Local Skip Despair!!

[Spur07]

After hearing how certain AOS members like to raid their local council skips in search of audio gold a while back, today I decided to visit my local, recently upgraded, refuse centre in Surrey.

When I got there, however, I discovered that all electrical equipment is now dispensed into a giant skip from above and not placed (as used to be the case if memory serves) into an open cage. I walked up the raised platform to take a look and couldn't believe my eyes - the skip was full of speakers, stack units, amps, TT's, etc, of all ages. Although a lot of it ends face down I could tell there was some very interesting stuff down there including a large TT with an arm that looked distinctly 'high end' to me! :eek:

But the worst was yet to come - apart from the impracticalities of clambering into a giant skip to retrieve items, it seems Surrey County council now deem it an act of theft for anyone to remove any item from one of their refuse sites due to health and safety rules. The manager, who seemed sympathetic to my cause, told me that as they can't guarantee an item will not blow up and catch fire in someone's house all the electrical stuff gets SMASHED UP on site first before being taken away by some company (who incidentally pay for the privilege).

So much for recycling :mental:

[John]

Yes that sounds like a typical council

[Jac Hawk]

well the reason for that is that the local refuse centres used to be run by private companies, they got 1st dibbs on all the junk that came in, and if anything was sellable then they flogged it on and made a few quid on the side. Unfortunatly nowadays if you are a "company" and you sell something on, then you take some responsibility for it's condition i.e. that it won't kill you when you plug it in.

It's all to do with people getting stuff from the tip, then being hurt by the item and then taking the council to court over it for damages.

It's sad really..........

[The Vinyl Adventure]

It's basically the fault of capitalism, capitalism caused greed, greed caused lawyers and a society of sueing people. Although if you look at it from the other side it's capitalism that gave us the technological advancements that allowed the technology in that skip to exist in the first place ... That and wars - that in some cases were about ideals such as capitalism ... So basically its really human beings fault ... And with that I'm mind you only have your self to blame ... Humans eh, can't live with them, wouldn't exist without them ...
Still at least we have complaining about stuff, makes it all much easier to cope with!

[Beobloke]

Absolutely disgusting.

I'm lucky in that all the dumps near me are privately run and so there is never any problem with stuff being sat aside for a few days to allow people like me to pick through it. What they usually do is cut the plug off and stick a big red "If this blows up, don't blame us" type sticker on it before they let you take it away.

I was helping a friend clear some items out once, though and we took a vanful to his local dump. I spotted a lovely old Luxman amp sat on a fridge and enquired of the manager as to its price, and he responded "Sorry, we don't sell electricals". I responded by asking whether I could donate a tenner towards the tea kitty of his staff to acknowledge all their hard work and if he would make sure that he turned his back when he went to put it in the kitty. Sadly, he said no (and this tactic has worked for me before!)

Astonishingly, when I got home, the amp had made its way into the van anyway. Can't think how that happened...;)

[Effem]

Astonishingly, when I got home, the amp had made its way into the van anyway. Can't think how that happened...;)

Thems Luxmans is a bugger for jumping into unattended vehicles :lol:

Similar to those fresh cream eclairs that have a strange propensity for leaping out of the chilled cakes cabinet into the trolley when passing while shopping in a supermarket. You get home and there they are lurking uninvited in the bottom of your shopping bag :eyebrows:

[Spur07]

Absolutely disgusting.

I'm lucky in that all the dumps near me are privately run and so there is never any problem with stuff being sat aside for a few days to allow people like me to pick through it. What they usually do is cut the plug off and stick a big red "If this blows up, don't blame us" type sticker on it before they let you take it away.

I was helping a friend clear some items out once, though and we took a vanful to his local dump. I spotted a lovely old Luxman amp sat on a fridge and enquired of the manager as to its price, and he responded "Sorry, we don't sell electricals". I responded by asking whether I could donate a tenner towards the tea kitty of his staff to acknowledge all their hard work and if he would make sure that he turned his back when he went to put it in the kitty. Sadly, he said no (and this tactic has worked for me before!)

Astonishingly, when I got home, the amp had made its way into the van anyway. Can't think how that happened...;)

Yeah, Surrey Council also tender the refuse sites out to a private company but it seems they have a different attitude. I haven't tried any other local sites - guess I should. I'd be more than happy to try and sneak a few things into the back of my car but now this site has been modernized everything gets chucked form a great height into a giant skip.

Surrey Council run a Freecycle website and I leave ads on there asking people to contact me if they have any old stuff, but its obviously not reaching a lot of people judging by the contents of that skip. What a waste!

[Mothman]

Our local site has a shed for electrical items which are stacked into crates and then I assume dumped and another for used furniture which is then passed on to a charity. Members of the public are not allowed in the sheds and you have to wait outside for a bod to come out and take the item from you and they most definetlrey will not sell anything. One day I took a perfectly good hi-fi cabinet for a stacking system up there but the furniture guy refused to take it because he could not find a kite mark on the glass doors, health & safety gone mad.

[Rare Bird]

Ours are walk in open ended skips.Just walk in & stack your scrap..I do see a lot of people purposly smash their hifi gear before abandoning it, why! i dunno probably cos people are selfish these days.

[Spur07]

Ours are walk in open ended skips.Just walk in & stack your scrap..I do see a lot of people purposly smash their hifi gear before abandoning it, why! i dunno probably cos people are selfish these days.

WTF :lol:

these days we can't stand the idea of someone making money out of us can we, no matter how little skin it scraps off our noses.

[Rare Bird]

Don't understand it paul, i'd gladly give anyone anything if they wanted it.

[Spur07]

likewise Andre,

individualism is slowly eroding society