The real experience of real people……
Received by email from a constituent today:
Well here we go then its day one and already its causing trouble.
The new bins have been delivered and me being 5ft nothing couldn’t get the bins out and when I got help with that the instruction pack was firmly stuck to the bottom of a wet bin. The only way to get it out was upend the bin and give it a good thump.
To add insult to injury my old bin had not been emptied. My next door neighbours had only been half emptied so I phone the council waste people. They have assured me that they will come back and collect it. I wait with anticipation. In the mean time my neighbour has filled he food waste bin with rotting fruit which leaves no room for more food so if they wont collect that when they come back she is stuck till next week. I thought that I would give my food waste bin a try so put the liner in and then put some waste food in. The liner was so thin it imploded and the food missed the liner completely. Guess what, that’s the first and last time I will use that.
Two of my other neighbours had to chase the bin men to get them to take all of their rubbish as they had only taken half of it.
Not the best of starts!
Surbiton Forum 
I sent an email to Kingston, key points below
Friday 3/10 2 garden waste bags (£70 per year), 2 green boxes, 1 brown food bin and 1 white cardboard bag left on drive. One van took the garden waste,a second van the food and cardboard. 3.42pm the green boxes not emptied. Phoned council and boxes collected 4/10aturday
Friday 10/10 I put out all of the above plus my new landfill black bin. The 2 garden waste bags were emptied, at 11am the landfill bin emptied. I rang council at 2.35pm and again at 4pm and was told they were very busy. I explained that the contractor needed to make sure they have enough vans and staff to operate the contract.I was assured the bins would be collected on Saturday. They were not.
Monday 13/10 I rang at 10.30 and explained all of the above. I was horrified to be told ” they do not have to collect Saturday it is only voluntary. The contract states within one working day” So if they miss a Friday collection of food waste it is OK to leave it until Monday. NO it is not. Its now the 11th day and the man on the phone says “it SHOULD be collected today”. It wasn’t. It was collected early Tuesday 14/10
A lady from the call centre did ring to apologise today.
On week one they use 3 vans and week two 4 vans, what about the carbon footprint. Clearly the contractors and Kingston have underestimated how much recycling the residents were going to generate.
Now that landfill waste is only being collected fortnightly I need to waste resources washing all the food residue off packaging that can’t be recycled ( that’s another issue that manufacturers and retailers need to address) but to leave food out for over a week is disgusting and the temperatures over the weekend reached 23 degrees!
I want to help the planet but Kingston needs to get this right or loose any goodwill over the scheme.
You have hit the nail on the head when you ask how can the number of vehicles used to collect our rubbish br environmentally friendly. I too ask why each van has to make 2 trips up the road. Answer ” Its too dangerous for the men to cross a road that they have blocked up”
The rest of your points are the same that I have been asking from befor the new scheam started. To date I have not had any sensible answers.
In truth I think the whole thing stinks not just the food bins. Lets get back to the old way of doing things. It worked and as it worked why change.
Today is the 4th week of the system and once again they have failed. Today the green boxes of paper and bottles cans etc have not been collected. Today was supposed to be all the 4 vans including landfill. When will they get it right
Dear Bridget
Guess what. The week before last was a non landfill day but they emptied our bins. Do you think they had nothing to do at the tip because of the two weekly collections and had to go out to look for work. Im not complaining as it gave more room in the bins. I am waiting to see if it happens again tomorrow as this too is a non landfill week. Who is confused now us or them????