Daily Mail launches campaign against `monstrous wheelie bins` - update
The Daily Mail newspaper has launched a campaign to “stop monstrous wheelie bins engulfing our streets” called Not in My Front Yard.
In today’s edition (18 June) of the Daily Mail, it devotes seven pages to the campaign and says that there is a “bin explosion” blighting “our streets and gardens”.
The newspaper is calling on town halls to let council tax payers choose between wheelie bins, ordinary dustbins or biodegradable bags. It says that some residents have had the wheelie bin system forced on them and some have up to three or four to put their rubbish in.
Wheelie Bin Direct is a Birmingham-based wheelie bin manufacturer and distributor. In response to the Daily Mail story, managing director Clive O’Riordan told MRW: “From an aesthetic point of view wheelie bins can be a blight on the landscape and they do not compliment a picturesque village within suburbia – the Daily Mail do have a point. They can look very unsightly in congested areas in inner city London. For example, take Lewisham Council in London. They have big blue metal containers on every street and they look ghastly.
“But the reality is that we have to move forward. In a couple of months time the Daily Mail would have moved on to a campaign against off-shore wind turbines. With the ban on fox-hunting, black bags can now be easily ripped apart by foxes. But with wheelie bins you can minimise manual handling. With black bags bin men can lift up to three bags weighing 20 kilos each. There is also a number of syringe and drug users who put syringes in the bags and bin men are at risk from hurting themselves. Using wheelie bins prevents injuries.
“The reality is that we need wheelie bins to contain and manage our waste and they are here to stay. There is no viable alternative to the wheelie bin otherwise industry would have found one by now.”
O’Riordan said that wheelie bins were “ugly” but a “necessary evil”.
He added that he agreed with the Daily Mail when it said that some councils fuelled the campaign by giving out three of four different bins and had acted ‘Big Brotherish’ when putting in microchips in bins to generate revenue. He explained that the Daily Mail had a lack of news stories to write after exhausting the MP expenses scandal stories.
A Local Government Association spokesman said: “There is no one-size-fits-all answer when it comes to bin collections. What works in inner-city London won't necessarily work in rural Norfolk. In order to keep council tax low, councils give out the types of bins and run collections that will help people in their area recycle as much as possible.
“Town halls want to make recycling easy so people are encouraged to recycle more. Councils know their residents best and will run the type of bin collection that is best for people in their area. Over the last five years, people have doubled the amount of rubbish they’re recycling. Town halls have been crucial in helping people to recycle more, keeping council tax down in the process, and do not need to be told what type of bin collection to operate.'
O’Riordan concluded that there needed to be a central policy that local authorities could refer to so that they knew which bin system they could choose. He said: “There is no central cohesion that is the problem.”
A LARAC spokeswoman said: “Gone are the days when you only had one bin for rubbish and now most people accept the need for multiple containers to enable us to implement effective and efficient recycling and waste services.
“Many council’s have opted for wheeled bins as they are an effective way of containing rubbish with a minimum footprint (i.e. a 240-litre bin will hold the equivalent of three to four black sacks) and, especially in the case of food waste, preventing attack by animals or the mess that can be left behind by spiting over-filled bags.
“There are valid health and safety reason too for wheeled bins, for example avoidance of needle sticks as well as injury (for both the residents and crews) from incorrect lifting of heavy bags or boxes.
“As always LARAC supports local authorities in their rights to choose the correct collection system and containers it feels are best for its residents.”
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