Lynnbottom Tip reopened last week, but only taking certain types of rubbish, meaning household waste has been starting to pile up for some.
Instances have been occurring across the Island, where black bin bags full of household rubbish have been put into public bins — one case in East Cowes saw the bin bag split and spread litter across the street.
However, the Isle of Wight Council and the waste contractors, Amey, have a policy of only picking up the rubbish that goes inside the black wheelie bins — but take unlimited amounts of recycling.
Extra bags now collected
Island resident, Gary Leal, found that the two extra bags of rubbish he put out on bin day were marked with stickers explaining the waste collectors would not take the excess.
He said:
“I thought during this very difficult time we as a community would pull together and relax some of the rules, especially with regards to waste collection as more waste is being generated at home.
“Unfortunately, this is not the case and our bags were left with a label explaining that they don’t collect extra bags.”
Was told “not be generating more rubbish”
When he called Amey to discuss his options, Mr Leal was told that people should not be generating more rubbish and that it should be mostly recycling anyway.
He said:
“This has left me feeling very upset and disappointed with our local refuse company and I know just by looking about that I am not the only one.
“Their recycling service and customer service are both rubbish, in my opinion.”
Recycle as much as possible
The Isle of Wight Council has said it will phase in taking general waste to the recycling centres over the coming weeks as it tests the social distancing measures, but hope the unlimited recycling collections would encourage more people to maximise recycling collected in the green bins.
A spokesperson said:
“Very few items that are set out at the kerbside are not recyclable, and sadly we still see a lot of recycling set out in black bags.
“There is not significantly more black bag waste and the majority of the Island have responded very well to the council’s encouragement to keep on recycling which has been reflected in significantly more recycling being produced.
“The collection crews are following the correct procedure [putting] stickers on black bags left out alongside bins and reusable sacks — educational training talks and reminders are issued if a crew member is not following the policy.
“The Island has done a fantastic job for the first seven weeks of lockdown keeping their waste down and recycling up, which really does support our key workers at a time when we are stretched to our limits.
“We do ask that residents keep up the amazing effort they have put in.”
This article is from the BBC’s LDRS (Local Democracy Reporter Service) scheme, which OnTheWight is taking part in. Some alterations and additions may be been made by OnTheWight. Ed
Image: Used for illustrative purposes – by Alan Stanton under CC BY 2.0
