Refuse at St Peter Port estate goes uncollected for 10 days
RUBBISH BAGS have been building up on a St Peter Port estate for more than a week because people are not following the new system.
A resident of Roseville estate, who asked not to be identified, contacted the Guernsey Press on Wednesday [20/2] after rubbish bags remained on the path eight days after collection day.
Refuse collections are every two weeks, on a Tuesday, but following the previous collection [12/2] refuse collectors left behind bags which displayed an incorrect sticker.
According to the resident, this is in part due to the reluctance of collectors to pick up bags which are not labelled correctly but is also due to people not leaving the bags in the right place.
‘The bags were taken from the bulk skip by the States workers and just left on the path because of a few tenants who could not be bothered to abide by the new rules for collection,’ the resident said.
Guernsey Housing Association chief executive Steve Williams said the association had 900 properties and therefore a large amount of households adjusting to a new system of collection.
‘We have just this morning [21/2] had a meeting with waste management to get to the bottom of the common issues occurring at present – we are and will overcome the operational challenges currently facing us,’ he said.
Guernsey Waste has confirmed that where general waste has been left out for collection without the correct payment sticker, the collection contractors will leave that behind and log it. This will then be followed up and appropriate action taken.
Guernsey Waste operations manager Sarah Williams said: ‘If those bags are on private property, which is the case with GHA developments, then they will be generally be left to the property owner or occupiers to take action themselves.’
The waste bags were finally cleared yesterday and Ms Williams said they would be trying to identify the owners. ‘We had a meeting with the GHA this morning,’ she said. ‘We understand from them that although there were some initial issues, which is to be expected with any new system, the situation has already improved. We will, however, continue to monitor this and work with them to resolve issues.’
The Guernsey Press visited Roseville to gauge the reaction of residents to the new refuse collection scheme and its consequences.
‘If people dump their rubbish there, even if they don’t live here, what’s to stop them doing that? If one person were to leave a bag in the wrong place someone else thinks I’ll do that too and it goes on,’ said resident Rebecca Sims.
Ms Sims used to live in Germany where recycling was regulated by law and all rubbish was collected in pre-marked bags similar to our new sticker system.
‘We live on a small island and something had to be done, so I think it’s a good idea, but the consequences weren’t all thought through.
‘The fact there is only one collection every two weeks is a pain, we are lucky because we have a communal area to take rubbish but those who don’t then have to find ways to store their rubbish.
‘Even so, if you live near where the rubbish point is, the smell from the food waste and rubbish is terrible. Come on a Monday night you can see how bad it is – there is only three bins and about 33 households,’ she said.
Garry Brehaut, who lives one floor up from the rubbish point, was not surprised the bags had been left.
‘You’ve only got to put one bag down and it will snowball – people just think they can put theirs there too.
‘They took about a dozen bags away this morning [yesterday] from right outside our flat. They used to collect twice weekly and now by having one every two weeks there is excess bags.
‘The green bins (three on site) fill up so quickly and they’re just for rubbish but I’ve seen TVs, hoovers, all sorts going in there.’
