Dust-up as baffled families are given five rubbish bins
RECYCLING madness has struck a seaside resort – with residents given five different rubbish containers under a baffling new collection system.
One box is for glass, cardboard and foil and another is for paper, cans, mixed textiles, plastic bottles and aerosols.
Then there are indoor and outdoor bins for food waste and yet another for material that cannot be recycled.
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A total of 60,000 homeowners have been put on the new scheme after being given instructions on how they must throw out waste.
Bemused residents say the system, introduced by Tor2, a joint venture partnership between Torbay Council in Devon and private firm May Guerney, is far too complicated and on the first day this week 6,000 people phoned the council hotline to complain, raging about how long sorting rubbish takes.
Before, householders had just two wheelie bins, one for recycling and one for general waste, which were collected on alternate weeks.
Kay Glover, 72, from Paignton said she had struggled to get through on the phone line to get help with what to do about her food waste.
“I have maggots in my bin, it’s horrible. All week I have been trying to find out what is going on,” she said.
Nicola Hearn, 44, a mother of two from Torquay, said yesterday: “It’s totally confusing, I just don’t know what to put in which bin – it seems so complicated.
“Everybody I’ve spoken to feels the same. I mean – five bins – it was so much simpler with just the two. Every time you want to throw something away you’re left wondering which bin it goes into.”
Tor2 revealed it had to draft in extra bin lorries from Somerset this week to help cope with the new system.
The firm said the aim was to recycle 50 per cent of all waste by 2012, saving an estimated £14million in landfill costs each year.
A spokesman said: “On Monday the weather was appalling which didn’t help with the speed of collections.
“Now the scheme is up and running residents will get used to segregating their rubbish and the collections will be faster.”
But Fiona McEvoy, from The TaxPayers’ Alliance, said: “These schemes are becoming absurd. It’s confusing and alienating residents. Councils shouldn’t forget that taxpayers are their customers. This is an unacceptable service.SDRq
