Waste services returning to normal after floods

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 company SITA was 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 and its recycling contractor, ECT Recycling, are now hard at work replacing recycling boxes contaminated by the floods.

Andy Young, general manager at ECT, 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.”

Communications

In Sheffield, Veolia Environmental Services deployed a refuse collection vehicle and crew for the week to the direction of emergency officers working for the city council. This allowed the crew to provide immediate response for the removal of contaminated items.

The company also set up a new communications system to cope with the sudden need to remove contaminated items and defrosting food.

A spokesman for the company explained: “Since the first week of the floods we established a fast track communications system with the Council to supply services directly to flood damaged properties removing amongst other things, furniture, freezers and defrosted food.

“The services offered by Veolia to flood affected areas have continued to the present day as insurance assessors have visited claimants and authorised the removal of property. This service has operated six days a week,” the company spokesman added.