RE: ‘My stolen bin has cost me £25’, and ‘Why I wouldn’t pay for a new bin’ (Messenger letters)

MY problem is not the replacement of missing/stolen wheelie bins, but the fact that despite putting my wheelie bin out for collection, operatives prefer to empty the contents of my bin and leave household rubbish strewn alongside the wheelie bins that they have placed at the kerbside, ready for collection.

For quite a few months now this has been the routine. One operative from Veolia walks the streets, hours before, and well ahead of the bin lorry actually emptying wheelie bins, peering into them, and emptying the contents, even though the grey bins are usually quite full, due to the newly introduced fortnightly, rather than weekly collection.

Presumably this is intended to speed up the collection process. However, all it does is leave stinking rubbish to be blown everywhere by the wind, littering the streets for many hours, all to shave a few minutes off the bin round.

I’m totally confused as to why it is deemed necessary for one person to park up in a van, and then proceed to walk around the estate wheeling bins to the edge of the kerb, leaving bags and piles of rubbish in their wake. Surely it would make more sense to have those extra pair of hands actually join the other bin operatives and help empty the bins themselves, rather than rearrange them attractively down the street?

Just refresh my memory, what were the reasons given by Trafford Council for the introduction of wheelie bins?

S Jennings, Sale resident