Councils and waste management companies in East London are preparing to collect waste earlier in the morning and late at night amid fears of disruption on the roads during the forthcoming Olympics.
The Games will run from July 27 to August 12 and Paralympic Games from August 29 toSeptember 9, during which time an extra four million people are expected to descend upon the capital.
Three of the London boroughs hosting the Olympic Park Hackney, Tower Hamlets and Waltham Forest are moving their waste collection times to cope with increases in traffic and the introduction of games lanes reserved for athletes and officials. And, while making no changes itself, Newham council has warnedthat its waste collection service may run behind schedule.
Waste management companies are also planning to collect more waste at night in the area in order to avoid congestion, with some offeringenhanced customer support during the period as well as extra bins.
Tower Hamlets
In the London borough of Tower Hamlets, the council and its waste contractor Veolia ES has told residents that waste and recycling may be collected from as early as 5am and that residents should put bins out before lights out.
The borough will be one of the main routes to the Olympic Park for competitors, media and spectators and expects this to have an impact on its roads.
Anticipating concerns among residents about the early morning noise, the council said: It is necessary for collections to start at this time to ensure all waste and recycling is cleared each day as scheduled and we would like to thank residents for their support.
The council and Veolia are working closely with RSLs/Managing Agents to ensure bins are pulled out on estates to keep the noise to a minimum.
The council added that sudden road closures or diversions may make it impossible to collect rubbish and recycling safely during the day. It said: It may be necessary to make some collections during the night. If you continue to leave your rubbish and recycling out the night before your scheduled day it will not affect you.
Hackney
A similar approach is being taken by the neighbouring London borough of Hackney, where waste and recycling collections are being carried out from 6am onwards.
The council said: These measures, combined with extra staff helping during the Games time, will enable crews to complete their rounds each day and cut down on the number of vehicles on the boroughs roads. Commercial waste and recycling services offered by the council will be unaffected.
Meanwhile, in the London borough of Waltham Forest the council has been working with its waste contractor Kier to stagger waste collections during the period. It has split the borough into three areas South, middle and North and is pushing collections forward in the South, which will be the area most affected by the Games, so they start from 8pm onwards. The council said this would enable waste to be collected when there was less traffic and would make it easier to take it to the Edmonton EcoPark for unloading.
In the middle of Waltham Forest, collections will be brought back to start as early as 4am so they can finish by late morning. In the North of the borough collections will start at 6am as usual. Collection days will remain the same.
The council said: By staggering collections in this way, and by working across a broader range of hours, not only can the crews avoid adding to expected congestion, but Kier can avoid having the whole fleet of trucks out at the same time. This flexibility will mean that should more vehicles be required to assist with a round that is taking longer than expected particularly in the South then more vehicles will be available.
Windsor
Outside of London, changes have also been announced to waste collections in other places hosting Olympic events. The Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead, which is hosting Olympic rowing and canoe sprint during the 2012 Games at Eton Dorney, has moved waste collections earlier, to start at 5.30am.
The council is also suspending the Sutherland Grange household waste recycling site throughout the entire Olympic period and opening hours at the councils Tip Road facility will be restricted from 9am to 4pm (normally 8am to 8pm).
Companies
Alongside local authorities, waste management companies are doing their bit to minimise the impact of the Olympic Games on their customers in London.
Biffa, which operates waste and dry mixed recycling collections from businesses across the country, is advising its customers that it may need to move some collections to the night, as this is when restrictions are lifted on drivers using the 109-mile Olympic Route Network (ORN) and Paralympic Route Network (PRN), which is used by athletes and officials during the day.
In a statement on its website, the company said: The ORN/PRN restrictions will be lifted from midnight to 6am every day. As a result we will be moving some collections to our night service. If your collections are moving to the night service, we will be contacting shortly to advise you.
To mitigate the impact of the changes, Biffa said it would be providing a 24-hour customer service hotline, extra vehicles and extra containers for sites with adequate space.
Skip hire
The restrictions to road usemay also force manyskip hire companies in London to deliver skips at night, with some councils expected not to issue permits for skips at all during the period during the Games.
According to Jason Mohr, from London-based waste removal company AnyJunk: Waste disposal contractors are putting in place shifts to operate throughout the night and contacting customers to ensure they are prepared for this challenging time, but I would be amazed if we didnt see an awful lot of waste on the streets awaiting collection and also building and refurbishment projects grinding to a halt as the reality of such limited access to Central London takes effect.
Since we clear waste immediately we arrive, we expect our man and van waste disposal solution will be used quite a bit during the Olympics, particularly in London, in place of skips and other container solutions.
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