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So many houses (and gardens) were so full of crap that the skips were filled in no time. If Greenwich did that for a short time, they would probably tackle much of that problem
The ‘backlog’ argument is commonly used to support free public services at the point of use (vide the early days of the NHS), but I don’t think it holds water - for me the point is that there are few constraints to induced demand when something appears to be ‘free’
NickCJ-
I didn't mean to make a general point out of it. I was just impressed at the time, because the amount of rubbish that had accumulated over decades really was immense, how much came out. This also only went on for two months at the most, and then it seemed to be done.
(Bulky waste collections used to be free; now that there is a small fee, the argument that administrating the small fee may cost more than not administrating it may also have bite again, but I don't know.)
Oliver Schick
More than a decade ago, Hackney put official skips around the borough (probably not everywhere, but in a lot of areas) on a regular basis. So many houses (and gardens) were so full of crap that the skips were filled in no time. When they were replaced, the new skips likewise were filled in a couple of hours. If Greenwich did that for a short time, they would probably tackle much of that problem, but obviously with 'austerity' having led to councils having to charge for basic services, they probably couldn't afford to. When I last looked, the bulky waste charge for Hackney was £15 per call-out, not per item, but I bet that this, too, is causing people to hold on to items (or to flytip them somewhere if they don't know private waste is accepted by some dumps free of charge).