Rubbish

Hallmark March 1988. Report by Count Councillor Denis Hart.

'' Rubbish "! The last time I wrote about the Council's plans for your rubbish I was berated by one correspondent for our trying to run it at least cost to you, although if I had followed his advice, I believe many more would have objected, but since major decisions have been made concerning rubbish I must outline them for you, whilst giving our Editor copies of the detail for those more interested. The County organises waste collection and disposal and WDC act as our agents in doing the local job, as they do for collecting the rates and putting salt on the roads. The Act of 1974 has been introduced over the years in digestible sections the latest three coming into full force next month, where the various types of waste and who pays for it are defined. There are some curious definitions, because Village Hall waste is free, but is not 100% free for pubs, similarly waste from religious communities, royal palaces, campsites and penal institutions is free.

Collection charges are imposed for waste which does not fit into the standard sacks issued, for dead pets, garden waste, caravan sites, hospitals and schools, together with certain types of waste from royal palaces, prisons etc., so there may be problems ahead. Our general objective is to make waste pay for itself, but not to be so difficult that folk would rather dump it at the roadside as so many do now because that costs more to collect, so it is something of a tight-rope, and although we dispose of more waste per head than the national average, and it costs us more for the same reason, it only costs the domestic ratepayer about two thirds of the national average, so despite my critic we are not far from getting it right.

There are some new definitions, aimed at stopping builders etc., from dumping their waste free, and similarly with toxic or dangerous waste which is more common than one might imagine coming from hospitals containing needles, syringes, radioactive substances and so on. Sewage, tunnelling products, and waste from aircraft are not handled free, primarily because of the cost of dealing with it, although one citizen who put a block of ice dropped from a Boeing 707 in his deepfreeze to preserve the evidence was dismayed to learn what it was, and pay for its disposal. Waste from photographic operations is often both valuable since it contains silver and can be very dangerous since it contains both carcinogenic and highly corrosive substances which destroy normal waste pipes. Paintworks, laundries, signwriters, and oil or its derivatives all attract prohibitions, as does clothes cleaning solvents, so if you wash anything in carbon tetrachloride to get stains out beward what you do with it. Some types of waste are extraordinarily difficult to dispose of, and costly which is why we try to balance the budget with the costs so that the fewest are affected, but we must recognise that mercury, nuclear contaminated materials (e.g. from hospital X Ray rooms) and AIDS contaminated waste have got to be disposed of safely which means handling by someone.