There has never been waste collection at my Squadron.
There is a public waste bin outside which we do carefully use, although most of the waste generated does end up in my bin at home!
I’m also always very weary of taking Cadet waste to the tip, not been stung yet but I’m always mindful it could happen!
When you look at the definition of commercial waste, most of what we produce paper, card and whatever might come out of the average ATC canteen, is effectively household waste, even what comes out of maintaining any garden areas. As such whatever we might take to the tip is no more than what goes into my household recycling and garden waste bins. Thus taking it to a LA recycling centre isn’t going to raise any eyebrows.
The only reason we don’t get a collection is probably because we don’t pay business rates or council tax. But again it only takes someone with a bit of gumption in the corridors of power to effect a change in how ATC HQs are regarded and we’d get rubbish collected. But that needs someone with gumption.
What happens now is the safest option really. Start to look closely and you’d find we probably get away with all sorts of little rules and charges. Make someone look closely at the situation and you might get your bins collected for free but you could end paying double for something else.
Don’t ask a question you won’t like the answer for.
I went to see the relevant head of service along with my elected member at our local council and had a long chat to him about it and explained our situation. Once he understood what are and what we are doing (to the benefit of the local community) he was more than happy to have the council collect the waste - we have a standard general waste (weekly collection) bin and a recycling bin (bi-weekly).
There are advantages to keeping local elected members on-side!