Efforts to clear the backlog of domestic waste in Birmingham, caused by ongoing industrial action plus increased volumes and severe weather problems over the festive period, continue to gather pace with 1,002 tonnes of black bag rubbish collected from the streets of the city yesterday alone.
This represents a 42% increase on the volume of black bag rubbish that would be collected on a typical Wednesday (707 tonnes).
This waste was collected by a combination of regular crews ‘working to rule’ on their usual Wednesday rounds and 20 additional ‘casual crews’ who have been deployed to help clear the backlog.
Once the further outstanding waste from the bank holidays and festive period is caught up, the casual crews will remain in place working seven days a week, to deal with missed collections and other issues caused by the ongoing industrial action.
Significant amounts of extra waste have also been deposited at the city’s five Household Recycling Centres (HRCs), where visitor numbers have more than doubled over the past week thanks to extended opening hours from 8am to 9pm everyday.
For the fortnight beginning 20th December 2010, 1309 tonnes of waste was deposited at the city’s HRC - this compares to 1,054 tonnes in 2009-10 – an increase of 24%.
Related posts:
Dawney drive (B75 5JA) has not had black bin collection for three weeks, despite Hill Village Road being cleared. They have to pass the bottom of Dawney Drive to do this!! 50% of people living here are very elderly and the bags are a hazard.
In the above statement it refers to the amount of rubbish collected on wednesday as up by 42% as compared to a typical wednesday. Please may I point out that it was not a typical wednesday as normally there is no back log of rubbish. It would be more correct to compare it against the same wednesday last year in January when conditions were similar after the christmas period and bad weather.
Finally – some communication around the issue. The telephone operatives at Waste & Recycling and Environmental Health have had virtually no information of any substance. More of this, sooner – in particular targeted at local residents worst affected – would have eased the problems and improve public opinion.