The wheeled bins purchased by Fylde Borough Council have been manufactured to be safely used in conjunction with the bin lifting equipment attached to refuse collection vehicles.  If bins are correctly used by collection operatives and householders, very little damage should occur, apart from general wear and tear. 

It is recognised that the bins may occasionally split if there is a design flaw or during cold, frosty conditions when the plastic become more brittle and the waste freezes inside the container and requires more shaking force to empty the bins.  Any such damage occurring during collection is recorded by the crews on the daily round sheets and the bins are replaced by the Council free of charge. 

Bins may also become damaged if they are overfilled with too much material or the wrong types of material and in instances such as this the Council will replace the bin at a charge to the householder.

The bin lifting equipment on all FBC refuse collection vehicles is inspected every 6 months to ensure that it is opperating correctly.

Hope that helps,

Jamei Dixon
Senior Operational Services Manager

I agree.  Mine was OK until the binmen got their hards on it.

Dear Mr Howarth,

The collection crews do report damaged bins but obviously the collection crew for your property has failed to report the damaged lid.

Please can you let me have your address and I will follow this up.

Best regards,

Jamie Dixon
Senior Operational Services Manager

i have been using the internet to see if any other councils in england are suffering the same damage to their bins. i found none. as the vechicles being used to empty the bins are on hire why have the council not moved to another company it might be better than going on damaging council property which we have to pay for.

This is an update to my post of 15-02-2010 concerning wheelie bin damage.

A quick Internet search reveals that considerable discussions have taken place within FBC. For example, at a meeting on 17 March 2009 by the Policy and Service Review Scrutiny Committee, Councillor Chedd stated that 'April 2007 and March 2008 there were 2,839 wheeled bins issued or repaired' and of these '893 were to replace damaged bins'.
The meeting minutes also state:
'In terms of damaged bins, he appreciated that there were cases where the damage was
clearly the fault of the householder and in those cases a charge for replacement could be
justified. The policy for the provision of waste receptacle stated that in cases where the
bin had been reported as damaged by the collection team it would be replaced free of
change but there was no incentive for the bin operatives to report this. He added that
there was evidence from many councilors that the bin operatives did not always report
their own damage.'

and:

'Councillor Chedd went on to explain that the manufacturer guaranteed the bins for 7
years. This suggested that the manufacturer expected an increase in the number of bin
failures due to normal wear and tear.'

and most significantly:

'That the default assumption regarding damaged bins be that it is not the
householders fault unless the bin crews report the damage as being due to
householder negligence.'

To summarise
1. The council operatives have no incentive to report damage that they cause.
2. The huge number of damaged bins is indicative of a design fault.
3. If your bin is less than 7 years old then it has a manufacturers guarantee.
4. FBC are not applying their stated policy regarding the default assumption of the cause of damage.

The damage to my bin occurred when it was lightly filled with garden waste. I'll be putting these points to FBC in the near future.

there has been no damage to bins in this area since the vechicle with the badly designed lifting and tipping machinery has vanished.