Dale Oseman was building a wall and clearing waste from a garden in Barclay Road, Leytonstone, when workers who were distributing the authority’s free sheet Waltham Forest News dumped cardboard boxes in his container yesterday afternoon.

Mr Oseman, 40, said: “When I saw the boxes I just couldn’t believe it. It’s complete hypocrisy.

“The council are telling residents to fight enviro-crime when they’re committing it at the same time.

“It cost me £175 to rent the skip for two weeks, including a £45 permit from the council to let me have it in the road. For them to dump rubbish in it amounts to theft.

“It makes me want to send them an invoice for it.

“The council paper is nothing but propaganda and this proves it. And ironically in this week’s edition they have a section ‘naming and shaming’ fly-tippers.

“And the cardboard boxes could easily have been recycled too.

“If the council wants to save all these millions of pounds they should stop printing their propaganda instead of hiring labourers on the cheap who then go around chucking away rubbish like this.”

Mr Oseman, of Woodville Road in Leytonstone, said he complained to the council who offered to remove the rubbish from the builder skip the next day.

It is not the first time Waltham Forest Council has been accused of hypocrisy over its fight against illegal rubbish disposal.

The authority launched its crackdown on ‘enviro-crime’ – defined as littering, dog fouling, fly-tipping and graffiti – in January 2009, and dozens of people have been prosecuted for various offences relating to it in the last two years.

But a month after its launch a resident claimed the authority had dumped anti-litter leaflets in a Walthamstow street.

The council said its staff had left the pamphlets in the road as part of the distribution process.

Waltham Forest Council’s leader, Cllr Chris Robbins, said: “We’re very sorry that this contractor used Mr Oseman’s skip as a bin and as soon as we heard of this incident we offered to come and collect the boxes.

“It seems that they were left by a recently appointed member of staff who works for the council contractor who deliver Waltham Forest News. The member of staff has now been spoken to about this matter and advised of their conduct in future.

“Ordinarily we would expect higher standards than this and we are confident that this is an isolated incident. We would like to apologise to Mr Oseman for any distress this incident may have caused.”

It is the stuff of nightmares – you come back after a well deserved, relaxing break to find 20 tonnes of rubbish flytipped in your back yard.

But for Surrey couple Cheryl Pandis and her husband, it was reality – made worse by the threat of prosecution if they fail to clear the waste.

Cheryl, 55, from Mitcham, found around seven skip-loads of building debris on her land after flytippers apparently broke her fence and forced entry to the garden.

The council has ordered her to clear it, but she has refused, after estimating it would cost about £2,100 – about £300 per skip.

Neighbours saw trucks dumping the rubbish and complained to the council, which then responded by saying it would send Mrs Pandis, who was bed-ridden with food poisoning, a letter ordering her to remove the mess.

Mrs Pandis said she spoke to Merton police, who referred her to the Environmental Health Agency, and then to Merton Council – which she claims told her she would have to clear the problem herself.

Mrs Pandis added: “We can’t afford to pay for that so they will just have to take us to court.

“Our money is to feed our family and pay our bills; we don’t have any spare to pay for other people’s rubbish.

“Moreover, we are the victims of crime so the police should take action to catch the perpetrators.

“We’re too scared to do anything about it ourselves.”

A Metropolitan Police spokesman said: “Criminal damage, entering her property and fly tipping are all criminal offences but it is the council’s responsibility to remove the rubble.”

Merton Council deputy leader, Councillor Mark Betteridge, said: “Fly tipping can be a real problem for our residents, and we spend a huge amount of time and effort investigating this type of offence in Merton.

“Every year we see a number of successful prosecutions as a direct result of our work on this issue.

The company, which provides skip hire and waste management from its recycling centre has 20 lorries operating in and around the borough.

Drivers are facing quadrupled journey times as routes that normally take 20 minutes are taking 90 minutes instead.

Jason Ayles, manager at Portland Stone said: “We estimate it’s costing us £8,000 to £10,000 per week – based on one lost day per week per lorry.

“So over the four-week roadwork period it could cost us as much as £40,000, approximately the same as a council officer’s annual salary.

“We all know and appreciate that road alterations and repairs have to be carried out but why does it appear that nearly every main road in and out of Weymouth and Portland seems to be either ripped up, in the process of being surfaced or otherwise altered?

“Here at Portland Stone Ltd we’ve been seriously affected as a result of the current works being carried out, especially the Ferrybridge work, which has resulted in a downturn in our ability to give our customers the service that is expected of us.”

Mr Ayles wants to know why the work is not being continued through the night on shift patterns and why weekends were not being used to speed up operations.

He added: “More importantly, who is going to apologise to our customers for letting them down? Something we are not accustomed to here at Portland Stone.”

Roadworks are pretty common problems for businesses – Portland Stone are one of the many companies where the problem has grown in to a massive leaking bucket for cash. Interruptions on the road need a proper looking at – taking in to account exactly how small to medium businesses – particularly those who rely on transport – would cope with the problems. In Portland Stone’s case, it is clear they have not been included in pre-work plans.

Source: Dorset Echo

Hang on a minute…is it still summertime? October’s Skip Chick is reminding us of the brief yet fun summer we experienced. As the nights draw in earlier and we all dig our thermal long johns out, the lovely Becca from Wicks Waste Management knows well that if you’ve got it, flaunt it and leaving a few Skip Magazine blokes in the office a little hot under the collar. So without further ado, take it away, Becca…!
Tell us a bit about yourself…
I’ve been working at Wicks Waste Management for nearly six months now, and I really enjoy it. Mainly I take calls for skip orders and collections, and now and again I help in on the weighbridge. I have been reading through your mags, (ah, a woman with excellent taste)… so here goes I’m entering as skip chick of the month!
And I bet there are a lot of lads out there glad that you did! Tell us about your job – what’s the best bit?
The best part about the job is having a crack with all the customers on the phone, a bit of banter never does anyone harm

Easy Becca! What’s the funniest thing to happen in the yard?
The funniest thing that I’ve been told that has happened here is an incident which involved one of a garage workers, he accidently caught his privates in his zip… and unluckily didn’t have much choice but to sought help from the girls in our office, I wasn’t with the company when that happened and I’m glad I wasn’t I would have been a heap on the floor with laughter ! Poor bloke!
Ouch! We’ll just keep that unfortunate lad anonymous…what do you get up to in your spare time?
In my spare time I like to go shopping or going out and the occasional horse riding , on rainy days though you can’t beat staying in and watching films in bed with the over half!
Sorry lads – she’s taken! What’s the weirdest thing you’ve found in a skip?
Nothing to date “weird” has been found in a skip, but once we had a phone call from a lady who had lost her wedding ring in a pile of confidential paperwork, which coincidently at the time was being fed through the shredder. Despite every effort, unfortunately she never got it back …whoops.
Oh no! Poor woman! What do you like about the Skip Magazine?
I like reading all the little stories in the mag, and obviously checking out the skip hunk page ha ha!
Of course, the Skip Hunk is rather popular here as well…and have we got a tasty piece of skip hunk meat over the next page…!

Make sure you get nosey next time you walk past a skip.

Steve Summers, from Newcastle, found a collection of original American 1940s war posters in a rubbish skip, and will see them go under the hammer at auction for an expected £4000.

“These posters are very emotive and more hard-hitting than the British equivalents,” said auctioneer Giles Hodges. “They were aimed at getting the message across to Americans about the war and encouraging their commitment.”

Steve, an operations manager from South Shields, came across the 30-plus posters when he was working for an aerospace company at Long Island in the United States.

“The company premises were being redecorated and as I walked through one office they were throwing the posters out,” he said. “I asked them if I could have them for my walls. The posters had been delivered to the works during the war, but for some reason had never been put up.”

When Steve came back to the UK, he stored the posters in his father’s attic and forgot about them. After returning to Britain, he’s decided to put them on the market. Mr Hodges said: “Most of them are as they were when they were folded up all those years ago.”

Nice one Steve – that’s encouraged me to get more eagle eyed around rubbish!

Source: Journal Live

It wasn’t exactly Baywatch, when an 81-year-old man was rescued in a dinghy off the Welsh coast after trying to bring back a washed away rubbish bin.

The retiree, who lives in North Wales, saw his neighbour’s large “wheelie” garbage bin get swept out to sea in unusually high tides – and decided to become Wales’s answer to Mitch Buchanan.

The man set off in pursuit of the floating bin in a rubber dinghy and latched it to the side of his flimsy vessel.

But strong winds overpowered the plucky rower and his boat was blown out to sea.

The coast guard was alerted and a lifeboat was launched from The Royal National Lifeboat Institution at Moelfre, further up the coast.

When the lifeboat reached the man his boat was filling with sea water and the crew discovered he was not wearing a life vest or waterproof clothing.

He was treated on shore for mild hypothermia and taken to the hospital for further treatment.

Dave Massey from the Moelfre lifeboat station said: “Everyone at the Moelfre lifeboat station wishes the gentleman a speedy recovery.”

He added: “The volunteer lifeboat crews at Moelfre have dealt with a wide variety of emergency calls over the years but I am sure that this is the first time we have been involved in towing in a wheelie bin.”

Mr Have-a-Go hero – we salute you. It wasn’t exactly a beautiful busty blonde that you rescued, but hey, a wheeliebin is just as good!

Source: Sky News

We’ve all been having problems getting to grips with new changes regarding governmental reforms over waste over the past few years and it’s not about to get any easier. Local authorities and waste management companies look set to have to grapple with landfill bans being imposed for different waste streams on different dates over the years to 2020.

The Environment secretary has confirms these landfill bans will take place. Benn’s agenda is to reduce the amount of waste materials from being sent to landfill.

Ahead of a consultation on the bans – which could be issued in February 2010 – Mr Benn described them as an “encouragement” and as a form of “mutual support” for the landfill tax.

Asked whether landfill bans were Defra’s cause célèbre for waste at present and whether they were really necessary in light of the rising landfill tax, the Secretary of State said: “We are trying to make progress on a number of fronts. As I said at my ‘World Without Waste’ speech in October, why do we put all these valuable products in landfill?

“For me it is about the two things supporting each other which is why we have got to the point of landfill bans, they will mutually support each other so we can get to where we want to be. Landfill tax has had an impact, but it is about thinking ahead, being ambitious. It does not make sense to put food waste or wood or plastic or glass or aluminium cans or tin cans into landfill.”

Part of the reason behind Mr Benn’s thinking is thought to be the fact that the UK still sends 50% of household waste to landfill as well as a large percentage of commercial and industrial (C&I) waste.

By banning materials from landfill, this will encourage further recycling, said Mr Benn. “By saying you are not going to stick this into landfill any more, then we need to find another way of dealing with it which will further support the way this material is recycled and build on what we have achieved already through the efforts of local authorities, and I pay tribute to them in responding to the landfill levy.”

The Secretary of State singled out food waste as one of the key target areas for future landfill bans, arguing that it makes no sense to landfill this “for obvious reasons, both because of the methane and the fact that you have a fantastic alternative which is either composting or producing renewable energy.”

And, he suggested that all local authorities ought to be collecting food waste at least by 2020, although a precise date will be consulted on. Mr Benn remarked:  “If some local authorities can collect food waste, why can’t all local authorities collect food waste?”

And, he emphasised the logic of a landfill ban in the case of food waste which will help encourage new infrastructure such as anaerobic digestion (AD). “By definition, I take you back to landfill bans; this is a policy that has a number of benefits for clearly when we get to the point that food no longer goes into landfill clearly every local authority is going to have to find another way of dealing with it.”

Mr Benn dismissed industry claims that AD developers are finding it hard to get funding for projects and said: “We have done a huge amount on AD as this is an emerging technology with enormous potential. We have doubled the incentives under ROCs from the first of April last year, Feed-in-Tariffs will come in, there is £10m for the demonstrator projects, and the EA has said digestate will not be classified as a waste and the AD task force is working with the industry.  Frankly it is a technology which is waiting to take off because all the building blocks are in place.

The large yellow skip was placed at Shaw, north Manchester so people living in side roads which waste trucks had not able to reach could empty their rubbish. But when residents arrived on Monday they discovered it had been stolen over the weekend.

Cllr Mark Alcock, environment spokesman, said: “Whoever took this skip would have needed a specialist truck to take it away.

“We are currently checking nearby CCTV cameras to see if such a vehicle has been seen in the area.

“If the thieves are tracked down then they will be prosecuted.

“It is very disappointing. People are doing so much to help others while some selfish individuals are helping themselves.”

Sad times. Whoever did this had access to a skip wagon – so there will be a skip firm somewhere who is responsible for this. Guys, let’s clean up skip hire and get rid of these cowboys who continue to dirty the name of our industry.