Nineteen years of an open site at the south end ends on the first of March. Three bags per household from the same morning, and the site fenced within the week.
The open waste site at the south end of Vashagandu stops accepting anything at six in the evening on the last day of February. From the following morning all household waste goes to the new centre, and the separation scheme starts the same day.
Why on one day rather than gradually. The council considered running both for a month and decided against it, because every island that has tried that has ended up with a scheme people join at their own pace, which in practice means the old site never closes. The date is in the minutes of the open meeting where it was decided, and eleven residents spoke, of whom four spoke against.
What happens on the first. The three bag round begins: green for food waste every morning except Friday, blue for bottles and tins on Sunday and Wednesday, grey for everything else on Monday and Thursday. Every household has had a card through the door with this on it and there are more at the counter.
What happens to the old site. It is fenced within the week, and it is not levelled or covered this year, because the fill and the machinery for that are a separate job the council does not yet have the money for. It will be an ugly fenced field for some time and we would rather say so now than be asked about it in June.
The smoke. The site has caught fire on its own eleven times in the last three years, usually in the dry months, and twice the smoke closed the school for a day. Once the fencing is up and nothing new is arriving, that stops. It is the single reason this project happened.
The first fortnight. The crew will take mixed bags for the first two weeks while people get used to it, with a sticker on them explaining what went wrong. After that a mixed bag is left.
What we are asking for beyond the sorting. Tie the green bag. Rinse the tins. Put the bag out before six rather than the evening before. And if you see a yard being burned, report it with the street and the time, because on an island this size that smoke reaches forty houses and the council can only act on what it is told.
