An online poll conducted over the five days since Bury Council announced it was proposing to introduce a three-weekly collection of the main ‘grey’ bins has shown that 90% of residents are opposed to the change.

Almost 800 people have taken part in the online survey so far, which asked people if they agreed with the proposals to change to a three-weekly collection:

Do you agree with Bury Council’s proposal to collect our grey bins once every three weeks?

As Liberal Democrats we’re hugely committed to recycling, so we asked residents for ideas people felt worked best to enable Bury residents to recycle more:

What ideas would you support to increase the amount of recycling in Bury?

 
The questions were:
Smaller Grey Bins (for everyone)
Smaller Grey Bins (optional)
Increased education and information about recycling
Fines or penalties for not recycling
Financial incentives to encourage recycling
Reducing packaging from local supermarkets
More garden composting
Other

If you’ve not taken part you still can here.

Your Views and Ideas
People submitted hundreds of other comments and ideas which we’ll be collating and analysing over the next few days.

Here are just a few of them:

“It is ridiculous to reduce collections of general waste before putting the correct recycling facilities in place. Bury do not accept many plastic items and these are bulky, so the grey bins are full in a fortnight.”

“This proposed policy penalises those with babies (we will have 2 in nappies for a short while), the sick/disabled and any others who may produce slightly more non-recycable waste but cannot get themselves to the tip. These people will possibly have stinking bins outside their back door for 3 weeks. If you miss a collection (unavoidably) you are in trouble! This policy has led to fly tipping elsewhere which will cost the council more money. This should be a last resort with all avenues pursued to help people recycle first.”

“We recycle most of our waste and still struggle with having a full grey bin within a week, let alone 2 weeks. If the service went 3 weekly we would not manage. I am not 100% up to speed as to what plastics are recyclable and which are not, so more help in this area would be welcome.”

“We are a family of five, our bin over flows now at two weeks we have to sometimes go to the tip with our extra bags of rubbish as it is, because we don’t want the cats/dogs /fox’s getting into out rubbish! I cannot believe this is even an option unbelievable!!!!!”

“There are two of us in our house and we downsized to the smaller Bin a few months ago which only takes 3 or 4 Black bags. We recycle all paper,cardboard,bottles and grass and our Bin is full every two weeks but so are the neighbours with bigger bins and four or five people living in the house. Sometimes lids are left ajar as they can’t fit it all in. Once every two weeks is bad enough. Some countries get collections 2 or three times a Week!!!!! Will Bury council now be reducing our council tax for this reduced service? How do they feel about the increase in the carbon footprints as most of us will have to go the Skip with our excess Rubbish. Really appalling decision. The Rats of Bury must be dancing and laughing in the sewers”

“Most supermarket packaging is not able to be recycled – this is where the real issue lies. Yoghurt pots, jelly pots, some fruit juices with plastic tops, ready meal trays, packaging for fruit, fish etc. This is the reason why the main grey bin is always full up so quickly and why it is impossible to go to a 3 week empty on this bin. As a family we recycle everything that we can but many items cannot be recycled and that’s the problem.”

“As a family of two adults and one child I struggle to see why the council feel three weeks is suitable. We recycle all bottles and cans, in fact our blue bin is 85/90% full every collection along with the cardboard bin being completely full each collection. We recycle far more than I thought was possible and I’m proud of that fact. My mindset has changed over the years from when everything went in the grey bin and that’s fantastic.

“As a family of two adults and one child I struggle to see why the council feel three weeks is suitable. We recycle all bottles and cans, in fact our blue bin is 85/90% full every collection along with the cardboard bin being completely full each collection. We recycle far more than I thought was possible and I’m proud of that fact. My mindset has changed over the years from when everything went in the grey bin and that’s fantastic. Having said that I feel two weeks is manageable for us as a 3 person family. It will be completely unmanageable with 3 week collections. That problem would be exacerbated should any more people live in this house. There will be an increase in fly tipping if this ludicrous idea is brought in. Reduction in packaging should be the first step rather than taking away a service that is just about adequate.”

“This is a dreadful idea. We recycle all the time and our bin is at full capacity at emptying time. I have two young children. The risk of rats and maggots is not to be underestimated”

“More bottle bins or recycle points near to supermarkets or place people visit often so it is easy recycle”

“We make full use of all 4 bins and try not to buy items with excessive packaging but with a growing family we only just manage with the grey bin emptied every 2 weeks.”
“I agree that we should re-cycle more and be encouraged to do so but as general waste needs to be decreased there should be mechanisms to enable more plastics to be accepted.”

“We are a family of 6 and cannot cope with the fortnightly collections. We have to use our elderly neighbours grey bin also we have use the local tip, I am very conscious about the environment and recycle everything we can.”

“I noticed that one of the key aims of this change is to promote recycling. I feel that it would also help the situation if a wider range of plastic recycling was included within the blue bin. For example plastic containers (such as yoghurt pots, margarine/ice cream tubs, fruit/vegetable punnets, cream/custard pots, plastic trays e.g meat/fish/cake trays, soup/sauce pots, plastic cups, empty plastic bags, carrier bags and film).”

“My bin is usually too full to close by collection day and I live ALONE. How are families supposed to deal with this? I recycle religiously and absolutely nothing goes in my grey bin that can be recycled, ever, but I do have 2 house cats. My bin smells enough as it is, can you imagine how bad it will be with 3 week old used cat litter in. Even with the litter in individual bags!!”

“Bury council should do more to inform citizens exactly what can and can’t be recycled. The information on the website does not have enough detail.There is a lot more the council could do first before asking it’s citizens to accept a reduced service, such as recycling absorbent hygiene products and recycling lower grade polymers. This would reduce the amount of grey bin waste significantly.”

“Supermarkets produce most of my grey bin contents with plastic packaging, but the inability of Bury Council to recycle PET/plastic cartons is another stumbling block.”
“Stuff is often put in grey / black bins because it is not acceptable to be put in the other bins due to that item not being acceptable by Bury Metro for recycling…
There should be less restriction on what can go in recycling bins. The current information is confusing and frustrating. EG I can put a clear plastic bottle in my blue bin but a clear plastic container which had contained fruit cannot. To the uninitiated this makes no sense at all. Therefore it is put in the black bin. Citizens are then accused of not recycling; enough! We are trying – so help us to recycle more by making more things acceptable for recycling.”

“I feel outraged about the council’s plans to only empty the grey bins every 3 weeks. It would only cause problems in practical ways and antagonism towards the council.”
“As a family of 5 with 2 extra children at weekends, the current waste facilities are far from adequate.
I’m sure that for single people and couples this will be fine bit not for us, and I suspect many others feel the same way. If this goes through I would like to know the council can justify it.”

“I do not agree with this proposal. We try to recycle as much as possible but there are many things that cannot be recycled. E.g. yoghurt pots, many plastic containers etc. despite our best efforts after 2 week our grey bin is full and particularly in the summer smells. To go to 3 weekly collections would make matters worse.”

“The idea to stretch it out another week is laughable. The quantity of materials accepted by the council is minimal and will be off putting to the majority. Increase the types of plastics allowed and recycling will increase naturally”
“Recycling should be encouraged however there needs to be a line between recycling and cleanliness. The grey bins fill extremely quickly and we recycle everything. However having a baby with nappies and also 2 dogs, getting the bins done every 3 weeks means the smell is going to be horrendous. I can honestly say we don’t use our small brown bin due to the smell!! It was very unhygienic, a terrible idea! And especially in summer when all the flys are drawn to it! Disgusting! I do agree with recycling but I also want a safe SMELL FREE home for my baby.”

“I disagree strongly about fining people for refuse mistakes, after all, making an unintentional mistake is not a crime. Clearer instructions is needed, and an extra bin for larger families should they bring in 3 weekly emptying.”

“I have 3 cats and my grey bin is not only full, but also stinks after 2 weeks, so I would not agree with the new proposals. I suspect mothers with babies and children experience the same problem. I also cannot see how increasing collection to 3 weeks will, in any way, increase recycling.”

“There is a disincentive to recycling paper and cardboard because the green bin gets too full too quickly and so the rest has to go in the grey bin. There are too many plastic products which cannot presently be recycled in Bury despite their having recycling logos on them. e.g. yoghurt cartons, plastic trays, etc.”

“How do you justify this proposal – surely it must contravene health & safety regulations? It must encourage vermin – rats mice foxes etc. Personally, I’d rather pay a little extra community charge and have my cardboard tin/glass recycling collected 3 weekly and my normal garbage collected weekly. I think this is a ridiculous proposal. I am strongly in favour of financial penalties for those who don’t recycle.”

“Composters should be made more readily available and be free to replace brown bin. More plastic recycling should be offered for plastic packaging/bags etc not just PTE bottles”
I live alone, but recycle everything possible. My principle content of the grey bin will be mostly soft plastic and containers that cannot be recycled with bottles etc. + a small amount of cooked items (mostly bones) that cannot be recycled but are securely wrapped in the soft plastic. My bin therefore never suffers smells and so a 3 week cycle won’t create a problem for me. If a 3 week cycle save the Council money, great and I’m up for it! More education please for non recyclers. They are costing us money!!”

“We are a family of 4 and we recycle 100%, in fact I’m obsessed with it. Each of our bins is filled to the top at bin collection time, If it goes to 3 weekly I will have excess grey bin rubbish. I think people may fly tip as Prestwich tip is no longer open and most won’t drive to Lumns Lane or Salford.”

“If brown bin was collected weekly and grey bin tri-weekly, the incentive to recycle ALL food waste is explicit. People hate smelly bins. Obviously green and blue bins don’t really smell. Most of the material that makes grey bins smelly is organic waste that should be on the brown bin anyway. So, small brown bin, small grey bin and one and three weeks collections respectively would, I feel, dramatically increase uptake and use of brown bin and thus recycling statistics.”

“If this means that the small brown food waste bins will only be collected every three weeks, there will be health risks. I was away during the last collection and two weeks later my small brown bin was full of maggots.”