FURTHER to the article in the Bolton Evening News (Tuesday, June 7) in which Mr Ashton challenged the council's policy on not emptying his heavy bin by wheeling the bin from his property in Kearsley to the Raikes Lane Disposal Point in Burnden.
While we appreciate the concerns, it is important that we provide the public with further clarification regarding the reasons for not emptying the container.
If a heavy bin is not emptied, this may lead to customers thinking that our staff have been lazy when this is definitely not the case.
Just because you can wheel a bin does not necessarily mean it is not too heavy to be emptied. The safety issues occur when the bin is being raised up and tipped in the collection vehicle. The bin can be become unstable, fall and injure our staff and pedestrians.
The pulling or pushing of excessive weight can also cause muscular strains. The evidence is that Bolton Council has had three serious injuries over the last 10 years to collection staff who had attempted to load bins which were overloaded.
The council has a legal responsibility within the Health and Safety at work Act to provide a safe working environment for the staff it employs.
In line with The Health and Safety Executive recommendations, we have improved our procedures and now staff have specialised manual handling training to enable them to assess what is a safe or dangerous load.
The waste industry has at the present time one of the worst safety records of any business sector in the United Kingdom. Bolton Council is keen to make sure its accident statistics do not increase, and improve overall safety.
Sixty per cent of all household waste can be recycled. The weekly paper collection service has been operating in the Kearsley area for many years and recently the council has introduced kerbside collections for glass, cans/tins, plastic bottles, foil trays and garden waste.
If residents are using all of the above services but still find it difficult to reduce the waste going into the grey bin, one of the council's Recycling Officers will provide (free of charge) a waste audit at the household concerned to help to reduce the amount of waste produced.
Environmental Services Team
Commercial Services
Bolton Council
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