Reduced bin collections are “no joke” and councils are “asking for trouble” by slashing the services, pest control experts have told GB News.
A growing number of local authorities up and down the country are cutting back their collections to once every three weeks, or in some cases four.
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Earlier this week, Green-led Bristol City Council announced they were considering reducing collection times to just once a month, a move which it hopes will help save more than £2million a year.
However, pest control workers have said that while the cuts “make sense to them [councils] financially, they forget the knock on effects”.
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An expert said that reduced bin collections ‘will not help’ existing problems with vermin
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Speaking to GB News, Erviol Hasula from Biowise Services said: “By reducing the collections, you’re just asking for trouble.
“You’re allowing rats and vermin access to food and debris. All the food waste will be together which will create a more pungent smell which creates a stronger attraction.”
Hasula, who separately warned that four week collections would prove a “nightmare”, added: “A rat has a stronger sense of smell than a dog”, and will easily be able to sniff out waste.
“You’re really asking for trouble,” Hasula stressed. “For me personally, it would be a big no.”
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Longer waits between bins being collected will increase the chance of vermin, pest control workers said
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He also said that there are “so many more problems than you could ever imagine”, in regards to more vermin on Britain’s streets.
“Kids playing around the bins have a very good chance of catching some bacteria and diseases and illnesses, such as leptospirosis and salmonellosis. This is not a joke”
A second vermin expert, Gabriel Nightingale, at Bon Accord Pest Control, said that bins are a perfect breeding ground for “horrible critters” like rats, cockroaches and other pests.
He said that reduced bin collections “will not help” existing problems with vermin.
“Two weeks is definitely a long time for a smell to develop and attract pests.The pests live outside there. They’re everywhere. And the first place they’re going to be attracted to are the bins.
“If they’re not collected for a couple of weeks, it’s just terrible. The bins will get overflown and the rubbish will lay around everywhere.
“Two weeks is already not ideal but three weeks or more!”, he said, shocked at the prospect.
Yesterday, a survey conducted by pollsters at YouGov revealed that 80 per cent of Britons would feel negatively if their council altered their bin collection times.
Out of the 6,763 adults questioned, 61 per cent feel “very negative”, whilst 19 per cent feel “fairly negative”.
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GB News has reached out the Bristol City Council for comment.