Green Box Madness

I’ve lived in the borough of Bromley for over 30 years and have been a home owner in the borough for around six of those.  Though I have only had experience of living and owning a home in one other council area I have always praised Bromley Council against the ‘loony council’ stories which pop up from time to time in the tabloids.  You know the ones I mean “Bin men refuse to take rubbish with live maggot” (because they aren’t trained in handling live animals); or “Council’s anti-terror law paper boy sting” (kind of speaks for itself...).  The kind of stories that usually begin or end with “...you couldn’t make it up...”.  Until recently I’ve never had a major problem with Bromley Council.  It’s here that I’m expected to announce “UNTIL NOW”, but to be honest it’s not a major problem, more of a pondering.

When I moved to Bromley I was pleasantly surprised to find that they had a recycling policy of sorts.  You had a black box for paper and card, a green box apparently for glass and plastic (though this wasn’t always clear) and a main bin for all the rest.  This was collected every week in a time when councils were announcing all over the place that they would be reducing collections to fortnightly. 

Then, around a year ago came the announcement that we had been waiting for, Bromley was going to reduce its main rubbish collection to every two weeks.  This was coupled with an announcement that the council would allow you to recycle practically everything except cellophane.  The new recycling set up was:

• Black box – card and paper
• New box – food waste
• Main bin – non recyclable
• Green box – EVERYTHING ELSE

The collection of the main bin every two weeks is fine if we are able to recycle everything, that makes perfect sense.  Food waste collection every week is also very sensible.  But whoever decided to collect the paper black bin on a weekly basis and the green box that recycles EVERYTHING ELSE on a fortnightly basis has obviously never lived in a house before.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m fully aware that I live in Bromley, where seventeen takeaway menus and a free newspaper coming through the door is a regular daily occurrence.   Add in the papers I buy, other junk mail and cardboard packaging then it would still take me a month to fill the box.  Remember to key think about paper and card is that it is flat..... .  But if you want to collect it weekly, feel free!

Now, the green box is 52cm long, 40 cm wide and 33 cm deep.  Into it I’m supposed to place all of my plastic bottles, glass bottles, drink cans, food tins, aerosol cans, jars, plastic pots, plastic packaging etc.  The thing about glass and plastic bottles and jars is they are very difficult to make flat without some kind of super hot flame system (which would use a lot of gas and probably negate the good achieved by the recycling).  This box is supposed to last me a fortnight.  It is full within 3 days, meaning I have to fill up carrier bags and place glass bottles on the floor around the bin just to make room.  This leads to the recycling being blown all over the place and making a mess on the street (bin men have an aversion to picking up rubbish that is on the floor, even if they’ve dropped it themselves, not just a Bromley occurrence this).

Bromley Council do give the opportunity to request an extra Green Box, we have done in writing, 4 times.   We know others who’ve done the same.  Bromley Council seems to ignore any correspondence regarding recycling.

So Bromley, love the effort so far, but please pick up the main recycling weekly, perhaps at the expense of the unnecessary weekly paper and card collection?  Or failing that stop ignoring me and give me another Green Box!