Rubbish / Refuse - How to deal with it?

[halcyon999]

Hi,

Hello to all - I've just registered today, as I remembered the newsletter when thinking of the problem I have now with refuse collection!

I'm sure many people here will have come across this themselves to a certain degree, although I think the problem we have with rubbish comes from the fact that we have 7 or 8 holiday cottages spread out over about a 10 mile stretch.

Two of the cottages are quite a way off, sleeping 28 each - now these two are the main problems - the others we have are all quite close to either my office, or the Bookings Managers office so are easier to pop round to on 'bin-day' and get the rubbish out for collection.

The two which are further afield however are a problem. We can't get there easily, especially in summer season when traffice goes ballistic, and no matter how much we try to inform guests of the collection days/times, they never seem to be keen to take the rubbish out (both involve walking down driveways to the property boundary to drop the rubbish ready for collection). So my main Q's would be:

1 - Is there a simple way we can encourage guests to put out there rubbish on collection day? At the moment I'm looking into firms such as Biffa and Sita to have the big 1100 litre bins on wheels which they collect, but I'm not sure how suitable these firms will be.

2 - Has anyone ever tried mentioning to guests a 'refuse removal fee' to be removed from the deposit if rubbish is not disposed of correctly? I'm just exploring options at the moment so any comments at all would be greatly apppreciated! I did look but couldn't find a post on rubbish/refuse - if there has already been one, please point me to it!

Yours,
Darren.

[Fraise]

Wow, quite a portfolio. Surely you need to contact your local council and seek their advice? I only have one property that I rent out, so I tell people where to dispose of rubbish and they generally do, if any is left, we dispose of it ourselves.

[Mouse]

Although I'm the same as Fraise and have only 1 property - last year this was a pain for me. For some reason (even though they were asked to) few guests took their rubbish out regularly. Some left it by the gate to stink for ages and many when leaving left a full bin full of rubbish in the kitchen etc. The bins are no more than a 2 minute stroll away.

So........this year when I do the last clean (usually 3 days before they leave) I leave departure notes which details exactly what I will charge for. This includes deducting £10 for each trip I make to the municipal bins with their rubbish. I felt it had to be a reasonable amount of £ to register with a group of upto 8 people.

Result.....not once this summer have I had to empty bins full of stinking rubbish.
As I say to the guests - 'I will charge for additional cleaning. However it is totally within your control'.

Sadly some people need a cash incentive

Mouse
x

[vrooje]

That is a very interesting idea, charging for lack of trash removal.

I like it, but I wonder if some people might also see it instead as a service you offer, for a fee, i.e., "I'll leave 10 quid on the table and not worry about the trash."

[Mouse]

I must admit vrooje - that thought did flicker briefly through my mind......however I calmed myself with the nice thought that if they did, then at least I had the satisfaction of being paid to clear someones rubbish!? rather than feel I'd been taken advantage of.
In reality though I think they must weigh up that its an easy job to do that saves them money......or, perhaps they were mistakenly thinking last year that rubbish removal was in with the price and now I point out that it isn't - they take care of it.

Mouse
x

[Guest3]

I think so far (touch wood) we've been lucky with rubbish removal. We ask guests in the information sheet (which is sent by email and also left at the villa in the Info Folder) not to leave rubbish outside the villa as it will not be collected and will also attract vermin and ants. All rubbish has to be put in the municipal bin.

We also ask them to 'kindly' remove all rubbish on departure and so far they have all complied...thank goodness!!

[halcyon999]

Wow, quite a portfolio. Surely you need to contact your local council and seek their advice? I only have one property that I rent out, so I tell people where to dispose of rubbish and they generally do, if any is left, we dispose of it ourselves.

Hi Fraise - Thanks for the reply - however, the council in Hampshire is only contractually/legally obligated to collect refuse from 'the kerbside' of the property. So unless guests take it there on the right day, it's not their problem. Also the guys working the refuse collection wagons work on a 'quicker we finish, quicker we get home' type of deal I think, so are not interested in going into our gardens/behind gates to look for problems!

Ta, Darren.

[halcyon999]

Hi Mouse,

Thanks for your reply - that's a good suggestion and one we're thinking seriously about. It's really become a problem for us now. Am just off to meet a chap who is from a Waste Management Company - they provide 1100 litre bins which are picked up by their vehicles - this may be another solution - I will try to post back in case it's any use to anyone,

Darren.

[Ju]

Hi Darren

We are fortunate in that we are close enough to all our properties to be able to put the bins out ourselves.

Do you not have a neighbour you can pay to put the bins out? I'm sure it would work out cheaper than a contractor. If some one offered me ten quid a week to put his bins out I'd be up for it. A good source of larbour can be local teenagers.

Is there a phone in the properties? Could you ring up the day before and remind people to put the bins out?

My other thought is to keep the bins at the end of the driveway at all times, this way people are obliged to walk down with their bin bags. Any bin bags left over at the end of the stay can then be charged at a rate per bag.

Ju

[cromercrabholiday]

Hi Fraise - Thanks for the reply - however, the council in Hampshire is only contractually/legally obligated to collect refuse from 'the kerbside' of the property. So unless guests take it there on the right day, it's not their problem. Also the guys working the refuse collection wagons work on a 'quicker we finish, quicker we get home' type of deal I think, so are not interested in going into our gardens/behind gates to look for problems!

Ta, Darren.

Hi - I would be surprised if Hampshire have an obligation to collect rubbish at all from a business property unless you have paid them separately for this service. This is how it works in Norfolk. Bizarrely, the collection there was on a different day and they would collect from the rear of the property - at a price.

After a lot of trouble with the council and another company, we did a cash in hand deal with our cleaner, who takes it off in her boot and drops it into the local dump!

John

[halcyon999]

Hi - I would be surprised if Hampshire have an obligation to collect rubbish at all from a business property unless you have paid them separately for this service.
John

Hi John, sorry, didn't specify - yes they will collect from a residential property at the kerbside/boundary - however am unsure about a business property....not sure if I've mentioned that to them over the phone.

Darren.

[cromercrabholiday]

While you might think that being a business property is all bad news, you get a good discount on rates if you only have one in Norfolk - it's lower than if we were a residence. Presumably, it does no harm to your tax status, which is particularly favourable (I hope!) for a holiday house in UK.

John

[halcyon999]

Thanks John,
Will have a think about the business rates, discount always sounds good!
Darren.

[Big Sis..]

Hi

Has anyone else heard about the council having some sort of eye in the wheely bins to see whether youre putting the right rubbish in or not

A chap on one of the breakfast programmes was saying this was a forerunner to charging on the amount of rubbish we dump[a bit like a water meter]

Dont know about you but I think that we pay enough already in our Rates. [which are always increasing]

Our Local tip has started charging to dump mattresses etc[no wonder fly tipping is increasing]

Also you cant take to much in one go [kitchen cupboards, bathroom suites] but have to make more than one journey. which doesnt help with petrol consumption etc.

[halcyon999]

Hi guys,

Just to let you know how we're getting on with this. We've approached the problem from more than one angle:-

1 - We have contracted SITA at the two properties where the problem was worst and have an 1100 litre bin at each of these now which is collected fortnightly (frequency of collection can be adjusted as we find out how this is working)

2 - We have introduced a £10 charge per trip to the dump for extra refuse removal.

3 - We now provide the guests with the number for the local council to call if rubbish has not been collected.

4 - We have added information relating to recycling to the welcome packs.

We have updated our guest information packs to include the above info - hopefully this will minimise the problem for the future, will try and post back in a few months to give you a 'medium term' report!

Oh, and any comments on the welcome info for improvements, just let me know!

Thanks,
Darren.