Waste site parochialism

Jalapeno

My regular dump is getting really picky - county residents only. I live a couple miles over the county border but have been using that site for decades.

Hi viz jobswoth on the gate said we weren't allowed, so we drove round the loop (emptying our garden waste in the appropriate bin on the way) .... all hell breaks loose with HiViz jobsworths everywhere, say they've taken car reg and reporting it to (their) council

They weren't busy ... there was only 1 car on the site.

Hey ho ! Hopefully we just get a snotty letter or something, possibly a fixed penalty is the worst they can dream up.

p90fool

I thought the thread title was a new prog metal band...

Chalky

How can they tell which county you are from?

Moe_Zambeek

If there are fixed penalty notices for going to the wrong tip this country really is finished!

boogieman

We have to book an appointment in advance to use ours, you can’t just turn up. Where we used to live they’d want to see physical ID/proof of address before they’d let you in. 

On the plus side our council is soon going to stop charging for dropping off diy waste. The penny has finally dropped that people were flytipping it instead and it was costing the council a lot to clear it up every time. I still don’t understand why nobody ever considered this would happen, it’s not exactly genius-level thinking. 

Grunfeld

Chalky said:

How can they tell which county you are from?

Accent. 

Be careful if they wish you, "Good luck."

Kittyfrisk

You said it all. HiViz jobsworths & gatekeepers.
Having said that, I have tried to have grown up conversations with similar individuals many times, but to little avail.
Change the uniform & leave the "I was only obeying orders" defence & we haven't really grown as human beings very much.

Similarly I found out recently that 'Pets at Home' are taking part in a recycling initiative that will enable previously non-recyclable metallised plastics that pet food pouches are made of. Great idea.
https://www.petsathome.com/shop/en/pets/promotions/recycle
I fully anticipate an encounter with a helpful jobsworth gatekeeper to stop me doing the right thing for some reason to do with 'the wrong plastic' like they are materials scientists & not working in a pet shop (nothing wrong with that as a job at all).

EvansDrD

I love the phrase ‘hi viz jobsworth’ 

Sporky

Our local community recycling centre is for locals only . I think it started in the pandemic when other counties' closed theirs, and ours was overrun with dirty incomers.

They're jolly friendly and helpful though, and appointments are easily booked. 

sev112

Our hi viz waste chaps are really helpful

its cos each council has a different waste strategy and how much money they spend on it.  They don’t want argumentative people who pay their council tax elsewhere to be using their expensive paid for waste streams
 except it’s true!  

VimFuego

my understanding is there was a recipricol arrangement twixt Bucks and Herts that is no longer in place, hence the Aston Clinton tip charging peeps from Herts. Sucks if you're the wrong side of the border I guess.

EricTheWeary

The recycling centre three miles from my house is in another county and I don’t have a permit to use it. The one I have to use is eight miles away, so not great for the green credentials of calling it a recycling centre maybe. 

I have to book a slot, a system brought in after covid. I’m fairly sure you could cheat the system, put in any valid address in the borough when you book (I can’t imagine that there’s a great amount of this occurring). Although  occasionally inconvenient to have to book  it does mean there are no longer queues of thirty cars on a Sunday afternoon so I think it’s fine. 

munckee

I love the booking system, used to have to queue for over an hour for the tip.  

Anyone found to be not from our county is murdered and ends up on the landfill with their car allegedly. 

Sporky

munckee said:

Anyone found to be not from our county is murdered and ends up on the landfill with their car allegedly. 

Same here, except they strip the car and put each bit in the right section. 

Kittyfrisk

munckee

Sporky said:

munckee said:

Anyone found to be not from our county is murdered and ends up on the landfill with their car allegedly. 

Same here, except they strip the car and put each bit in the right section. 

That’s because you’re in Surrey!

Sporky

How very dare you! It's those demmed Surreyites who flooded our fine recycling centres.

I moved to Hampshire two years ago. 

ICBM

The stupidity of making responsible waste disposal difficult and then having to pay large amounts of money to clear up the patently obvious result of fly-tipping - now being done by organised criminals as well as individuals - really does take some difficulty believing, but it's the case almost everywhere now.

The jobsworths at mine aren't too bad, although I did have a run-in with one for putting an amp transformer in the metal skip... "That goes in electricals" he said. I explained politely that a transformer is at least 90% steel and copper, proportionately about the same metal content as a bicycle, of which there were several in the container already. "No, it's got wires, it's electrical." So next time I simply clipped all visible wires off as close to the transformer body as possible, and he was happy .

TTony

VimFuego said:

my understanding is there was a recipricol arrangement twixt Bucks and Herts that is no longer in place, hence the Aston Clinton tip charging peeps from Herts. 

In 200 years time, historians will identify the "Aston Clinton Incident" as the spark that ignited the infamous Bucks / Herts war. 

It ended when the UN peacekeepers stepped in and the natives finally decided to amalgamate into the new county of Bertshire (that name being preferred to Huckshire by an overwhelming 52%/48% referendum majority).


Future history lesson brought to you courtesy of @Sporky 's time machine.

Sporky

Dang it - now I know I have to finish the blasted thing. 

TTony

Sporky said:

Dang it - now I know I have to finish the blasted thing. 

You finished it in 2 years time.

But v2 was much more reliable.