Gripe of the day - What is yours?

[Seeker]

Oh no!

Things must be really bad, I'm agreeing with Piers Morgan.
https://tinyurl.com/munbc8b8

[redtrummy]

I can only share your sentiments Seeker.

[Ruffy]

GOTD - inconsistent, incoherent and illogical policies at local authority tips (aka recycling centres nowadays).

So having done a bit of a clearout, today I took along various things for appropriate disposal at my nearest 'tip', including two fairly hefty rear wheel bearing assemblies that had been slowly rusting in the yard having been swapped out from one of our cars a while ago. I'm simply thinking recycle as scrap metal (just like I've done at other tips with many other diy replaced small items in the past - hardly worth weighing in at a scrap merchant but not trivial items).

But one of the site operatives spots me and tells me they can't take them. He tells me that it's Leicestershire policy not to take "car parts". And before my bewildered brain could deal with the concept that I couldn't offer them for recycling, his collegaue whips them out of my hand and chucks them into the general waste skip.

So two lumps of perfectly decent reclaimable steel end will end up in landfill because they were previously used on a car! WTF?! Gripe made even worse by his suggestion that the next nearest local tip to me would probably have accepted them (since that one's run by South Derbyshire).

Am I the only one who thinks this is utter madness? Devolved decision making is one thing but such illogical and inconsistent implementation beggars belief IMHO. I shudder to think how much else goes to waste or is fly-tipped as a result.

[Sir Trev]

Yep, bit mad. Our local tip won't let you in until they see what you have and will not take "DIY waste". Fine, it'll just get bagged in small bits and put in my general use wheelie bin over a few weeks instead of the relevant skip and none of it will be properly recycled. I'm certainly not going to pay a licenced waste carrier to take it away.

On a related note, we were told we'd have to pay an annual fee from June to keep our kerbside garden green waste collections. They've been part of the council tax up to now but so far we've not been sent anything actually asking for payment, and thankfully they're still being emptied.

[admin]

And they wonder why fly tipping is on the increase.

Sent from my SM-T510 using Tapatalk

[redtrummy]

Guess that was Lount Ruffy There is no logic unless its of some monetary value to them. I try and get away with ' I have got a bit of scrap metal and other bits and bobs' then dump it in the appropriate bin all at once. My guess would be that they don't want parts that may be oil/grease contaminated so the household refuse bin would have saved you a drive!
Years ago I thought I was being a good boy when I took unused paint to be disposed of.' We don't take it here but Blaby will take it.' (15 miles away ) Deifies belief.

[Ruffy]

Originally Posted by redtrummy

Guess that was Lount Ruffy

Yes, Lount. Tidy enough site but like all of them nowadays only delivering a partial service.

Originally Posted by redtrummy

There is no logic unless its of some monetary value to them. I try and get away with ' I have got a bit of scrap metal and other bits and bobs' then dump it in the appropriate bin all at once. My guess would be that they don't want parts that may be oil/grease contaminated so the household refuse bin would have saved you a drive!
Years ago I thought I was being a good boy when I took unused paint to be disposed of.' We don't take it here but Blaby will take it.' (15 miles away ) Defies belief.

Yes, I normally have them in a cardboard box or something but this time I had other stuff so thankfully not a pointless journey.

I understand why they might be cautious but if they want 'new' or uncontaminated parts then they can at least pay scrap value like other traders - I'm hardly likely to be taking something that can be reused without needing processing of some form!

Call me a cynic but, I agree, it's definitely monetary driven and nowt to do with the claimed desire to reduce waste of 'save the planet'. Sad to say it's trickle down politics in action - not enough funding to do the job properly.

[Ruffy]

Originally Posted by Sir Trev

Yep, bit mad. Our local tip won't let you in until they see what you have and will not take "DIY waste". Fine, it'll just get bagged in small bits and put in my general use wheelie bin over a few weeks instead of the relevant skip and none of it will be properly recycled. I'm certainly not going to pay a licenced waste carrier to take it away.

Yes, disappointingly my general bin gets a bit more bagged waste than I'd like from time to time because doing the best thing has been made nigh-on impossible in practice.

Originally Posted by admin

And they wonder why fly tipping is on the increase.

Yes, and I find it really sad. Backfiring policy - waste won't magically disappear so surely better to encourage managed disposal at a council tip (at the risk of some illegal trade-related dumping slipping through) than to have it strewn everywhere?

[garynortheast]

Going through a bit of a black dog phase here. Head down and waiting for it to pass.

[Seeker]

Originally Posted by garynortheast

Going through a bit of a black dog phase here. Head down and waiting for it to pass.

They can be difficult to shake off. When I was in training in the RAF I went through a couple of dark periods. It was like walking down a very narrow, dark canyon, the walls were getting steeper, you wanted to climb out but couldn't, nor could you turn around, all you could do was keep plodding on looking for the exit.

What helped me was putting on my favourite album on headphones, loud (but not painfully so) and let the music carry me away. I was (and still am) a Yes fan. "Tales from Topographic Oceans" (a double album) only had 4 tracks. 90 minutes of them singing about something (I have no idea what - nor does Rick Wakeman who played on the album).

The occasional understandable lyric (!) would pop out and stick with me:

"change we must as surely time does, changes call the course"

Another of their albums: Relayer, was loosely based on War and Peace (allegedly - Yes used to go big! "Tales" was based on Hindu scriptures).

There is a longish cacophonic build up which, I think, represents war followed by a track called "Soon" - a desperate soulful plea for peace).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cGtjr-U5bT4

I love it when a musical instrument conveys so much feeling.

Anyway, I hope your black dog runs away quickly.