The disposal of unwanted rubbish is a growing problem for our consumer and throwaway society yet regular collections are hardly 100 years old. But despite the millions of pounds spent on trying to perfect the system it is still far from satisfactory. 

The recent introduction of wheelie bins which are now in use throughout Bourne and district is the latest system of collecting household rubbish but local authorities have yet to find a permanent and satisfactory solution to the disposal of bulky waste items. 

In centuries past, rubbish was dumped at any convenient location and the Bourne Eau was regularly polluted while roadsides and hedgerows were also a favourite spot, often creating a health hazard. Once-a-week household collections were established by the Public Health Act of 1875 which imposed new standards of sanitation on local authorities in an attempt to stamp out cholera and other diseases spread by contaminated waste which claimed large numbers of lives.  

Since then, the right of British householders to have their refuse collected at least once a week has been recognised as essential to the nation's health and quality of life. It took some years for the scheme to be implemented throughout the country but by the turn of the century, weekly collections were being made in Bourne.  

The disposal of household waste became the responsibility of Bourne Urban District Council but a regularised scheme for the collection of domestic rubbish did not begin until 1911. This consisted of a horse and cart with a bell attached to alert home owners that it was in the vicinity and the dustman, as he was known, was paid one shilling an hour for his services. The various parts of the town were covered in four days of each week and the rubbish collected was taken to the old brick pits off West Road for disposal. 

By 1930, weekly door-to-door collections as we know them today were fully operational with each household using a galvanised bin that was left within easy reach of the dustmen when they made their call. The rubbish was then carted to a central dump, now known as a landfill site, to be buried and the system has continued ever since, although with slight variations. 

Rubbish collections came under the control of South Kesteven District Council in 1974 and dustbins were phased out five years later. Since then there have been several attempts to make the system more efficient, beginning with black plastic bags which were easier to handle and far more hygienic. 

An awareness of the benefits of recycling brought new problems because householders were required to sort their waste and in 2003, the council issued large green plastic containers to each home for specific items that could be recycled followed by a blue one for bottles and glass but this scheme too proved to be unsatisfactory.  

A complete appraisal of the rubbish collection system was carried out during 2005 when it was decided that both plastic bags and containers would be replaced by wheelie bins which were eventually issued to all houses in the town the following year, two to each household, black for household waste and silver for recyclable materials, and it is this system which remains in force today and although far from perfect it appears to be the most efficient so far. 

Bulkier rubbish from home and garden is another matter and many will recall the humiliating experience for home owners trying to get rid of it for more than a quarter of a century. The problem was recognised as early as 1976 when the council tried to solve it by siting a skip at their depot in Lound where rubbish could be dumped for two hours on Saturday mornings. The demand was overwhelming and the skip was moved to a more convenient location at the old cattle market near the town centre.  

But this site was earmarked as part of the Burghley Centre development and in 1986 the facility was switched to the Rainbow supermarket car park in Manning Road under the jurisdiction of Lincolnshire County Council and in the ensuing 15 years, the amount of rubbish disposed of in visiting refuse vehicles during three hours on a Saturday morning became the highest of any other similar site in the county. 

The facility became so well-used that it turned into chaos every Saturday morning for those who used it (pictured above). Queues formed by 8 a m, half an hour before the trucks had arrived, and from then on it was a continual push and shove to dispose of waste. Men and women, many of them old age pensioners, struggled under the weight of heavy plastic bags and boxes as they were forced to stand in line for five and ten minutes at a time until they could reach the waiting refuse vehicles to dump their garbage. Sometimes they had to make three and four journeys from their cars to the trucks to dispose of their loads and there were frequent quarrels and bickering.  

But the situation changed dramatically when the management of the Rainbow store served notice that the car park would not be available after October 2000. For several months, they had been alarmed at the inconsiderate and even dangerous driving and parking by some visitors and the dumping of rubbish before the mobile skips arrived. 

Lincolnshire County Council then made an abortive attempt to buy three acres of land in South Fen for a permanent waste recycling centre and when the Rainbow facility was finally closed to them, the venue was moved to the car park adjoining the leisure centre in Queen's Road with the promise that a permanent location would be found. 

The new centre in Pinfold Lane run by private contractors eventually opened on April 2002 when the mobile skip system was finally phased out, 26 years after the problem of disposing of bulk waste was first identified. However, the future of this site is now uncertain and so the county council is again investigating the possibility of a permanent and modern location at a greenfield site off Cherryholt Road in the hope of solving this problem once and for all.