Camden Council unveils new Goodge Street domestic rubbish management scheme

Fourteen heavy-duty black plastic bins each the size of a winter grit container have this week been placed on Goodge Street by Camden Council for use by residents in a effort to manage the huge amount of rubbish that is heaped onto the street each day.

The move comes after a campaign started in March by Camden “asking residents and businesses to be considerate” with the impact their waste has on the streets and to “help keep Fitzrovia clean”.

“As part of our ongoing investment in our waste and recycling services we are installing these containers across the borough so that residents who live in flats above shops can place their rubbish bags out at any time of day, instead of at a specified time,” said a rubbish spokesperson for Camden Council.

“This is more convenient for residents and also helps to keep the street clear of rubbish bags in between collections.”

Camden told The Fitzrovia News that residents who live in flats above shops in Goodge Street were sent letters in September informing them of the introduction of the containers and how to use them, and that local businesses have had been given strict instructions not to put business waste and recycling in them.

This week another letter was delivered stating that the bins had been deployed and that residents must now use them and not put their rubbish on the street.

Labels on the bins state that residents are to only put “orange bagged rubbish” in the bins and recycling bags should be piled on the street as usual.

In an email to businesses, The Fitzrovia Partnership gave an update on the new waste management programme.

“I wanted to take this opportunity to update you on the new waste collection trial that has been implemented by Camden Council on Goodge Street,” wrote Mick Atkinson, head of environment and place.

“We are very aware that there has been a large increase of waste bags on the streets and to try and ease the situation, the Council is trialling on-street storage containers for local residents living above shops and restaurants.

“Please note, they are not to be used by businesses and the Council’s enforcement team will closely monitor the situation.

“Businesses must continue to use their contracted waste providers and present their waste at their designated collection times to avoid penalty fines,” says Atkinson, who is trying to flog businesses The Fitzrovia Partnership’s own scheme for waste and recycling collection.

“Also remember to present your waste directly outside your premises otherwise it is considered to be fly-tipping which now incurs a fine of £1,000,” he warned.

Councillor Adam Harrison, the cabinet member for rubbish at Camden, also says that the council will start issuing increased fines.

In a letter to the Camden New Journal this week he said that “fly-tipping is one of the biggest issues impacting our neighbourhoods”. He warned the that the council will not hesitate to prosecute offenders.

As the sun rose on a misty and grubby Goodge Street on Friday morning our investigative reporter took to the sticky footways to have a snoop into the new on-street bins to see if they were improving matters.

The results of the our brief investigation were mixed. Many of the bins were not being used and a significant number were being used to store business waste — including Camden-branded commercial waste bags.

We also found bulging waste bags issued by private rubbish contractors in the bins — hidden from sight so they would not been seen by the collection crews.

Only a single orange Camden-branded residents’ waste bag was seen in one of the fourteen bins on the street.

Many of the bins were filling up with items of litter put into them by passing members of the public.

One resident told The Fitzrovia News that they were not impressed by the council’s latest initiative. Asked about the new containers, they replied: “Slightly underwhelming aren’t they?”

It is of course early days and Camden will no doubt say that the scheme will take time to bed-in with businesses and residents slowly brought into line.

But Goodge Street’s biggest problem is not waste from residential addresses: it is the sheer volume of commercial waste that is piled up on the street, usually from restaurants. The bags often split and food waste oozes out onto the already fetid Fitzrovia footways.

Goodge Street is also within a conservation area and the black plastic containers — which don’t even feature a London Borough of Camden insignia — add to the unsightly visual and physical clutter that is already a problem on the busy street.

In practical terms the design and deployment of the bins is an odd choice. If they look like roadside winter grit bins, it is because they are.

As well as not being designed for the purpose, Camden has not bothered to fix them to the ground so they’ll get knocked about by drivers trying to park; and when packed full of bags the internal “lip” presents a “rip hazard” to the often flimsy and overfilled waste bags will spill their contents over the pavement.

Camden even has a poor record of collecting residents’ waste on time.

An investigation by the Metro newspaper found that across London “there were 303,873 missed [residents] bin collections during 2023”. The figure for Camden was 11,557 — more than ten times worse than neighbouring Westminster’s 848 missed collections and with a similar population.

For more information about rubbish and recycling including collection times in Camden, visit the council’s website camden.gov.uk/recycling-and-rubbish