Local resident Sheila Darr is not giving up her struggle to get Brent Council to ditch its blue bag recycling scheme. Sheila addressed Brent Council in November on the problems with the scheme LINK and was back at Brent Cabinet this morning to present a petition from more than 3,000 residents.
Sheila, like many residents, supports reycling but thinks the scheme is just not fite for purpose.
Cllr Krupa Sheth was away so it was left to Brent Council leader Muhammed Butt to respond.
Petition presentation speech
You are all aware of the 3422 signatures petitioning the council to Cancel the blue bin bags and return to the single blue bin for recycling. Mainly Due to the poor quality of the blue bag and their inefficiency to improve OR ENCOURAGE recycling. The exact wording of the Petition is before you.
The Blue Bin Bag Scheme is not working – “REPLACE IT”.
The petition was started by a resident due to the anxiety of her elderly parents. They become concerned about putting the wrong things in the wrong bin/bag and the consequences of not having their bin/bag collected.
I WILL COVER Council ASSISTED bin services later.
This Blue Bag scheme is not a new initiative, it is AN UNWORKABLE extension of the existing blue bin scheme, WHICH WAS WORKING, to make it look clever.
On to GDPR. The bags are easy pickings for thieves looking to steal personal Data. Identity FRAUD IS RIFE AND ONE OF THE MOST INCREASING CRIMES RECORDED ON THE POLICE REGISTER. I suspect someone will say, use a shredder then put into the bag. Most people don’t have access to a shredder, JUNK MAIL IS ALMOST, ALWAYS, DISCARDED WITHOUT OPENING.
Will COUNCIL assisted services offer to tear up junk mail for the elderly and less abled? Shredded paper will make A bigger mess when it flys out of the bag, as can be seen with the contents and the blue bags littering the streets of BRENT.
In any event, Is the Council aware that shredded paper cannot be recycled, but is STILL being put into the bags and collected by the bin men?
Residents will have more paper/cardboard than can be recycled under the blue bag scheme. This will encourage Fly tipping as people will be unable to store this AND IT will affect the entire borough.
It is absolutely clear that the bag scheme is strongly opposed to by the residents. The Council must agree that this Bag scheme is not working and an alternative must be found. I see from the Brent website that “There is a review expected later in the year”. The Council needs to bring this back to the table immediately for discussion and FACTOR In feedback from residents.
Are the Council aware of the schemes that are being ran in other boroughs? What research has been done in using the templates of boroughs that are successful, …..by successful I mean having a lot of support from the residents AS THAT IS THE ONLY WAY TO save money and improve recycling targets.
Have the Council considered split bins using the existing Blue Bins, ADDING removable dividers? WHY CAN we NOT use the existing blue bins for cardboard and paper and use a smaller bin for tins/glass/plastic etc?
I want to share with you what the residents in your borough are saying. The following are random comments, taken from the Next Door platform.
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I insist on recycling, but this bag is ridiculous. Once it’s full, WHICH IT BECOMES UNDER A week what do I do with the rest of my cardboard? I’ve had to put it in the grey bin. Which I didn’t want to do.
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I have been putting my cardboard in the bag and it still hasn’t been collected. A neighbour told me IF it HAS any stains or is wet, IT IS CONTAMINATED AND needs to go into the grey bin. So I did that, AND MY grey bin has not been collected.
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Someone stole my bag and dumped the contents in the corner of the street. I am NOW TERRIFIED that IF there IS ANYTHING with MY NAME AND ADDRESS on it and the littering team find it, I WILL BE FINED, THIS HAPPENED TO my neighbour and she was fined £400,
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Anyone know a Mr K S in Clarendon Gdns, HA9? If so, I've got half his recycling out of the dreadful blue bag on my driveway following the bin collection this morning. Mr S, do you want it back?
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Due to my disabilities, I can’t carry my bag once its full, and it always is, or have the strength to break down all the cardboard boxes so they fit into the bag. I have to wait for my husband to come home or ask my neighbour in his 80's to help. The bin men left cardboard in the bottom of the bag, IT rained in so it's now all soggy, wet AND EVEN HEAVIER.
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We have assisted collection because of our age, THE BIN MEN HATE HAVING TO EMPTY THE BAG AND IT SHOWS. THEY constantly leave my bin and bag IN DISARAY. All they have to do is walk five more steps. I have complained many times. What can I do!
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The BIN MEN have to lift these bags to empty them. How long will it be before claims start flooding in for damaged backs?. I saw bin men dragging the bags to the bin lorry and then lifting them up before emptying them with difficulty, and the COUNCIL expect householders to take them IN AND OUT OF their homes…..
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I REPEAT the present blue bag scheme is not working.
“REPLACE IT”.
Muhammed Butt's reponse
32 comments:
Butt is pretty incoherent and flustered. Sheth is in hiding, and I don't blame her as you can't defend the indefensible.
What a pathetic ramble from the Leader of Bent Council.
My bag is torn and the water proofing is coming off all over the sides of the bag.
Will the bin men refuse to empty the grey bin if it contains cardboard?
How to ingnore 3,400 residents by Cllr Butt
Why not use the blue bin for paper and cardboard and the bag for bottles and tins?
One wonders what else the officers are researching, perhaps residents should be made to sweep the streets, prune the street trees, fill potholes, realign paving stones, etc, etc
How can you put petty cheap, dirty bag outside and back into house after getting wet in rain building mould, unhygienic and spreading diseases. Whoever came with this decision had luxurious house where they had storage space to store this crap, majority of people don't, so get rid off blue bag and provide something sensible, happy to recycle but by not putting our health on risk and increase NHS bills
Just get rid off tatty blue bag
Butt is quite literally incoherent. My understanding is that the reason to introduce this scheme is because it makes it easier to sell the paper.. its clearly not increasing the amount of recycling in the borough.. the example butt uses is a 200% increase from WEEK 1.. I get the impression he just might not understand rather than actually trying to be misleading though?
There blue bags are a pathetic idea. Waste of time. I can't believe these people in the council.are so thick. How can these people get paid for their jobs. They need to be sacked just like the stupid blue bags
I seen dogs pissing on the blue bags
The blue bags were brought in to supposedly save the council £1.2m per annum on disposal costs for waste - it's nothing to do with increasing paper and card recycling rates.
Another stupid decision by Brent Council - yes they did a trial but as usual they didn't listen - everyone we know who trailed it said it was not a suitable system.
This new blue bag 'cost saving' system is as daft as their idea to remove all litter bins from residential streets to save money which has only caused massive littering issues throughout the Borough.
What absolute waffle, how illiterate is he that he can’t even speak a sentence without mumbling. Also he can he ignore 3,000 peoples petition. If the council needs to save money why did they spend thousands on these crap bags that were not even needed. Also he’s lying out of his teeth when he said recycling has increased. It’s decreased because when my bag is full I throw everything into my general waste bin
Led by donkeys
When this was introduced in October 2023 we had not received our Blue Bags, so no collection at all in October. Our Collection day is Wednesday. Since November they have failed to so far to collect our Blue Bags on the designated day, often arriving on Thursday mornings and the last two collections were done on a Friday. As a block of 4 flats, and received 4 Blue Bags, we have struggled to fill 1, on all but 2 occasions. 1 remains outside, 1 disappeared - blew away, and 2 are still unused. I fail to see how this is saving money, when a third truck is now required to collect this waste.
This chap can barely talk… Yes Butt..No Butt… 3 bags full Butt.. Get rid of this farcical bag! Mine did not even get collected as I had left it in a corner (IN FULL VIEW OF BINMEN) on top of another bin!! How could the binmen have missed it? Or are they too lazy to take 4 further steps to pick it up? I had to leave it there to avoid it getting wet!!
It is best to Focus on the facts rather than personalities. The decision to go with blue bags was made by the Labour Cabinet made up solely of Labour Councillors.
Liberal Democrats anticipated the problems - bags lost, blown away, torn, messed up, overfilled, unable to seal etc etc.
We brought the matter to Scrutiny where Councillors of al parties agreed that it was not the ideal solution. Even some Labour Councillors who were part of the test run agreed.
We suggested an alternative of giving residents an option of having a wheelie bin instead of the bag. In some cases the recycling wheelie bins could be shared. The logic is clear....
If you take out the cardboard and paper out of the blue topped recycling bin it is unlikely to get filled. In the case of my household under the old system my blue topped bin was usually full after 2 weeks.
NOW that paper does not go in it is rarely more than a 3rd full. This means that the blue top bin could be converted for paper and carboard recycling and the Council provides one of the much smaller wheelie bins for every thing else. This approach would work for most residents part of the new scheme and over come the problem of overfilled or blown away bags.
Sadly the Labour Leader and his Cabinet are not good at listening to residents (even when they present a 3,000 strong petition - or Councillors who happen not to be Labour.
We should all be grateful to Sheila Darr for continuing to present her case and evidence and hope that before too long even the Labour Leadership begins to listen and take the sensible action that will help to get local people on side and help to maximise the volume of recycled materials in Brent.
I watched a Team dealing with the blue bags in Central & District Roads in Sudbury last week. This is the process of collection:
1. A member of the team pulls the blue bags our and opens them up.
2. Another team member empties the bag into a wheelie bin - often from more than one property. (The bags is usually just thrown back into the drive of the property).
3. Once full the wheelie bin is pulled to the refuse lorry and emptied.
I only observed this for a few minutes and this is what I saw:
1. The wind blew small pieces of paper & cardboard out of the blue bags while they were waiting to be emptied. NOT once did the operatives make any effort to pick up the blown away pieces.
2. A number of bags were blown into the street as soon as the refuse team moved - I retrieved 2 blown away bags in 5 minutes and returned them to the correct location.
3. The street was dirtier before the recycling team started their work - this means that the new Recycling approach is actually making our streets even dirtier than they already are.
Sheila Darr and the 3,422 people who signed the Petition are not wrong and it is unlikely that they wish to destroy Brent Council's recycling efforts.
The bag system is clearly failing far too many people and a better solution is now needed to fix this problem. Giving residents a choice between bags and a wheelie bin as Liberal Democrat Councillors suggested right at the outset is clearly a sensible solution.
While I understand the concerns raised by residents regarding the blue bag recycling scheme, it's important to assert that their dissatisfaction doesn't negate the environmental imperative of promoting efficient recycling practices. The challenges cited, such as difficulty handling full bags, potential theft, or inconvenience for the elderly, should be viewed in the broader context of combating climate change and preserving our environment. The elderly need to think about what they are leaving for future generations, and if they had started taking steps when they were younger, we would have less drastic steps today. They must remember they profited from the blood and destruction of our planet to get to where they are today, and as such need to make some sacrifices for the climate now.
Let us be clear that individual inconveniences or resistance to change should not overshadow the critical need for sustainable waste management. Councillor Butt and his wonderful team need to stay firm as climate change poses a significant threat, and recycling initiatives are pivotal in reducing our environmental footprint. It's crucial for residents to recognise the larger goal of protecting our planet for future generations. It is for the greater good, now time to get on with it, with less complaining. You either support our labour councillors and everythey they are trying to achieve, or you are tory enablers.
Not every 'elderly' person has contributed to the destruction of planet, there are many who have never owned a car or a passport with a make do and mend attitude rather than buy buy buy!
We've seen Cllr Butt drive to Ealing Road to do his shopping when he could get a bus!
Cllr Butt and his Labour Colleagues have done nothing to stop the polluting traffic jams in Wembley. They have given planning permission for loads more car parks and tower blocks encouraging drivers and huge construction lorries and pollution from construction works - how does recycling an extra bit of cardboard cancel these things out???
Most Labour Councillors want rid of the blue sacks too. In the end it comes down to the cabinet to pull the plug.
Where are “loads more car parks” aside from around Wembley Park? None of the new builds allow for additional parking.
I wouldn’t be inclined to comment on anyone’s travel means - for most who can afford to have a car it more often than not cuts down on travel time, there’s a sizeable convenience factor.
Ultimately our little borough in our little city on our little island won’t make a dent in climate change until the big corporations make drastic changes so to keep citing that we all need to do our bit is just pointless. Do it if it makes you feel better but don’t load any sort of inconvenience onto others.
Anonymous said...
"While I understand the concerns raised by residents regarding the blue bag recycling scheme, it's important to assert that their dissatisfaction doesn't negate the environmental imperative of promoting efficient recycling practices. The challenges cited, such as difficulty handling full bags, potential theft, or inconvenience for the elderly, should be viewed in the broader context of combating climate change and preserving our environment. The elderly need to think about what they are lea..."
Has it been written by your AI or did you copy this from Google?
Some of us left school with O Levels. From Anon 13:50
Anon 17:50 - By using the term "elderly" I denote a particular generation. Uncle Mustafa and Aunty Norma, despite leading ordinary lives, played a role—both in their actions and inactions—that has contributed to the current climate catastrophe we are experiencing.
Anon 08:57 - do you have evidence Labour councillors are working against the cabinet? Reality is Council decisions matter: While the Labour Councillors may want changes, the final call rests with the cabinet and if the backbenchers lack ambition, it is because they, like many people are not taking the climate emergency seriously.
Every little counts.
From Anon: 13:50
The new Wembley Stadium was built as a public transport destination yet Brent Council has allowed umpteen new car parks to be opened encouraging traffic to the area (including in our vital green space Fryent Park on event days!) - at the same time allowing TFL to divert local buses away from the stadium on event days hugely impacting on local people who totally rely on buses.
Anyone moving to a new build anywhere in Brent would have known there was no parking provision before moving in - it's been a Brent Council policy for years. Wembley has one of the best transport networks in London - you can get anywhere on numerous different routes.
We got Brent Labour MP Barry Gardiner's 2024 calendar through the door...
We were shocked to read that in 2023 he travelled to "Svalbard (between mainland Norway and the North Pole)...the most northerly settlement on the planet where our world leading scientists work to understand the impacts of climate change" - why did he need to fly there to find out what work they are doing? Surely they have issued numerous reports and studies that he could have read???
We were further shocked to read that he then he flew to the UN COP 28 climate summit in Dubai claiming to be there "persuading the world's leaders to take the science more seriously. Our children demand and deserve nothing less". Why did he need to fly to Dubai??? He could have arranged Zoom or Skype meetings to discuss these issues.
And apparently in 2023 he also travelled to India to "address the spectacular celebration in Ahmedabad" - why did he need to fly there to do this? He could have made the speech via Zoom or Skype or sent a video message.
We are all being told to recycle more or to walk or cycle to save the planet yet our politicians and so called 'leaders' are amongst the worst polluters - they should all be leading by example not preaching to us!!!
As Greta Thunberg would say - its all blah, blah, blah!!!
My blue bag is already coming apart at the seams, whereas the wheelie bins that were already here when I moved in ten years ago will outlive me. So how is the blue bag contributing more to combating climate change? As an elderly person, I am still able to think about pursuing the environmentally conscious paths I adopted more than 40 years ago, and a plastic bag with a short life rather than a smaller extra wheelie bin that would last decades doesn't qualify as a desirable change.
They are very attractive to male dogs, I spend most of my evening dog walk pulling my lad off them before he can wet them. Why would you want to put a urine soaked bag in your home?
Dear Anon 13:50. How long have you been a councillor?
Edited comment from Anon: It's difficult not to point out that the response from the Leader was a rambling often incoherent diatribe of bluff. Seriously think somebody should have a word because I expected rhe Leader of a council to at least make sense when defending the indefensible but for much of the time it was difficult to understand what on earth he was on about.
Either that or he knows full well what an unmitigated disaster the blue bag scheme has been and his officers are dancing a merry tune in the background and he's just a puppet
It's disheartening to observe the emergence of ableist criticisms aimed at Cllr Butt, the leader of Brent Council, solely because of his stammer. Our focus should be on acknowledging and appreciating leaders for their capabilities, vision, and dedication, rather than perpetuating stereotypes or biases based on personal characteristics.
I would expect an editor to not allow a narrative that suggests a person's communication style defines their competence. Anymore than accepting comments which made similar comments based on race. Cllr Butt's stammer should not overshadow the valuable contributions he makes to his role. By promoting understanding and compassion, we can cultivate a society that values the unique strengths and perspectives each individual brings to the table. Let's strive for a discourse that champions inclusivity, dismantles ableist attitudes, and celebrates the inherent worth of every leader, regardless of their speech patterns.
Hi Anon 20 January 2024. Actually I have attempted to remove any direct reference to a stammer or stutter in comments and have not published some that centred on it. I am aware that stammering can be seen as a disability. The comments above refer to mumbling, rambling, incoherent. In my view the last two are definitely about content. Readers can decide for themselves on 'mumbling'. I had to have speech therapy as a child which largely cured the problem but as an adult there are still moments when I have difficulty with certain words. Sufferers become quite adept at avoiding such words. It is an area where I have some sympathy with Cllr Butt.
Dear 20 January 2024 at 19:20 You were the first person on this blog to mention Cllr Butt's disability.
Another brainless idea, only 32% is recycled. Brent Council, use to be a helpful place, but in the last 10 years NOT FIT FOR PURPOSE SAME WITH THE GOVERNMENT.
Just listen to ur residents and get rid of the unpleasant blue bags
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