Been to take some green waste to the tip and as i do sometimes had a look in the metal skip for any interesting bikes. Normally there's nothing but today there was a great steel rockhopper and a folding brompton.
I thought it criminal to crush them so started to take them out at which point the arsey tip grunt came over and really aggressively asked me what i was doing, at which point i explained i planned to recycle the bikes properly and put them back to good use but he got extra arsey and told me to put them back as i wasn't allowed to touch anything.
Not very green!
Should have offered him a fiver to go away for 5 minutes.
At our local tip there's a sign saying nothing to be taken away , however if you go into the office and ask they'll usually let you. IME they only get a bit arsey if you just help yourself.
Oxboy has the right approach.
Rather than helping yourself a better approach would have been to speak to the operative first and offer the bung.
If this doesn't work, speak to the supervisor and ask about the 'proper' channels.
I did ask if it was ok to take them out, not sure i'd want to give him a bribe but i suppose it may have helped?
Would wonder why they were skipped in the first place, I've chucked several wheel, which from a distance look fine, but I knew they were worn out / had serious / un-fixable issues, maybe those frames also had issues that the owners knew about.
In Stafford we have an excellent bike recycling charity called Back2Bikes. Sponsored by the council. I suggested they have a tie-up with the local council-run tip to collect all the bikes taken there, but the official line was that would need a secure area being built, with 24hr security and the costs would be huge.
Some people can't sit on the bog the right way round without a training course.
I bet know he knows they might be worth something, he may take them for himself and but them on ebay. You have probley gave him the heads up on them bikes. haha
Bigjon +1 on back2bikes, I've taken a few old bikes and some spare bits there. In Chester now, the council sell them from the tip along with other dumped stuff. Never seen anything worth bothering with though.
at lots of tips the operators contract allows them to keep an money made form the scrap collected and often used for bonus, christmas do etc for staff on site.
there are of course Duty of Care for Waste issues..
is all a shame though and probably not in the spirit of the Waste Framework Directive
My local tip is variable. In the past I've sorted out two friends with free bikes by putting a quid in their biscuit fund per bike. But a new bloke has started who is a complete jobsworth, and that's put paid to it. I had to walk away from a beautiful old cast iron bench vice the other day, on account of him. He wears prescription glasses with smoked lenses even when it's gloomy and raining, and never smiles. Not that I'm jumping to any conclusions about him being a tool, or anything, you understand...