Loughton Residents Association

 

Waste, Recycling, Litter, Fly-tipping & Graffiti

Recycling in Essex
Recycling in Essex has hit a record high – the County Council recycled or re-used 29% of the waste from Epping Forest residents, and composted 30%, making a total recycling rate of 59%! More is still needed however, as last year Essex Council Taxpayers overall paid over £16 million in landfill tax for their non-recycled waste – money which could be used to provide other services for residents. (The lowest District was Tendring, with only 29% recycled, re-used or composted).

Recycling service.
Epping Forest District Council now collect empty aerosol cans, plus aluminium foil trays. Please see what to do

Recycling Centres for Household Waste (RCHW)
Waste Transfer Station: Essex County Council’s plans for handling household waste include the provision of 6 such stations; where they are sited is obviously important for local communities. For the Harlow/Epping Forest area, the Council have bought a site at West Road, Harlow, and have obtained planning permission to go ahead there.

 The significant increase in kerbside recycling, which has led to a record high recycling rate of over 50% in 2010/11, means that people are making less use of RCHWs; this trend is expected to continue and so the County Council has made some changes.

  • The Chigwell site on Luxborough Lane is now closed on Wednesdays and Thursdays

  • the Waltham Abbey site is closed on Tuesdays and Wednesdays

  • sites are open Fridays – Tuesdays, 9am – 4pm in Winter, 9am to 5pm in Summer

  • the Ongar has closed permanently.

More

Our nearest sites are:

  • Chigwell Recycling Centre for Household Waste (2.2 miles away), Luxborough Lane, Chigwell. IG7 5AA
  • Waltham Abbey Recycling Centre for Household Waste (3.6 miles away), Brooker Road, Waltham Abbey. EN9 1JU
  • Chigwell Road Reuse and Recycling Centre (3.7 miles away), Chigwell Road, Woodford Green. IG8 8PQ.

Current opening times. More

Rubbish collection & other problems
If you have any problems with waste collection, call the District Council Environment and Street Scene switchboard on 01992 564608. This covers street cleaning, waste collections, recycling, special collections, noise, neighbour nuisance, litter and litter bins, and environmental health. If the matter is not dealt with after reporting, contact an LRA district councillor or email us.

Want to recycle large items? Waste and Recycling
The District Council offers a special collection service for bulky household items such as beds, chairs, sofas, fridges and washing machines (half-price for the over-60s).
http://www.eppingforestdc.gov.uk/Council_Services/Recycling_and_Waste/special_collection.asp

LRA supported the District Council’s cabinet decision to introduce wheelie bins for residue waste in order to greatly increase the District recycling figures (see District Council for details), although we had serious concerns about some aspects of the changes. More on wheelie bins

For details on collection of recyclables see District Council

Collection of large items is available through South Herts Waste Management. To arrange this call freephone 0800 781 9676. Charges from £22 for 1–3 items.
There are weekly wheelie-bin collections for kitchen and green waste, and residual waste. Recyclable waste is collected every two weeks. Residents get a collection calendar.

Reduce your waste! See Recycling

Recycle your used batteries. 
Most retailers who sell batteries (those who sell over 32kg of batteries per year, equivalent to about 1 pack of 4 AAs a day) are now required to provide a free recycling point for consumers to return their used/flat batteries. http://www.defra.gov.uk/news/latest/2010/waste-0201.htm

Recycling light bulbs
Disposing of light bulbs: there are still some incandescent bulbs on sale. Increasingly though, new bulbs will be Compact Fluorescent Lamps (CFL), LEDs or halogen. LEDs and halogen bulbs can be put in with your household rubbish, but CFLs contain mercury and should disposed of separately. We’re told that you can do this at Homebase (at the checkout) and Robert Dyas (over the counter), and that there’s a dedicated container at the Luxborough Lane Civic Amenity Site, which is big enough for Fluorescent Tubes as well (also classed as “Hazardous Waste”), and that several electrical wholesalers offer a lamp recycling service.

CFL bulbs look like folded-up fluorescent tubes*, whereas LEDs and halogen bulbs look something like traditional light bulbs. (Some CFL bulbs them do actually have a candle or light-bulb-shaped cover, so they look like “ordinary” bulbs, but they will always have an opal cover and a plastic housing between the “bulb” and the cap, where the internal control gear is housed. Halogen bulbs produced recently always have a clear cover, through which you can see the halogen capsule.)

Foil and Aerosols - you can now recycle foil (washed) and aerosols (discharged) as part of the dry recycling collections, along with paper etc.

What happens to your rubbish? Aluminium cans can be recycled and back in the shops as fresh cans in six weeks. Did you know your recycled glass jars are used in road surfacing projects, or that discarded plastic bottles can be recycled into material for a fleece jacket? Read http://www.which.co.uk/advice/what_happens_to_your_rubbish/index.jsp to discover what happens to common household items after they've been placed in a recycling bin, and what happens to the rubbish that’s not recyclable.

Hazardous domestic waste
If you need to dispose of any hazardous household waste (i.e. bonded asbestos, acids, weed killer, fertilisers etc.) please ring Essex County Council Waste and Recycling Helpline 0845 603 7625 and say you have some household hazardous waste for disposal. Up to 25ltrs of chemicals and up to 40kg of bonded asbestos may be collected free of charge once in any 12 month period. If you have pots of paint, car batteries, waste engine oil or domestic cooking oil, please do not put them into your black sack as they can cause serious pollution, as well as damage to the vehicles and road surface.

Luxborough Lane Civic Amenity Site
LRA Cllr Chris Pond has taken up a complaint about staff conduct at the site, and there have been other complaints. The County Council took this very seriously and has taken steps to remind staff of their responsibilities. Please let us know if you are not treated helpfully – or if you have been treated well, at contact@loughtonresidents.co.uk

Kerbside caddy or a green wheelie bin?
The District Council policy that you can either have a kerbside caddy or a green wheelie food waste/garden bin has changed since the service started. You can now have both, but can only put out one or the other to be collected (you cannot put out a small kitchen caddy).
Phone Environment and Street Scene on 01992 564608

District Council textiles recycling 
A new door step textile collection service was launched on April 1st 2011. There is no charge for this collection service and all income from the sale of items collected will be donated to the Chairman of Council’s charities.

Pest control
The District Council has raised its charges for pest control visits – the new charges are:

  • tax bands A to D: £60, concessions £36 (from £50, £30)

  • tax bands E-F: £72, concessions £48 (from £60, £40)

  • tax bands: G to H £84, concessions £60 (from £70, £50).

Note that higher band council tax payers may be able to get private estimates for pest control for less than the council cost.
More

Bring banks make way for doorstep recycling
The District Council will be discontinuing the old-style recycling banks, where residents “bring” their waste paper, textiles, glass and tetrapack (cartons) – they are much less heavily used now that the district’s collected waste recycling rate has reached 60%. The Council will invite private companies to tender for bring schemes collecting where demand still exists.

Recycle old electronic equipment
Epping Forest District Council is encouraging residents to use a new recycling bank for small domestic electrical equipment, located at the bring site in the Tesco car park in Waltham Abbey.? If this site is successful, they hope to place similar banks at the larger recycling bring sites throughout the district next year. You can also take your unwanted domestic electrical equipment (small or large) for recycling to the depots at Luxborough Lane, Chigwell and Brooker Road, Waltham Abbey. Details here

Litter
Nationally, every year it costs in the region of £858m to pick up litter that doesn’t make it into a bin. That’s £2.3m a day - money that could be used for services for the people of Epping Forest. Instead it is being spent on discarded cigarette butts and fast food wrappers! The Council’s Environment & Neighbourhoods Officers will be on the look-out for any offenders – fines can be up to £2,500. They will also deal with litter problems that can clearly be traced to certain types of businesses, such as “food on the go” establishments, mobile vendors or market stalls.
For Details.
For Poster.

Litter in The Drive. LRA has been battling to have the car park in The Drive cleaned regularly by the District Council. The nearby rear areas of the High Road shops should improve now that the nearby flats have been supplied with proper bins to avoid the use of black sacks. LRA Cllr Caroline Pond has been chasing the District Council about the state of Staples Hill Path.

Litter near Loughton Station.
Thanks to LRA Cllr Ken Angold-Stephens' efforts, the overgrown area (owned by Transport for London) will be cleared of all debris, the broken fencing will be removed and vegetation will be cut back The station area - one of the key gateways to Loughton - is now a lot cleaner and tidier than before.

Litter as a flood risk.
During the Town Council litter-pick along the Roding tributary from Pyrles Lane to Willingale Road, the team saw a lot of rubbish needing fishing out of the water, particularly around the storm drain outflows. LRA Cllr Carol Davies took this up with the District Council, who brought forward the regular clean-up of the brook and asked Thames Water to clear the storm grilles. If you spot rubbish blocking a local brook, please let the Town Council or us know about it so we can try to avoid any more floods!

Dog bins
Following a report from a resident that the bin in Staples Road needing repair, LRA Cllr Caroline Pond has established that for over a year the District Council have not been mending dog waste bins or supplying new ones. Their advice to dog walkers is to use litter bins, provided that the waste is wrapped in 2 layers. The Staples Road bin is now on the list to be mended. One related problem is that since the District Council took over responsibility from the police for dealing with stray dogs, a lot of their budget in this area has gone on this aspect of their work. Another problem is that the City of London will not allow dog waste bins on Forest land.

Fly-tipping
There has been a spate of fly-tipping in recent months. It's unsightly, unfair to genuine traders who pay to dispose of their rubbish, and can cost the land-owner a lot to clear up - where it's on Council land, that means council-tax-payers end up paying! To report fly-tipping on Epping Forest (City of London) land, call 020 8532 1010. To report fly-tipping elsewhere, please call 01992 564608 during office hours or 01992 564000 at all other times. Confrontation is best avoided, but photographs and/or vehicle numbers are a great help.

Beware of "cold callers" who offer to dispose of your waste at a low cost. Always record the registration number of the vehicle. If the waste is fly-tipped it could be traced back to the property it came from. Fines for fly-tipping are up to £20,000 and / or 6 months' imprisonment. Fines are unlimited if the case goes to the Crown Court or up to 2 years' imprisonment, and up to 5 years if hazardous waste is dumped. Prosecutions do happen! Make sure that any collector is a registered waste carrier by asking for their waste carrier number, and check with the Environment Agency (08708 506 506 or www.environment-agency.gov.uk/publicregister)

Please report fly tipping - see http://www.eppingforestdc.gov.uk/council_services/recycling_and_waste/flytipping.asp

Get rid of graffiti!
Please do report graffiti when you see it. To find out how, see http://www.eppingforestdc.gov.uk/community/crime_reduction/graffiti_removal.asp