Certain bin collection areas have repeated issues. There are 12 bins areas in total and the majority of collection areas have no major problems. We want to ensure residents understand the situation on the whole development rather than just the bin collection area they use.
Poor individual waste practices are an issue for many other developments and councils so our challenges are part of a wider issue. We have received several suggestions to mitigate poor practices and we have investigated all of them. We have also received feedback on the general management of the bin collection areas. The following are our responses:
LOCKS: we cannot put locks on bin collection doors because all residents have the right to use all bin collection areas on the development. This enables residents to use another bin collection area if the one closest to them is full. BIFFA also need to be able to access all the bin areas to collect the waste.
CCTV: there are a number of reasons why this is not a suitable option:
1) privacy laws mean that we are not allowed to share photographs which identify offenders.
2) CCTV requires electricity and there is not always power near the bin area. This option also requires someone to review the video footage regularly. We would need to buy this review service and therefore would need to be add the cost to our budget. It would also require someone to investigate the identity of the offender and to go through the correct legal processes to bring about legal action.
BIGGER BIN CAPACITY/INDIVIDUAL BINS: we have, on several occasions, had the bins inspected by the council. They have advised us that we have correct total capacity of bins for the number of units on our development, according to their capacity setting process. Hayley, our Property Manager at First Port, continues to discuss options with the Manager responsible for our site at BIFFA. One suggestion is to reinstate individual bins in Villa Close. No matter what the capacity of the bins are, every single resident of every age needs to take responsibility for the correct disposal of their waste.
BINS NOT EMPTIED: if your bins have not been emptied you can report this to BIFFA within 24 hours of the collection day.
CLEANING AND CLEARING OF BIN AREAS: this service is included in our annual service charge. We incur additional charges when a bin is “contaminated” and not collected ie. it overfills and becomes an issue. BIFFA will only empty bins when the contamination has been dealt with. We have increased the frequency of bin area cleaning in the ‘problem’ areas to monthly from quarterly to manage these more closely. The increased frequency mean an increased fee, which will be included in every residents’ annual service charge. During 2018/2019, we had not allowed for additional cleaning charges, so we had to reduce expenditure in another budget area.
We regularly post reminders about waste management on First Port’s “Your Property On Line” page, FaceBook, Newsletters and individual mailings.
You can also find information about waste collection on this website, including where the local recycling depot is and SODC’s Binzone where you can check what waste goes where. The Wallingford Facebook Recycling page and Freecycle are other options to dispose of items that you can’t put into bins.
As waste management is a ‘hot topic’ for all residents, we would like to set up a working party to work alongside the Resident Directors and our Property Manager to discuss recommendations that can be trialled on the development to manage this situation even better. We could also, perhaps, have a volunteer for each bin area to ‘monitor’ its use more closely. If you would be willing to be part of the working party or be a volunteer ‘monitor’ please either email us at board@cholseymeadows.org or message us via our FaceBook page.