Oldham Metropolitan Borough – Environmental Services
Street Scene – EVA /Inspection Recording Sheet

Date of Inspection: 3rd January, 2007                                                        Area /Estate: Diggle

Inspection Completed by: Residents Group/ Environmental Services

• 2 Working days to refer to another department or agency
• 2 Working days to refer to ( …………) when advice required

Waste Disposal

Joanne Stanley and Paul Ogden from Waste Services at Oldham Council came to the Executive meeting on Tuesday, 24th April 2007.  Beforehand I had met with a member who wanted to discuss issues with them and I had also collected points made by members through e-mail.
Joanne and Paul said the government had signed up to a European Union Waste Disposal Directive in 1999.  Last year  (up to 31.3.07) Oldham Council was expected to recycle 21% of its waste.  Oldham actually achieved a recycling rate of around 16%, i.e. the recycling tonnage a percentage of the waste produced (recycling tonnage plus refuse tonnage). Stockport Council currently recycles the most in Greater Manchester at around 36% and Antwerp Belgium a massive 77%.   Ultimately the Council will have to reach a recycling rate of 33% by 2015. If we do not reduce the amount of waste sent to landfill sites the Council will be liable for fines and that will come out of our pockets, or mean a decreased level of service.  Fines will start in 2010 when the UK must reduce the amount of biodegradable waste sent to landfill to 75% of 1995 level. 
Currently the Council provides black wheelie bins, which are emptied weekly. The prohibition of using extra black bags outside the bin has been relaxed, but this is at the discretion of the crews and an Enforcement Officer will be employed at a later date to ensure compliance.   Later this year in part of Oldham (unlikely to be Saddleworth) there will be a small pilot to collect refuse bins fortnightly. However, households in this pilot area will receive a waste collection every week, i.e. one week refuse and the next week recycling. As the pilot will be on a small scale it will allow resources to be put into the area to sort out any potential problems quickly. A report out on 25.4.07 indicated that those Councils, which collect fortnightly, are better at re-cycling e.g. Bolton in this area.
Black boxes are provided for glass bottles and jars, food and drinks' cans, foil, and any plastic bottle with a screw top.   Collection is fortnightly. Currently the Council can NOT take any other form of plastic e.g. wrapping for strawberries from supermarkets or the upright plastic containers in which fruit juices are packaged. There are currently no facilities in the North West that recycle these kinds of plastic.   Plastic pots, kitchen and garden waste should not be put in these boxes.    It was acknowledged the black boxes' lids are ill-fitting.  Many lids have been lost. However, the new style of black box has clips on, which make it more secure.   Anyone who wants a replacement, or a second box/ lid should call Contact Oldham on 0161 770 1198, or email contact@oldham.gov.uk who should then oblige. 
Green wheelie bins are not universally supplied and some houses without a garden or with only a small area do not need them.  However, there are houses, which do need this provision, and Oldham Council is currently expanding this service. If anyone needs a green bin they should also call Contact Oldham on 0161 770 1198, or email contact@oldham.gov.uk to see if this service is available in their area. It would be helpful if there are several houses together who need one that their requests are coordinated e.g. houses in the Kiln Green area.
Newspapers etc are collected in Green Plastic Bags again on a fortnightly basis. Cardboard will be collected later on this year, probably in these bags but not currently. No cardboard, envelopes, directories, yellow pages or plastic bags should be put in these bags.
Comments were made about the rather lackadaisical way in which some staff deal with refuse that is accidentally dropped during a pick up.  Paul explained that currently 60% of his staff are agency workers but this is being rectified and there should be a distinct improvement once the workers are employed by the council with more control over staff.
The only communal collection point in Diggle is located on the Car Park at the railway end of Sam Road.  That is considered sufficient. There is no place for a second anyway.  Cans, including tin foil, newspapers and glass bottles (marked green but any colour glass bottle can be put in) can be left there.
Anyone who is unaware of the cycle of collections should phone Contact Oldham on 0161 222 6644 or email Contact@oldham.gov.uk
The council are planning to run a series of Focus Groups across the Borough and joanne.stanley@oldham.gov.uk / tel: 0161 770 1198 would be pleased to hear from anyone who feels they have points to make which would help the council to look at ways of improving the waste and recycling service.

Royce G. Franklin,

 Secretary Diggle Community Assication