Residents Claim Veolia Hasn't Collected their Recycling in 18 Months

Residents Claim Veolia Hasn’t
Collected their Recycling in 18 months

Residents on a street in Sharrow, Sheffield took their own recycling bins to a depot, claiming that they were fed up with waiting for them to be emptied. They claim that the council’s waste management contractor Veolia hasn’t emptied their recycling bins in 18 months.

Veolia is contracted to empty recycling bins by Sheffield City Council, but residents on Club Garden Walk in the city have claimed that the company has failed to collect their blue recycling bins. As a result, they’ve been left, smelling bad and attracting flies due to the warmer weather. The residents claim they have repeatedly contacted the city council and Veolia but to no avail, so they organised a protest through the community union ACORN to encourage Veolia to collect their bins. Angry residents took their bins to a recycling depot to make a point and said they shouldn’t be doing Veolia’s job for them.

One resident said he has lived in the street for 40 years and he realises that if people don’t speak up and take action, nothing will get done. Another resident accused Veolia and the council of ‘penny-pinching’ when their taxes are paying them to keep their community clean and to take care of the environment. He added that Veolia and the council try to get away with things because they think people won’t speak up.

One organiser of the protest said that this action was part of a longer term plan to build a new community group in the area to protect local people from those who they believe don’t have their best interests at heart, including contractors like Veolia and unscrupulous landlords who put profit before safety. He added that people deserve better and that by coming together as a community organisation, local people can get what they need and deserve.

Veolia said it’s not aware of any issues on Club Garden Walk but said it would be willing to work with residents to discuss, and raise awareness of, waste and recycling issues in the area.