of the rubbish they collected was bottles and tins, but they also found a children’s slide, a power washer, a fire extinguisher, and an electric heater. Events like this help reduce rubbish worries while keeping people active and protecting local spaces.
What People Are Saying
Cllr Allison Gwynne, Tameside Council’s executive member for neighbourhoods, said: “I’m very happy to support Ploglution. What they are doing helps us meet two key priorities for the borough.
“By jogging, they help people to stay active and healthy. By picking up litter, they keep streets clean and tidy showing residents the value of caring for their communities and green spaces.
“Ploglution set a great example, and I wish them every success.”
Dermot Kavanagh and Michelle Parkes, the founders of plogging, travelled from London for the February 3 event. It proved so successful that another event will take place on Sunday, March 10.
The club aims to build fit and happy communities that protect the environment for future generations. Plogs help clear rubbish worries by removing litter from streets, rivers, and seas while boosting endorphin levels at the same time.
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