Training for cleansing staff after council workers get rubbish mixed up

Jun 16 2011 by Alastair McNeill, Hamilton Advertiser

COUNCIL cleansing staff have received ‘awareness training’ after a Bothwell resident highlighted they were regularly mixing up recycled material with general refuse.

Gavin Grieve, of Langside Court, noticed a few months ago that the blue bin uplift of recycled items from his building was being contaminated by ordinary household waste every fortnight from black bins from a neighbouring property.

An exasperated Mr Grieve said householders’ efforts to separate refuse was “a waste of time” if council staff threw them all together in the one lorry.

The 69-year-old retired builder explained: “In the past a van would come to the area every Monday, one week to pick up general refuse in the black bins and the other the recycled contents in the blue bins.

“The flats across the road in Silverwood Court have never had blue bins, only black ones.

“They used to pick up the black and blue bins in separate lorries, but not any more.”

Mr Grieve noticed two to three months ago that only one lorry was carrying out the uplift.

He added: “The contents of Silverwood Court’s black bins, however, were being mixed up alongside the contents of everyone’s blue bins.

“One week they get it right and all the black bin content goes together. It’s the second week that it all becomes mixed up. It really makes you wonder why you bother.

“We try to be good citizens and spend a lot of time separating material.

“I called the council and they told me they are allowed to have five per cent ‘contamination’ of the recycled material.

“It’s annoying that people are going to all this bother. You take a lot of pride in getting it right, yet they are just tipping it into one lorry.”

A council spokesman said this week that the authority are currently extending their recycling programme “wherever possible” to include flatted properties.

She added: “We received an enquiry on the mixing of domestic waste with recycled waste on recent blue uplifts in Langside Court.

“We have investigated the matter, have taken steps to correct this, and staff awareness training has taken place.”