Bin collection day changes

Watch out for your new bin calendar 'hanger' between 12th and 23rd May.

SITA are changing the collection rounds from 2nd June to accommodate the new materials you can now recycle and to cope with the major new developments being built around South Glos. It's important to read the hanger carefully because you may have a new collection day and there are changes to which items are put out on which weeks.

From 2nd June the fortnightly schedule will change so that black and green bins will go out together, with the green recycling box being collected in the other week. Plastics and cardboard will be collected on alternate weeks, the hanger will say which, while food waste will continue to be collected weekly.

If you don't get a bin hanger by Monday 26th May, please contact the council on streetcare@southglos.gov.uk or by calling 01454 868000. You can check your collection schedule online at any time via www.southglos.gov.uk/sortit

Christmas recycling collections

You can find out when your recycling will be collected over Christmas on the South Glos website.

Charity clothes collections - Trading Standards Warning

South Gloucestershire Council's Trading Standards officers and neighbourhood police are warning people in South Gloucestershire to be wary of door-to-door leaflets asking for unwanted clothing.

There is currently a red and white flyer asking to collect clothes for a charity called ‘Breaking the Waves’. The website on the flyer does not exist and the telephone number provided does not connect. The police have some concerns and are currently investigating.

The only way to guarantee that donations benefit good causes is to deal only with charities you know are genuine, or take unwanted items direct to a charity shop.

Neil Derrick, Senior Enforcement Officer with South Gloucestershire Trading Standards, said: "Clothing collections are regularly conducted throughout the area and, although some are genuinely for charitable purposes, we have concerns that others are just done for commercial gain and that the public are being misled by false claims about the use to which their donations are put and the use of bogus company details."

If you are in any doubt about door-to-door flyers like this, or any others offering goods or services, contact Consumer Direct on 08454 04 05 06.

Clothing collections - UPDATE - don't donate to EC Export

In the past we've warned about commercial door-to-door clothing collections that pretend to be charities. Our advice is usually that unless you recognise a collection by a "big name" charity, you should take usable items to your local charity shop.

We previously said that this organisation appeared OK, but we've discovered from one of our readers that there is no longer a link with the Children's Heart Surgery Fund - in fact in Cardiff EC Export has been prosecuted for making illegal charity collections


Our previous advice was written when the Children's Heart Surgery Fund listed them as a corporate sponsor.

Many thanks to reader "Wales" for bringing this to our attention.

Anonymous clothing collectors come round again

We reported on this clothing collection last October - they're back again. You can't tell from the leaflet who runs it - there's no mention of a charity or company name. To be fair, it doesn't claim to be for charity - that would be illegal.

It's up to you, but remember that it's almost certainly a profit-making concern. We suggest not leaving anything out for their collection that our excellent local charity shops would accept.

Weekly food waste campaign success

Liberal Democrats across South Gloucestershire are today celebrating that their long campaign for FREE weekly kerbside collection of food waste in the green bins has been successful. The scheme is set to go ahead for all residents by the end of 2008.

“This is great news” said Cllr. Dave Hockey (Lib Dem – Frampton Cotterell). “We have been campaigning on this since 2005 and our success means:

• good news for local residents because weekly collection will cut problems with smelly food waste and free up space in their black bins;


• good news for the environment since methane gas, a bi-product of biodegradable waste buried in landfill sites, is 21 times more damaging to the environment than carbon emissions;


• good news for council tax payers who are set to avoid penalties rising from £1m per year in 2009 to over £5m per year by 2020”.

“One down, one to go” added Dave Hockey. “SITA know from their own Customer Satisfaction Survey carried out at the start of 2007 that residents are even more keen to see the introduction of kerbside collection of plastic bottles, which the Liberal Democrats have been campaigning for strongly over many years – watch this space!”.

Another clothing collection

A leaflet for another clothing collection came through the door today. Looks like a different outfit, and at least it doesn't say that it's a charity. It's up to you, but remember that it's almost certainly a profit-making concern. We suggest not leaving anything out for their collection that a local charity shop would accept.

Doorstep collections update

Update on the doorstep collections item - they didn't QUITE remove all the charity references. The smaller print on the bag still says: "The more clothing you give the more the charity will benefit".

The Advertising Standards Authority has recently (July 11th) told Helping Arms to remove this wording from their bags - details here.

Helping Arms' lawyers told the ASA that the company was applying to become a charity. The ASA has also been told that they have given a donation of £200 to University College London Hospitals. That doesn't sound like much for a fairly large operation to give, but we leave it to your own judgement.

Dubious doorstep collections

Houses in our area have been receiving blue plastic collection bags from an organisation called "Helping Arms", asking for clothing, toiletries, toys and so forth. They describe themselves as "A collecting company which proved people in need in Eastern Europe and African countries with affordable clothes..." etc.

They quote a company number – but NOT a charity number. This is a commercial enterprise, not a charity. The goods are sold for private profit.

We’ve spoken to Trading Standards about it. This particular collection is legal because it doesn’t pretend to be a charity, but a lot of people still assume that it is.

Our advice is – if you don’t know the charity name, wait for a genuine charity collection or donate good quality items to one of our many local charity shops.

Contact Paul Hulbert or Mandy Sainsbury for further information or to check out particular collections.