New waste collection service failing to deliver

Last Monday morning all the big waste collection bins on Mile End Road were removed by Veolia (the Council's refuse collection contractors)

This was the start of the new waste collection service which aims to collect bagged rubbish in three half an hour time slots EACH DAY.

This Monday this is what it looks like on Mile End Road - some improvement (NOT)!

Bagged Rubbish outside 642 Mile End Road
- two missed collections and still on the street waiting for collection after 12 hours

Time slots for collection

The DAILY time slots for waste collection vary slightly at weekends but basically rubbish should now be collected and removed by Veolia between:

• 7.00 - and 7.30 (general waste and recycling) - when the shopkeepers are not around to put out trade refuse
• 13.00 and 13.30 (general waste only) - which means that the shops which can now put out their waste are totally unable to put out waste for recycling - despite the fact that a large part of their waste is cardboard.
• 23.00 and 23.30  (general waste and recycling) - when the shopkeepers are not around to put out trade refuse.  This effectively means that SHOPKEEPERS ARE UNABLE TO PUT OUT ANY WASTE FOR RECYCLING - which is a complete joke as they are some of the biggest producers of waste for recycling.

The first week is a farce

The thing is the rubbish is NOT being collected at these times.

This makes the notion of enforcement - involving fines for putting rubbish out at the wrong time - a complete farce.  

What is even more puzzling is that when the truck turns up to collect the rubbish, all the rubbish - both black and pink sacks and cardboard - all go in the same truck.  

Questions which need to be answered

• Why is there no time slot for the collection of waste for recycling from the shops?
• Is any recycling collection actually taking place?
• What exactly is the purpose of differentiating what can be put out at different times if it all goes in the same truck?
• How does the Council now collect income from trade refuse left for collection by shopkeepers?

One big mess

This Monday morning the picture at the top of this post is what it now looks like.  Bags of rubbish lying on the pavement for over 12 hours.  The late night collection failed to remove it as did the early morning collection.  Obviously neither collection took place - and this has been reported via the missed collection service

[Update:  The waste collection due between 13.00 and 13.30 also did not happen.  That is now THREE CONSECUTIVE MISSED COLLECTIONS. The waste is now obstructing the BT engineer who is trying to work on the exchange box on the corner of Brokesley Street and Mile End Road.]

We don't think this is a great impression to give visitors to the borough!  Waste left on the street like this also encourages rats - and should not happen.  It needs to stop.

Clearly Tower Hamlets Council and its waste collection service need to sit down with Veolia and sort out what's going wrong.

In principle, the new arrangements are a good idea however they need to be refined and improved.

The Council and Veolia need to recognise that they need to have collection slots which accommodate:

• people who rise and go to bed early (ie people who have to leave for work very early and who are not around for the early morning, midday or late night slots.  Not everybody does a 9-5 job!)
• recycling by shops ie the midday slot need to include recycling - unless of course there is no recycling!
• separation of general and recycling waste if the Council is going to keep payments it has to make for general waste disposal to a minimum
• stop talking about enforcement fines until they've got basic collection practices sorted and reliable!

In the meantime - can somebody get this waste collected please - ASAP!

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