Petition over Shropshire cardboard collections set up
Friday 18th November 2011, 10:59AM GMT.
A new online petition has been launched in protest at plans to end kerbside cardboard collections in Shropshire.
From the end of the month, more than 130,000 homes in the county will face a ban on putting cardboard in garden waste following a decision by waste firm Veolia, which is responsible for disposing of rubbish for Shropshire Council.
As a result, households wanting to recycle their cardboard will have to take it to one of the county’s five household recycling centres or to dedicated recycling banks.
But an online petition, launched by Shrewsbury resident Patrick Cosgrove, has called for the council to reverse the decision and reinstate the kerbside cardboard collections.
Click here to visit the petition
“Shropshire Council has failed to find an alternative use for waste cardboard now that it cannot be used for organic garden compost,” said the petition, which has been launched on the council’s website.
“Its only advice to householders is to drive to a recycling centre to dispose of it, but it will then be sent to landfill. Meanwhile many local authorities, including Telford, continue to collect cardboard and dispose of it in a sustainable fashion.
“Some local authorities in the UK are actually beginning to collect waste cardboard. Shropshire Council must work harder and faster to find a way of disposing of waste cardboard without sending it to landfill.”
The petition, which went live on November 11 and is due to run until January 31, has collected more than 100 signatures.
News of the petition was welcomed by councillor Jon Tandy, who said he was disappointed alternative arrangements for collection have not been made.
He said that Shropshire Council should look at the system used by Telford & Wrekin, which involves cardboard being collected in separate bags.
“They should have come up with something. If Telford can do it, so can we. Why didn’t they put something in place before?,” he said.
“It gives a mixed message about recycling.”
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I wonder what good this petition will do?
The collection has stopped – for the moment – not because Shropshire Council has had a hissy fit, but because their chosen method of dealing with the cardboard, which was to compost it in this country, rather than ship it to China has been undermined because there are no composters who will take it.
This is because if they DO take it, the metallic inks are deemed to have contaminated the compost so they cant sell it – or even give it away, and they get fined. Most of them are smallish firms who can’t afford to be fined.
The curbside collections are geared to a particular way of disposing of “green” waste and cardboard is no longer classified as “green”.
So at the moment the only solution in the short term appears to be to bung it all in landfill – which is expensive too – and work out plan B. So it goes in Bin B where it used to go in Bin A
AS I understand it, if I put the card in the general waste it will STILL be collected – it just won’t count towards the overall recycling target.
I am sure that curbside collections wil be resumed as soon as a way of collecting it – but keeping it separate from other waste material has been worked out.
Funny really – when separate collections came in people were complaining left right and centre about how much of an imposition it was, and now…….
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and now……
people are complaining because we will still only get fortnightly collections, so all the card that used to go in bin A won’t fit in bin B, bring back weekly collections and very few people will even care.
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Oswestrian you do talk some untruths dont you. There is no issue with metalic inks in compost at all. And you may need to get compost accredited to PAS100 to sell it in a garden centre but you most certainly do not to spread it on land, or give it away or even sell it as a waste product which can be used up and down the country as a fertiliser
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oswestrian, you are a very well-informed citizen. Good for you mate, is your first name Keith, by the way??
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Clearly the Oswestrian county councillor has been misinformed – perhaps she/he should do some homework on this subject rather than just rely on gossip
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Recently I wrote the following to Shropshire Council and The Shropshire Star.
It seems to me and many others that the council’s decision over cardboard collection is ill thought out and totally inefficient.
At this time of year garden waste is at a minimum yet with the advent of Christmas cardboard will increase exponentially.
So we will finish up in the situation that the garden bins will remain, more or less empty for months, and cardboard will inevitably be placed in with the household rubbish.
The refuse collection people will have little to do alternate weeks etc and yet we the public are expected to go to specific sites to recycle cardboard.
I assume that as we, the public, are to become refuse disposal officers paying for transport ourselves that there will be a reduction in our council tax to reflect the extra costs and the time saved by low use of correct personnel.
This problem should have been sorted long before now. The garden bins should have been swapped to cardboard collection for 3-4 months until a suitable alternative is found.
DO NOT try and make us the public feel guilty about recycling as the problem lies fairly, squarely and entirely with Shropshire council.
The standard PAS 100:2011 was released in January 2011. Why has Shropshire taken so long to not sort things out??????
When I received a reply it was unconvincing and contrived and I further replied….
Why, when the directive was released in January, has it taken 10 months by Shropshire to not sort anything out! PAS 100:2011 was issued in January 2011
Telford introduced a blue bag scheme some time ago that seems to work.
Failure on Shropshire’s behalf should not be passed on to us the council tax payers. We should not be expected to go out of our way and pay extra for the councils failure.
Kind regards
Ian Pollitt
My basic article was also sent to Cris Burn at Shropshire Star who ran an article.
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councillors should be debating this anyway without being forced to by this petition.
they have a duty to hold their contractors to account and get value for money and defend the public interest.
this expensive, illigitimate, opaque PFI contract with Veolia is clearly not in the public interest and should be terminated
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@ Daz Man , I totaly agree, Veolia Clearly are not interested in Providing the services required by their Customers (the Council tax payers of Shrewsbury) therefore the Contract should be terminated.
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im sorry but these people just dont have a clue
have we handed over our bin colection services to a bunch of amateurs or what
my 5 yr old could do a better job
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If Veolia cant do the Job they get paid to do by the Council tax payers of Shrewsbury then they should be replaced ! just another example of the poor service they provide !
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Blame it on the councillors who gave Veolia a 27-year contract. No private company should be guaranteed 27 years worth of public money and then be allowed to pick and choose what they do for it.
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well come on folk dont just sit there reading it
SIGN IT
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its needs 1,000 sigs so please tell your friends and get signing peeps
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i’ve signed.
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Please sign it everyone, I have. This is a joke, they can’t just stop recycling cardboard.
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Such a backwards idea to stop recycling.
get into the 21st century Shropshire council and think of the future.
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Why don’t we build an incinerator and burn it instead…
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pathetic excuses for a pathetic service from a pathetic council.
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Bring back cardboard recycling NOW!
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i think this contract should be reviewed it does seem a major folly to lock into 27 years for anything. i mean you wouldnt sign up to a 27 year contract for your gas or electricity bills, would you?
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they should have put this off until after christmas its rediculous to have trucks running all over shropshire to collect about 1 in 50 bins which may actually contain any garden waste whatsoever its just mad
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oswestrian is right, the cardboard can no longer be composted because of the inks etc in the card. So Helen, yes there is an issue with the inks. And Andy P and Michael F, what fantastic pub style arguments you have put forward. Oh dear. Great to see such positivity. It was not a decision by Shropshire Council to stop collecting cardboard in the garden waste bins. If you all care so much about recycling, stop whining and do something useful about it. G’night
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I have checked the PAS100 standard online and this simply is not true. Most of the ink used on packaging these days is vegetable oil based not petroleum oil based ink and its certainly not toxic.
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Wrong tentacle your misinformed ink on food packaging is non-toxic (hence you’re not dead) :)
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I dont blame the Council I blame Veolia it is their job to pick up the bins, they get paid enough of our taxes, simply withhold the payment for a few weeks and they will i guarenttee come up with a way of collecting it then
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The petition will be as effective as the waste-of-time petition that Wakeman School “organised”.
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This is simply rediculous, i have so much cardboard every week, there is no space in my black bin and no space in the house
I pay £1,200 a year to them for this so called service!
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Having checked online it seems that PAS100 does not ban cardboard from being composted as claimed by Councillors. I think its a very serious matter indeed when the council are providing false information to mislead the public on this.
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DO NOT try and make us the public feel guilty about recycling as the problem lies fairly, squarely and entirely with Shropshire council.
To quote Mr Pollit. The “problem”lies fairly and squarely with the council.Really? And what is it that you are doing that is making such great strides towards recycling? Have you thought about asking the shops you buy items from if they will take back the packaging? Ask your self that everything you buy/consume, do you “need”? Thought so. We all have a responsibility to recycle and as soon as you start leaving the responsibility to someone else, that can’t be healthy surely.
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So how did you make the intergalactic leap from cardboard to Wakeman Nori…sorry, PortHillBoy. You’ve just got to let it go man.
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Let me speak slowly for you.
My message was about the futility of petitions and the kneejerk reaction of the Star whenever there was one.
Better?
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Cool.
Petitions are mearly a means of gauging the strength of feeling, the result hopefully being the initiation of further discussion. They provide an easy route by which the public can participate. Of course I’d like everyone with an objection to put pen to paper and register their dissaproval but realistically this won’t happen.
The Star should be lauded for it ‘knee jerk’ articles which highlight time and time again the undemocrtic diktat’s issued by the lords of the Shire.
And yes Lord Boy, better. I now understand precisely where you are coming from.
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Port Hill Boy,
I understand the point you’re making, even though it seems a bit of a bleak way to view the world. What I don’t get is why you chose to use The Wakeman to make your point. After all, in about a fortnight we’ll have the outcome of the school’s Appeal and I seem to remember you pledging to show your bum on the Guildhall steps if the school stays open. If I were you I think I’d be keeping quiet about The Wakeman and stocking up on hot water bottles just in case- this mild weather can’t go on forever and nobody wants frostbite for Christmas!
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Regardless of my views on Wakeman, let’s hope the Adjudicator rejects Shropshire Council’s attempt to close the school.
It will be worth it for the spectacle of Port Hill Boy’s rosy cheeks.
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For £140,000 a year we get a Prime Minister to run the army, hospitals, roads, pensions etc Yet in Shropshire their cheif executive is paid over £200,000 a year and yet they cant even run a bin collection service
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How many people live in Shropshire? And how many have signed the petition?
As a percentage it will be less than 1%.
So Shropshire council can be deemed right to stop collecting cardboard if the majority of Shropshire residents are happy with this stance.
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The petition has only just started, so maybe hold off on the clever comments until it’s been going a week at least. I haven’t spoken to a person yet who wants a stop to cardboard collection.
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The petition rather depends upon those whom use this web site or read the local paper on the day it is printed. Nothing to do with the population of Shropshire if they are not ALL aware of the petition.
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this is maddening. i have just bought a huge flatscreen tv. the cardboard box is huge. far too big for any bin. i am not mobile. what can i do with it. this is beyond a joke
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I would suggest filling the box with something about the same weight as your flat screen TV, resealing the box and leaving it somewhere near your garden gate. Perhaps put a ‘Sorry you were out’ card on it.
Doubt it’ll still be there in the morning.
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So what happens to the cardboard when we take it to the recycling centre at Battlefield? We are made to separate it from all other rubbish and put in one specific bay, so why do we do that if it’s just sent to landfill? I thought that the idea of it being separate was that it was recycled in some way, so if that’s the case why can’t they do the same with a kerbside cardboard collection?
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Good point!
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ny understanding is that all cardboard recycling for the UK is done in China alledgedly it goes there but do they really recycle it ?
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Wether it be Shropshire Council or Veolia who made the decision to stop the roadside cardboard collection, it is still us the council tax payers of Shropshire who will pay either way. Shropshire Council face a huge tax bill if they fail to meet government recycling targets. I contacted Veolia about the recycling of plastic bags. They told me it was contamination of foodstuffs that made it uneconomical to recycle, interesting this given that we are being urged to use less plastic bags and being charged at the checkout! However, doesn’t seem to be a problem for supermarkets like Sainsbury’s who provide a recyling point! Think Veolia are in the wrong line of business!
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sounds like the tail is wagging the dog to me
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Yet again shropshire council making headlines for all the wrong reasons this is simply shambolic just pick it up its not that complicated, get a man or men and a van and go and pick it up its not acceptable to form a commitee and think about it for 6 months and write some strategies and put it out to tender and get legal advice for 6 months that wont get my cardboard picked up will it! no it must be action now not words please this is simply not on. Go and hire a van and go and pick it up NOW! this MUST be done. Just do it! Get a van and do it now. any extra petrol costs will be covered by the cardboard income sales easily and any extra vehicle costs well that simply should just send the bill to Veolia Ltd. in Paris, they have a moral and a contractual obligation to honour their contract with the people of shropshire who fund their company profits and pay their wages
if they cant do it they should be sacked
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I read with great interest the as ever incitful mr willy kerswell writing in the shrewsbury chronicle this morning as he rightly pointed out inks used on cardboard are vegetable based and fully biodegradable and compatable with composting. This was backed up by an official scientific farming journal.
So what is the councils excuse now?
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they are planning on spending £600 million of taxpayers money on incinerating waste over the coming years and yet they wont even invest a few thousand in avoiding the need for that by recycling more.
this is the economics of the madhouse
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Mr Ian Pollitt, entry no 6 above is being less than truthful with you all. He is quite well aware that the council were not able to plan to sort the cardboard problem out ‘long before now’ but he chooses to spout only what suits his point of view – credibility rating 0
Mr Pollitt suggests changing the collection around in the short term but he has not explained by what magic this would be communicated across Shropshire. There is an automatic assumption in his plan that everyone will get it right and they won’t. Someone will then have to clear up the mess and pay for the clearup – and it won’t be Mr Pollitt.
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