Recycling and recycled 'Council Tax Bands'.

[Benchwayze]

Someone mentioned the price of recycled timber in the General Woodworking Section.

I thought I should respond here.

Some recyclers are charging more for their timber than saw mills who supply new material. This tells us what the 'Save the Earth' hoo-hah really means. Particularly where Government is concerned. Namely, making and/or saving money.

I know that my Local Authority send much 'recycled' material (which we conscientiously sorted for them) to landfill, because they can't afford to process it. Even if they could, they have so much, there are insuffient resources to manage it.

Processing what they can again uses energy. In the end, the damage to the environment is the same, and it becomes a vicious circle. Another ill-considered 'Grand Scheme; an example of 'Authority' having the usual 'Knee-jerks'. Just consider the initial cost of all these extra wheelie bins and other containers we need to use. :?

The same economic wizards must have devised the present Council Tax system. They base the tax on the value of property, but they never considered that house prices would fall. (Or if they did factor it in, they didn't tell us how they would manage it)

They can't afford to lower their taxes along with current property values. Instead they stretch the limits of the 'tax-bands'. How very convenient.

I wrote to my Council about this anomaly. The only reply I had was an acknowledgement of my letter and a promise of a proper reply. Three months on, I am still waiting. Presumably I will wait until the value of my house rises again. By which time, for the Council, the problem will have gone away.

There are times when I am glad I am at the thin end of life, but I fear for the sanity of my descendants! Somewhere though, this muddled thinking has to stop. When the populace will realise this, I just don't know.

 

[dennis]

John,

The fall in house values effects all properties so in effect all bands remain the same. You will still get the same service [or lack of it] as you did before the drop in values.

Dennis.

 

[Peter T]

Our Conservative run council has just presented us with a third wheelie bin, together with an elaborate plan as to when all the different bins will be used.

The reply I got from my councillor to my letter of complaint stated that, if they didn't introduce this new scheme, they would be fined millions by central government for not complying with recycling quotas.

Naturally this fine would be passed on to council tax payers.

Yet more stealth tax from this, surely, the worst, most corrupt government in living memory.

 

[cambournepete]

The same economic wizards must have devised the present Council Tax system. They base the tax on the value of property, but they never considered that house prices would fall. (Or if they did factor it in, they didn't tell us how they would manage it)

They can't afford to lower their taxes along with current property values. Instead they stretch the limits of the 'tax-bands'. How very convenient.

I get what you're saying, but you're argument is fundamentally flawed...
The bands are based on the value of the house in 1991 or, if your house is newer than that, what they think it would have been then.
Ours is 10 years old, and I got it reduced by a band when they first banded it as they got it wrong.

With the rise of house prices since then very few houses were moved up a band, so in the fall of house prices they also wont get rebanded.

I agree that council tax is just too high though - as and a member of our Parish Council finanance and policy committee I help set part of it where I live...

Anyway, surely recycling has to be worthwhile - it must be better than just burying everything in the ground...?

 

[kityuser]

Anyway, surely recycling has to be worthwhile - it must be better than just burying everything in the ground...?

I think one of the points being made was that we sort all of this stuff for "recycling" and it still gets just stuck in the ground (or in containers to china) ANYWAY!


I`m sure I once read somewhere that recycling glass into new bottles takes more energy than making new ones from "sand". But when shredded and "woolified" makes good insulation. :wink:

of course all of our recycling is a drop in the ocean compared with the energy and materials consumed by the developing countries, and who are we to say they can't "develop"..... we did.
Thats not to say we should'nt recycle, just putting things into perspective.

As for council tax, I read on the BBC website this morning that essex council is planning on leaving pot holes for longer............. as a traffic calming measure :roll:

Steve

 

[Karl]

[Anyway, surely recycling has to be worthwhile - it must be better than just burying everything in the ground...?

I'd say that to NOT recycle is simply irresponsible. Everybody has a responsibility to recycle as much of their waste as possible.

I even recycle my customers "waste" sometimes - cardboard boxes from flat pack kitchens get rescued from the bin and taken down to the tip.

Cheers

Karl

 

[frugal]

I have a friend who works for Biffa (as an accident inspector on landfill sites). Talking to him a while ago there are plans in a few of the landfill companies to start mining the landfills as there is so much metal (gold, copper, steel etc) in them that it is economically viable to dig it back out of the landfill and reprocess it...

 

[13eightyfour]

Our Conservative run council has just presented us with a third wheelie bin, together with an elaborate plan as to when all the different bins will be used.

My bins got collected this morning, we already have 3! a green, brown, and black. Ive just got back a found that the bin men have tied 2 plastic bags to all the bins where we live. 1 is clear the other is black, No idea what i supposed to do with them as they didnt come with any instructions (didnt think id ever need instructions for a plastic bag!)

 

[RogerS]

[Anyway, surely recycling has to be worthwhile - it must be better than just burying everything in the ground...?

I'd say that to NOT recycle is simply irresponsible. Everybody has a responsibility to recycle as much of their waste as possible.
........

Karl

Providing that there are the facilities to do this that don't involve a 40 mile round trip, to a city that we rarely visit, as would be the case for me if we tried to recycle our tin cans. Fortunately we don't consume that many.

Much as I detest our Govt as much as the next man, my understanding is that the fines for not recycling/using landfill (which we will run out of in the next 5-6 years so we need to build incinerators now) come from Brussels. Of course, I wouldn't put it past the swines in Westminster to put a sneaky loading on top. Perhaps if we could harness all the hot air that comes out of them ????

And slightly OT but relevant to the environment, read today that McAfee estimate that processing spam generates as much CO2 as 3.3 million cars. So to go even more OT my position that anyone not running the latest anti-virus stuff on their PC who gets infected gets their PC confiscated.

 

[brianhabby]

(didnt think id ever need instructions for a plastic bag!)

:lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:

 

[Ironballs]

[/quote]
As for council tax, I read on the BBC website this morning that essex council is planning on leaving pot holes for longer............. as a traffic calming measure :roll:

Steve[/quote]

That works fine until the first cyclist who hits one and falls off is subsequently run over and killed. Speaking as someone who has hit potholes and fallen off

I did an Environmental Science degree back in the early 90s when recycling was something that only hippies in California did. We rapidly came to the conclusion that the only way to bring about environmental improvement was to make it worth someones while and that is what is happening now. As with anything there will be those who try and make more money from it.

No longer involved with that stuff as it was very difficult to make a living out of it, your average Environment Protection Officer is very low paid and (to quote C Montgomery Burns) is as impotent as a Nevada State Boxing Commissioner when it comes to bringing offenders to book

 

[Doug B]

The thing that has annoyed me about recycling & going green is, we were given a brown wheelie bin 6 months ago & told to put our garden waste in it.
Up until then i`d put everything on the compost heap, no huge diesel wagon involved, no need to put extra on the council tax bill to pay for the vehicle, driver & blokes who collect it.
A couple of years prior to this the council at a very reduced rate (subsidized by the council tax) gave us compost bins.
So not only have the council wasted my money to pay for 2 different types of compost containers, but they are doing more damage to the environment by collecting it.
If any of them had any brains, surely it would pay to give a rebate to the folks like me would would happily produce their own compost, & not use up environmental & economic resources doing something that most could do easily for themselves, & i`m sure would do, if there was a financial reward for doing so.

 

[Karl]

I did an Environmental Science degree back in the early 90s when recycling was something that only hippies in California did.

:lol:

As part of the English GCSE exam, we were required to give a talk to the class about any subject of our choice. I did "Environmental Issues" - acid raid, global warming, finite resources etc.

Went down like the proverbial lead balloon....

Cheers

Karl

 

[Rich]

When I was at savacenter today at midday, I mentioned to the manager that ALL the car park lights were on, he shrugged and went on his way, the lights in the house of Westminster are on 24/7, as are the lights outside of Buck house, imo, all this carbon footprint hoohah is a load of sxxxe, either, EVERYONE pulls together or it's a no no, when I took a double glazed unit to the recycling center (tip) I was told to dispose of it in the household rubbish section, we do our best and even put our teabags on the rose bushes, but it is just not working, is it?

Rich.

 

[Peter T]

When I was at savacenter today at midday, I mentioned to the manager that ALL the car park lights were on, he shrugged and went on his way, the lights in the house of Westminster are on 24/7, as are the lights outside of Buck house, imo, all this carbon footprint hoohah is a load of sxxxe, either, EVERYONE pulls together or it's a no no, when I took a double glazed unit to the recycling center (tip) I was told to dispose of it in the household rubbish section, we do our best and even put our teabags on the rose bushes, but it is just not working, is it?

Rich.

One set of rules for us, another for them :evil: :evil:

 

[cambournepete]

The thing that has annoyed me about recycling & going green is, we were given a brown wheelie bin 6 months ago & told to put our garden waste in it.

So keep putting it on the compost heap.
All they're doing is telling people who put it in the landfill bin to use a different one so it's sorted at source.

 

[Benchwayze]

[Anyway, surely recycling has to be worthwhile - it must be better than just burying everything in the ground...?

I'd say that to NOT recycle is simply irresponsible. Everybody has a responsibility to recycle as much of their waste as possible.
........

Karl

So to go even more OT my position that anyone not running the latest anti-virus stuff on their PC who gets infected gets their PC confiscated.

The problem is Karl, Anti-virus programs are not preventative. They merely warn us when out firewall has been breached. It can be too late, even before one opens a file. I am told the best defence is to use a 'router' (The communicating kind!) instead of a modem. I don't know how true that is.

 

[Benchwayze]

The same economic wizards must have devised the present Council Tax system. They base the tax on the value of property, but they never considered that house prices would fall. (Or if they did factor it in, they didn't tell us how they would manage it)

They can't afford to lower their taxes along with current property values. Instead they stretch the limits of the 'tax-bands'. How very convenient.

I get what you're saying, but you're argument is fundamentally flawed...

With the rise of house prices since then very few houses were moved up a band, so in the fall of house prices they also wont get rebanded.

I agree that council tax is just too high though - as and a member of our Parish Council finanance and policy committee I help set part of it where I live...

Anyway, surely recycling has to be worthwhile - it must be better than just burying everything in the ground...?

However you slice it Pete, I am paying more tax this year than last, and my house, according to my postcode, has reduced in value by a bigger percentage. So if tax is a percentage of house value, tax should reduce and I don't see where the 'flaw in my argument' lies!

The bands were devised to make the skulduggery possible, so that it appears just and 'lawful'. (Sorry - Statute-ful! Statutes not being genuine Law. ) As for the recycling issue, if it costs more to recycle than using landfill how can it be a good thing for us? We have to pay that cost. Also we are running out of landfil space, very quickly.

But at least, it doesn't matter now if our local Council have video evidence of me putting out the trash too early! I wish they'd listen when I mention wood-burning stove though!

 

[Grinding One]

The thing that has annoyed me about recycling & going green is, we were given a brown wheelie bin 6 months ago & told to put our garden waste in it.
Up until then i`d put everything on the compost heap, no huge diesel wagon involved, no need to put extra on the council tax bill to pay for the vehicle, driver & blokes who collect it.
A couple of years prior to this the council at a very reduced rate (subsidized by the council tax) gave us compost bins.
So not only have the council wasted my money to pay for 2 different types of compost containers, but they are doing more damage to the environment by collecting it.
If any of them had any brains, surely it would pay to give a rebate to the folks like me would would happily produce their own compost, & not use up environmental & economic resources doing something that most could do easily for themselves, & i`m sure would do, if there was a financial reward for doing so.

Well here in the states they have to cover the pile every night,otherwise the junk gets blown all over the place...so I can see why they would want your compost.Also oil comes from dead animals from years past so just wait some smart boy is going to make a killing on the scrap we put into the ground.We already harvest the gasses produced from the piles,little generators run off of it to produce electricity.
On the container issue,we have two one for paper and one for gass and tin...I watched the cpollector the other day ,he thru them both into the same bin?? I asked him whats up with that?? He said that everybody doesn`t separate the goods so its a waste of time...they have magnates that pick it clean and people to separate while it comes in...Talk about dumb.

 

[Shultzy]

...they have magnates that pick it clean

We have bank magnates who pick us clean :lol: Isn't English wonderful :lol: