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[minifreek]

For the past few days, me and my missus have been emptying/tidying our loft/attic whatever you like to call it - as it's in a very sorry state, where 12 years and 3 kids have taken its toll on stuff being 'stored' - so we got off our arses and started on Monday... Me being the passer downer and my missus being at the bottom of the ladder taking stuff off me and placing around our top landing - ready to take down to our trailer and then off to the tip...

Now Iv always had my suspiscions of these 'workers' at the tip where whenever you start to remove items from your car/trailer they closely inspect a few things - like TV's, old PC monitors (totally forgot how heavy CRT TV's and monitors are)... kiddies toys etc...

We've been doing on average 3 runs a day (only got a small trailer, but a lot of crap to shift LOL) and the past week has been fine, Iv turned up at the tip and start to sort through stuff and throw them into the relevant skips that are there...

I took 2 TV's this morning - only 14" portables - 1 was a Panasonic that cost a bomb to purchase a few years ago and the other a Toshiba 14" nowt special, but before I took them to the tip I put a hammer through both screens when I got to the tip it was like they wouldn't accept the TV's because they was broken... I swear I heard 1 of them say - how the F are we gonna make money off that if it's smashed... so thought nothing of it and carried on...

2nd trip saw a load of old yet perfectly fine little Ben10 toys of all sorts of characters, my lads was nuts on them until they grew out of favour and went onto other things to obcess about... I started to tip the toys into the relevant pie for 'hard plastics' and 1 of the fella's stopped me and started to take the box off me and proceeded to rummage through what there was in the box of toys... I asked what he was doing... he said just sorting things for the 'bric a brac'...?? what I reallt think he meant was the next car boot sale he was planning on taking the stuff I was tipping to sell to make money from... now I dont mind that as we are taking a lot of stuff to charitys in the area and our local hospitals maternity unit with baby clothes...

Now yesterday I saw a piece of aluminium, quite a big sheet - approx 4' x 3' and asked if I could take it as I use aluminium in model aircraft and big sheet like that would last me quite a while - the worker said, once it gets tipped and into the bins it becomes property of Wigan Metropolitan Council... OK says I and left...

So on this fella saying that, aren't these people who are taking 'bric a brac' actually stealing...? from their own employer...?

Why is it OK for them to take things and the general public aren't allowed anything...?

My wife heard me have a go at the fella and she just said leave it alone as we'll have a few more runs yet...

Needless to say, Iv just returned from the last run of the day, when I turned up at the tip - they initially started to walk over to where I was offloading - recognised me from earlier, turned round and walked away leaving me to empty my trailer on my own.... LOL


Bit long winded I know but its really stuck in my mind and I wanted to get it off my chest.....

[Varche]

When I lived in the Uk, I always thought it was a condition of their licence that the tip operator could and did recycle things.

What a vandal you are putting a hammer through the TV screens?!

having said that we took a perfect large parrot cage down to Whetstone tip in leicester three years back. I unloaded it carefully and put it in a safe position. Went to get next items out and a worker came over and lobbed it into a skip full of metal.

[Mr Gav]

I know of one site in Leeds that does sell things but I`ve no idea if it is for charity or not.

Personally anything that can be sold I take to the charity shops, the rest I make sure it can`t be sold by thieving tip workers

[ronnyd]

Our local centre operatives used to be allowed to "salvage" stuff and we could also buy stuff as well. Sadly now, they arn,t allowed to do any of that, due to perceived "corruption issues", This was after the site was passed over to private contractors taking over the site.

[minifreek]

When I lived in the Uk, I always thought it was a condition of their licence that the tip operator could and did recycle things.

What a vandal you are putting a hammer through the TV screens?!

having said that we took a perfect large parrot cage down to Whetstone tip in leicester three years back. I unloaded it carefully and put it in a safe position. Went to get next items out and a worker came over and lobbed it into a skip full of metal.

Wasn't vandalism at all - it was a safety measure for the tip workers... You wouldn't believe how long the CRT tubes actually stay charged for, and they also store a hell of a lot of power too (IIRC in excess of 5KV...!!!)

[Bigron]

Agreed, not vandalism at all; many tips will not accept CRTs unless the vacuum has been released as there is a risk of implosion. The safest way to do this is to go to the rear (connecter end) of the CRT and nip off the very tip of the glass seal right in the centre - just a sharp tap with a screwdriver or twaek with pliers will do it - and the air will slowly and safely fill the CRT.

Ron.

[BazaJT]

I've took stuff to our local tip before now and actually said they could have summat if they could make use of it[can't recall what it was now]and they said no they weren't allowed to do such things and if they were seen/caught doing so it was instant dismissal time.

[omegod]

There's a couple working at our local tip, they have a LWB tranny parked behind the bins and anything decent , prams, tv's and the like go straight in the back of it. Someone is getting cheap stuff at a car booty over the weekend and they are making a few quid so fair play, I'm sure my opinion may change if I saw summat I wanted and wasn't allowed to have it though

[Steve B]

When I lived in the Uk, I always thought it was a condition of their licence that the tip operator could and did recycle things.

What a vandal you are putting a hammer through the TV screens?!

having said that we took a perfect large parrot cage down to Whetstone tip in leicester three years back. I unloaded it carefully and put it in a safe position. Went to get next items out and a worker came over and lobbed it into a skip full of metal.

Keep out my tip..    Its around the corner from me 

And it no longer looks how you remember it

[Broomies Mate]

Are people now complaining that the stuff they no longer want (taking to landfill) and cant be arsed to advertise for free on Gumtree, FB Free To Collect pages etc..... are you really whinging about it?

Jesus F H Christ! Joseph, Mary, Dave and the rest of the tribe.

YOU ARE TAKING IT TO A PLACE WHERE IT WILL BE BURIED IN THE FUCKING GROUND!

Do you not realis that those 'old' portable TV's could have made a difference to a struggling person with nowt?  Don't follow up with "They didn't work anyway" because you wouldn't have 'lofted' them.

I don't know how much longer I can survive around cretin like this.

[minifreek]

What am complaining about is people making money off the things Im throwing away...

Not that I cant be arsed to advertise them on Gumtree etc... (mostly full of chancers anyway - advertise something for £20 and they offer £5 coz thats all they got left after buying their drugs/smokes/alchohol)...

A portable TV these days is useless without a set-top box/sky box (of which I threw away about 5 of them - 3 being HD boxes) and they did work yes..... but they didnt when I took the to the tip...

What pissed me off was the way that the vultures are getting paid a wage for working at the place and then making more money by stealing from their employers to sell on the car boot/Ebay/Bric a Brac/School fete/Church garden party white elephant stall....

If I had asked for something from out the bins in the metal pile - as I did - I got told a resounding no... yet then they can take what they want....?

And the place that I take my crap too is not buried in the ground, its burned mostly or recycled - not landfill...

[Jimbob]

I dont get it,

You have thrown it away, why should / would you care if someone else then reuses it in some form.

round here tips are recycling centres, everything is sorted, and there is money to be made, its a business, sure some is sold, some recyled, or weighed in etc.  the 'centre' then makes a profit for the county, which in return helps balance the books.  You appear to be assuming its being pocketed, where in reality it may be making money to reduce your council tax.

fwiw Just done the same myself - best given to friends or family / sold, next donated to charity, last to the tip, where once ive decided I dont want it, frankly  anyone else is welcome to it.  Anything else would be selfish.

[GastronomicKleptomaniac]

As I see it, OP isn't bothered about things being resold - but the hypocrisy in that he isn't allowed to take something that he would find useful.

I have no problem with people scavenging through the rubbish, so long as uts doable across the board. Sadly there are so many petty rules and regulations that its making common sense a thing of the past.

[Jimbob]

Ahh, so its jealousy of the tip workers (potential) job perk...

Like shop workers staff discounts,
Bankers cheap loans
tradesmans 'cash in hand' jobs etc

[Sir Tigger KC]

Our local tip (Recycling Centre) is run on a concession basis, so the guys who run the place have ownership of anything left there. It's a business, they have to pay the concession fee on top of all the usual costs of running a business.   

They provide a service to the general public which is free at the point of use, which if it wasn't there you'd have to pay someone to take it away.  How much is a skip these days? £200?   

You wouldn't go into a bakery and ask for a free doughnut.....