"There is huge anger out there. And it will only get worse as more councils switch over to fortnightly collections." -- Doretta Cocks, Campaign for Weekly Waste Collection

Imagine rats pouring out of the sewers. The stuff of science fiction or a horror movie. In today's world of fortnightly waste collection, fast food takeaways, it is all too real.

There are an estimated 60 to 100 million rats in the country. Roughly one rat to every one of us. Rats though breed much faster. In ideal conditions, one female can produce ten young, ten times a year.

Water companies used to regularly clear out the sewers of rats, but those days long went long ago along with water privatisation.

The rat population has increased by over 60%. We are also seeing a generation of super rats.

Against strong local opposition, over 100 local councils have switched to fortnightly collection of waste. Bringing with it problems of stench of rotting rubbish, spread of disease, bins overrun with flies and maggots, overflowing bins, rubbish strewn streets, fly-tipping, back yard burning of rubbish.

Rats are disease vectors, not just of bubonic plague, the cause of the Black Death which killed off half the population of Medieval Europe. Rats also carry cryptosporidium (a cause of gastroenteritis), salmonella, listeria (which causes septicaemia), toxoplasmosis (blindness), Q fever, Hantaan fever, and the lethal Weil’s disease.

As more local authorities switch to fortnightly, the rat population will inevitably increase.

Rubbish left in the bin for two weeks leads to an explosion in disease organisms including moulds, listeria, campylobacter, clostridium, e-coli

Campylobacter is the most common cause of gastroenteritis. It can be fatal. Having once suffered from gastroenteritis and ended up in hospital on a drip, I would not wish it on anyone.

Clostridium belongs to the same family as C-Diff, tetanus and deadly botulism. Induces vomiting, diarrhoea and fever. Spores in open wounds cause gangrene and even death. Go to your bin with a small cut and you run the risk of being killed.

Listeria can be fatal, is a common cause of miscarriage.

The Victorians placed on the Statute Book the Health Act 1875, which gave us clean water, refuse collection, sewers. Now we seem to be going backwards.

Local councils are being encouraged to produce less waste, recycle more, targets are being set and fines will be levied if the targets are not.

Local councils in turn are using this as an excuse to cut services, with a wing and a prayer that it may also somehow miraculously cut waste, increase recycling. But it won't, the waste has to go somewhere, it will not overnight halve, as a halving waste collection would imply.

In the Rotten Borough of Rushmoor, placing several thousand households on fortnightly waste collection at the beginning of the year has already led to fly-tipping, smelly bins, bins overrun with maggots, rubbish-strewn streets. But according to Roland Dibbs, deputy leader of the council and the man responsible for this crass policy, there has been only one complaint, few people are bothered and of the handful who have troubled to mention it to him, they are fully behind a cut in services!

If you do get rats, do not look to your local council for help, as along with cuts in refuse collection, many have also cut their pest control service.

It is hardly surprising that in the run up to local election on Thursday, fortnightly waste collection has become the local election issue.

Websites

 http://www.thetruthinrushmoor.co.uk/
 http://www.crow.uk.com/
 http://www.weeklywaste.com/
 http://www.dailymail.co.uk/bins
 http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/AxetheBinTax/
 http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/WeeklyRubbish/
 http://www.recyclenow.com/
 http://www.letsrecycle.com/info/localauth/league/2005ranked.jsp

References

Guy Basnett, Binfected: Killer bins, News of the World, 22 April 2007
 http://www.newsoftheworld.co.uk/story_pages/news/news4.shtml

Guy Basnett & Robbie Collin, We've all bin sick, News of the World, 29 April 2007
 http://www.newsoftheworld.co.uk/story_pages/news/news3.shtml

Bin Them: New council proposals on rubbish collection are, well, garbage, The Times, 13 April 2007
 http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/leading_article/article1647550.ece

Lester R Brown, Plan B 2.0, Norton, 2006

Steve Doughty and Peter Stebbings, Are yo next for bin round misery?, Daily Mail, 30 April 2007

John-Paul Flintoff, Eeeeeek!! Overflowing bins and pest control cutbacks are causing Britain’s vermin population to boom, The Sunday Times, 29 April 2007
 http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article1720064.ece

A G Fox, Dustbins may prove to be the battleground for May's local elections, letters, Daily Telegraph, 20 April 2007

Jason Groves, Taxpayers in revolt over bin collections, Daily Express, 15 April 2007
 http://www.express.co.uk/posts/view/4468

Mathew Hickley, Fly-tipping menace of cutting the bin rounds, Daily Mail, 28 February 2007

George Jones, 9m homes no longer have weekly bin collection, Daily Telegraph, 19 April 2007
 http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/04/19/nbins19.xml

By Jo Macfarlane, When are two weeks not a fortnight? In council speak, Daily Express, 27 April 2007

Eric Murray, Panic measures. The Oxford Times, 27 April 2007
 http://www.theoxfordtimes.net/news/letters/display.var.1354110.0.panic_measures.php

Keith Parkins, A sense of the masses - a manifesto for the new revolution, www.heureka.clara.net, October 2003
 http://www.heureka.clara.net/gaia/democracy.htm

Keith Parkins, Curitiba – Designing a sustainable city, www.heureka.clara.net, April 2006
 http://www.heureka.clara.net/gaia/curitiba.htm

Keith Parkins, Recycling – a tale of two councils, Indymedia UK, 5 January 2007
 http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2007/01/359341.html?c=on

Keith Parkins, Fortnightly rubbish collection creating a plague of rats, Indymedia UK, 8 January 2007
 http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2007/01/359493.html

Keith Parkins, Recycling – the good, the bad and the ugly, Indymedia UK, 7 February 2007
 http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2007/02/361715.html

Keith Parkins, Recycling in the Rotten Borough of Rushmoor goes from bad to worse, Indymedia UK, 9 February 2007
 http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2007/02/361842.html

Keith Parkins, Recycling and waste reduction being used as an excuse to cut services, Indymedia UK, 19 February 2007
 http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2007/02/362712.html

Keith Parkins, Opposition grows in Rushmoor to cuts in refuse collection, Indymedia UK, 27 February 2007
 http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2007/02/363743.html

Keith Parkins, Fortnightly collection of rubbish an unmitigated disaster, Indymedia UK, 26 March 2007
 http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2007/03/366221.html

Keith Parkins, Fortnightly refuse collection, Indymedia UK, 10 April 2007
 http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2007/04/367639.html

Keith Parkins, Council to be referred to Ombudsman for failing to collect rubbish, Indymedia UK, 13 April 2007
 http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2007/04/368012.html

Keith Parkins, Local elections bin backlash, Indymedia UK, 24 April 2007
 http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2007/04/368649.html

Keith Parkins, Bin revolution gathers pace, Indymedia UK, 24 April 2007
 http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2007/04/369120.html

Tom Rawstorne, So where does all your recycling end up?, Daily Mail, 30 April 2007

Recycling 'risks binmen's lungs', BBC News on-line, 29 March 2003
 http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/2891609.stm

Jill Sherman, Collecting dustbins fortnightly is a rubbish idea, say campaigners, The Times, 27 April 2007

Steven Swinford, Asthma link to late bin pickup, The Sunday Times, 22 April 2007