Waste services returning to normal after floods (30.07.2007)
Waste management and recycling sector staff around Britain have been taking a leading role in clearing up after last week's floods, with collection services now returning to normal.
As well as council staff and council contractors, farmers and soldiers have been involved in the clear-up, with boats used where homes were still inaccessible to vehicles.
Waste management teams have also been involved in helping people keep their possessions safe from the floods in some parts of England.
Many of the worst affected councils now believe their recycling and waste collection services can get back to relative normality some time this week, with good weather now predicted by the Met Office.
Gloucester city council spokesman Andrew Mitchell Stead said: "The good news is that as the water subsides, people are getting back into their normal routine and recycling as usual. Recycling collections for the whole of Gloucester should be fully resumed by early next week, but obviously this is dependent on the weather."
Mr Mitchell Stead said his council's environmental health team had been out and about to assess whether extra recycling collections were needed. He said the clean-up starting last week had involved "all hands on deck", particularly in the worst-affected areas in the Gloucester Quay area.
He said: "We have seen members of the army in boats and farmers on tractors all getting involved in taking away both floating waste and household waste - there are around 200 houses which have been inaccessible for the council's recycling vehicles."
Possessions
Waste management companies were involved in helping some of the flood victims cope with the worst of the deluge, even helping householders move their possessions to safety.
Victor Ross, senior contract manger for SITA in Doncaster revealed: "During the worst of the floods we provided up to 13 hook lift vehicles and an extra five recycling vehicles. We went into the flooded areas taking people's furniture and possessions to safety."
He said some of the green bins contaminated by the flood would now go to landfill, while extra collection rounds had been laid on to take contaminated furniture and waste away, although with residents evacuated from their homes, there had been little ordinary waste to remove.
"We also relaxed the charging for bulky waste collections for flood damaged waste, but because the residents wanted it to get it over and done with the removal of property went relatively quickly," Mr Ross said.
Doncaster metropolitan borough council's resource recovery team is now hard at work replacing recycling boxes contaminated by the floods.
A spokesperson, said: "It's been particularly bad here, as Doncaster is surrounded by sewage operations. By the time we finish I imagine we would have replaced around 1,000 boxes."