Forum Topic

Rant about rubbish in the street

There are many foxes in our area and, if you leave rubbish bags containing food overnight on the pavement, they WILL open it.  It has happened to us all, but most people find a way of securing their rubbish so this can't happen.  However, there are a few people who do this all the time and there is always a big pile of rubbish in front of their house.  Does it not bother them when they go outside and have to step over their own rubbish?  Always the same people.  Someone has already put a polite notice outside that property, asking them to clean it up, but they don't care.It is driving me crazy!

Rene Schoeman ● 1825d13 Comments

Philippa, thanks!

Rene Schoeman ● 1822d

https://www.facebook.com/wandsworth.council/posts/3054601861262398Check out Cllr Mrs Steffi Sutters who has an interest in this sort of thing.

Philippa Bond ● 1822d

Contact your Councillors.  It is a part of their job to intercede with the Council and Councils always used to (it is constantly changing and there have been a lot of cuts) have Environment Officers/Environmental Health Officers.Find your Councillors here:https://www.wandsworth.gov.uk/the-council/councillors/Some Councillors are more interested in particular subjects and apart from the Councillors for your particular area you can also look to see who has the right looking portfolio.Often people just need a nudge or an official nudge and to understand better the systems that are in place and why.

Philippa Bond ● 1822d

Thanks everyone.  The problem is that, the people who always leave the bags out actually do have bins.  They just choose not to use them.  Also, they leave their rubbish out all the time, not only on the night before collection.  They clearly have never heard of recycling because their rubbish is always a mix of beer cans and food and personal stuff.Apart from politely asking them not do do that, I was wondering if there was anything the council could do to give them a warning.  I feel sorry for the council workers who have to clean up this mess every week.

Rene Schoeman ● 1822d

Barbara  Ivonne mentioned wheelie bins.  My previous post was about ordinary dustbins.

Philippa Bond ● 1823d

Our Council have Dustbins. Our's are at the front, wheelie bins have to have a special truck to tip them up. Phillipa our Council is obviously different to yours so your wasting your breath.

Barbara Stevens ● 1823d

Wheelie bins are definitely NOT the magic answer for a great number of properties particularly smaller ones and I don't think I'd ever be encouraging them in our old terraced streets! We are after all supposed to be trying to reduce the amount of waste that we create.  Reduce Repair Reuse Repurpose etc before Recycle or disposal which are end of life solutions to whatever we started off with.  Starting with Refuse is good too as most of us have now done with the advertise-for-free-where-you-shopped bags we don't need.  Councils seem to have a habit of foisting enormous one-size-fits-all wheelie ones unsuitable for all the different types of properties on their residents - and their streets - because that is where a lot of them spend too much time blocking the pavements.  Many are so big that with small front gardens they both have to be manoeuvred out onto the pavement in order to leave the one that you want out and they spoil those very small gardens which make all the difference to London living (and which allow water to drain away better and help to avoid flooding).

Philippa Bond ● 1824d

It may be more than an effort but not everybody has front gardens where the bins would live.Having a wheelie bin sounds great but is not always practical because, as in my case, I would have to wheel it out through our home to the front of the house.Spraying disinfectant can hardly be considered an enormous chore unless the amount of rubbish produced by a household  is enormous.

Ivonne Holliday ● 1824d

That is what we and all our neighbours did.  We then clipped the bin with a chain to the gate post and tied the bin lid to the bin so it didn't blow away/over or disappear. Metal doesn't absorb smells in the same way as plastic does but is heavier. There are sometimes offers of free bins on Freecycle (www.trashnothing.com is an easy interface) - where you can also request as well as offer unwanted items.  Hammersmith &Fulham may well have quite a few needing new homes (with trashnothing you can choose areas).Just one of the great benefits of having a food waste collection and using it is that there is little or no food waste attraction (apart from nappies) for scavenging birds and animals.

Philippa Bond ● 1824d

Disinfectant seems a lot more effort than buying a plastic bin to prevent fox rummaging. I remember a fox spreading my first child's used nappies around the garden.  That day I bought a plastic bin!

Alan Sherman ● 1824d

I do sympathise: it's very annoying when people leave bags out to be ripped open by foxes, we have had this problem in our road though luckily it's been much better recently after many complaints. But much worse, I think, are the human litterers who throw down stuff even in sight of the rubbish bins. That really makes me annoyed!

Richard Carter ● 1824d

Yes, disinfectant does deter foxes.  We have a few on Putney Heath and Tuesday mornings (rubbish collection day) so many bags had been destroyed by them; not a pleasant sight.Since people have been spraying their rubbish bags with disinfectant, this problems has almost but gone.

Ivonne Holliday ● 1824d

I have been told that splashing rubbish bags with Dettol deters foxes.  Is it worth getting  to the sacks before the foxes, brandishing  a bottle?  Then maybe put the bill for the Dettol through their letterbox. (With minimal expectation of being paid...)

Judy Allen ● 1825d