Rubbish collection

[Helena]

I wonder if the binmen will come round this week - they didn't come at all last week (at least not to me ) and my green bin hasn't been emptied for weeks.

Does anyone know if there's a new collection policy in place?

[hamblemary]

Funny you should say this Helena, two weeks ago my bin wasnt collected, and last week I had a visit from a council lackey who rang my bell 5 times in succession first thing in the morning like he owned the house.
I came out in a towel (I had been in the shower) to discover him looking through my bins.

He said he had come to talk to me about recycling and 'tell me off' for the contents of my bin. My eyes were like saucers.

As Ive said previously I compost all food waste and newspapers. What little plastic and recyclables this council actually does collect goes in the green bin, and the rest goes in the mini black dwarf bin. Our black bin rarely gets over a quarter full.

As it happened our black bin was completely empty and the green was almost half full having not been collected for 2 weeks. I politely rejected his admonishment on the grounds it was patently false, and he went on his way clutching his 'how to recycle' leaflets. No irony there at all.

In this age of cuts, Im so glad Lewisham Council can find the money to fund someone to patrol the borough to harass the people who actually DO recycle.

[Helena]

To tell you the truth, Mary, I don't think this is a matter of being naughty - as far as I could see, none of the bins had been emptied in my street. Perhaps so many binmen were on holiday that there weren't enough to do all the rounds!

If a council person rang my bell early in the morning to 'tell me off', he'd get the sharp side of my tongue, I can tell you!!

I never have more than 3 plastic bags in my black bin - and that's 3 supermarket size normal bags. And I only put milk bottles & little else in the green one, I never buy food in cans. And as far as I can make out, that's about all you're allowed to put in them! Their recycling policy is pretty confusing.

[Fizzy]

The whole subject is bizarre ... for instance

... you can recycle plastics triangle 1 (PET) and 2 (HDPE) ... but not e.g. 5 (PP) - which is what most Heinz squeezees are made of. Why? Presumably because you can flog 1 and 2 but no one wants 5. The food trays ... can't recycle even if the punnet of fruit is labelled 1. Perhaps it's the wrong type of PET. The message - you will get beaten up to recycle but there isn't actually anywhere for much of it to go

... but then we have SELCHP. When first opened, Lewisham advised us to put everything in the wheelie bin because it would be turned into electricity, and incineration is now endorsed as a carbon-neutral way forward with new facilities being commissioned.

... however Lewisham's national ranking on recycling is judged poor ... because of the way the numbers are calculated, and it has the SELCHP contract.

... and as for composting, are we to be punished for not putting enough green stuff in the designated bin when it turns up?

It really is a shambles but at least we don't have nine different bins to contend with (yet).

[Helena]

I've been trying to phone the refuse collection dept this morning - first time I got a pleasant voice that told told me they were experiencing a 'high level of traffic' & the waiting time was 5 minutes; second time I just got cut off! So no joy there then.

Fizzy - I agree with you, they simply haven't got their act together.

[Helena]

I got my hopes raised a few minutes ago! A large Lewisham Council recycling refuse collection truck pulled up outside my house.....then they drank a cup of coffee in the driver's cab....and drove off!!

[hamblemary]

Perhaps you should have tempted them with some biscuits.


Fizzy, the subject of SELCHP came up on People's Day while I was talking to some of the people from Renewal the developers of the Surrey Canal site.
A big part of their plan is to divert much of the energy created at the SELCHP plant and use it to serve their development.



They are confident that SELCHP's heating initiatives can finally be implemented and had a mock up of the delivery mechanism they will be installing to distribute the heat.

Where can we find out the latest figures about its current capacity, energy output and emissions? There is nothing on their site- Ive just checked.

[Fizzy]

SELCHP is open every other year for London Open House in September - and it really is a fascinating tour. Anorak that I am, I've been twice. Suspend disbelief, go and have a look and see and hear what they do there.

At present, they are knocking out about 40 Megs round the clock and sell back into the grid. I should know the capacity but can't remember the numbers - at present it swallows up what (I recall) four boroughs can throw at it and that includes much that would otherwise go to landfill.

There is still residual energy to take out, as you mention Hamblemary, and district heating is a very real option: Convoys Wharf and the rebuild at Elephant & Castle have been mentioned in the past as well as Renewal more recently. An old example is Battersea power station, which supplied district heating to Dolphin Square.

As far as emissions are concerned, there are very tight microparticulate targets and so these are filtered out of the flue gases.

Even the residual ash is sorted to remove and recycle metals, whilst the inert remainder is processed off-site into an aggregate for use in construction. It is very versatile and I believe some of it may have ended up as back fill in the ill-fated Tesco tunnel collapse at Gerrards Cross!! Hardly down to SELCHP, of course ...

Sorry I missed the People's Day exhibit ... where was it? ... but I did get a long chat with the Project Manager for the ex-St Modwyns Catford redevelopment which is massive, as they say.

[max]

The residual energy that can be extracted is actually quite a lot, for electricity the limitation is the size of the turbine that is already spinning at full capacity but would be doing so even with much less combustion, in other words, there's a serious inefficiency by design because a lot of energy cannot be captured.
To remedy this the SELCHP could be retrofitted with an extra turbine and double the energy it produces, some months ago I had a meeting with the managing director of SELCHP and discussed this very issue, I asked if an extra turbine could be retrofitted and he said that yes it could provided that the site, which is quite tight, has enough space to accommodate it.
If that'll be done I don't know, I guess that if it makes them money they will, otherwise they won't.
As for the heating, it's quite a thought that for all these years it's never been used, an incredible waste, but it is now a GLA policy to look for the investment necessary to make use of all kinds of renewables (including energy from waste) happen and it looks like this development could be the perfect opportunity.

[Helena]

All's well that ends well. Black & green bins emptied today & the paper box as well.

[loopyloo7]

Did someone say they got a composting bin? I haven't got one ..... how do i get one?

[Helena]

The compost bins aren't free, but they are subsidised.

Apparently you can buy them (subsidised) for £10 or £15 at Shannon's Garden Centre, Stanstead Road, Forest Hill (020 86998818) or find out more from Lewisham Council (020 83147171) - they may even have a few free ones left, but don't hold your breath!