Sweet sweeper Abdul Jabbar in Parliament Square. Image: Marcus Rose
Take a walk around the City of Westminster and you’ll find plenty to attract your attention. Attractions like the Houses of Parliament, the theatres of the West End and the bars of Soho draw one million visitors to the capital every single day.
But something you might not notice is the rubbish. In fact, it’s easy to take the cleanliness for granted.
That’s thanks to the dedicated team of recycling, waste and cleansing workers, which operates non-stop to maintain cleanliness and safety. They work for Veolia, which has held the Westminster City Council contract since 1995.
“It’s the only contract that I know of that is 24/7, including Christmas Day, Boxing Day and bank holidays,” says UNISON’s convenor for Veolia, Glen Flitton, who has worked in the Westminster team for 32 years. “We’re governed by what Westminster Council’s needs are. So, we’ve got recycling and food waste services, general waste collections, commercial contracts, street cleansing… the list is endless.”
Glen Fitton. Image: Marcus Rose
There are around 750 people on Veolia’s Westminster team, and the scale of their work is staggering. They deal with waste from 250,000 residents and around 43,000 businesses – that’s two million collections each week. And that’s not to mention keeping 750,000km of streets swept and clean.
“When residents move into Westminster from outside, I think they’re quite shocked by the level of service that they get,” says Glen.
This is echoed by Ricky Rusby, a lead hand loader, as he arrives with the refuse collection vehicle (RCV) and its crew at the borough’s Page Street depot. “Some people do come up and say, ‘You’re doing a good job’. It might be a Westminster thing. People living in Westminster get a good service.
“I live in Harrow. I get a fortnightly collection. People here, I think it’s minimum twice a week, and other streets get done every day. But it’s an important area, important people.”
Ricky Rusby. Image: Marcus Rose
With Ricky is Vilius Dickus, an RCV driver of more than nine years. “My favourite part of the job is when everything goes smoothly: no breakdowns, no delays, no road works, no traffic – just a good crew, having a laugh and doing our job,” he says. “When it’s cold and miserable, it’s a bit different. And then again, it’s the opposite in the summer, when it’s 35 or 36 degrees, you’re basically melting in the cab. But everything is bearable.”
“When it’s chucking it down, that’s not so good,” says Ricky. “When it’s the summer, it’s better, but it can get a bit smelly.”
Changing times
Ricky has been in the job for nearly 40 years. When he started, the operation was run in-house by the council. He says work has changed “massively” since he started at the former Gatliff Road depot. Back then, waste would be loaded onto barges. “What a state it was, with rats running around,” he says. “This is nice, now, this is a nice depot.”
One constant for refuse operations has been Westminster’s uniqueness. Aside from the everyday collections and street sweeping, they also clean up after more than 100 events in the capital every year. These range from royal weddings and funerals to demonstrations, the annual Pride festival and parade, and New Year’s Eve.
“Pride goes on well into the following day,” says Glen. “You wouldn’t believe the chaos it causes, but it’s good and it’s friendly. And it’s cleaned up and done by the following morning.
“Carnival, Pride, things like that, they’re in the calendar and they’re set. But when you get things like state funerals, we need to be ahead of the game.”
Vilius Dickus.Image: Marcus Rose
The street cleaning operations at major events are coordinated carefully alongside the police and others. There are also security implications – rubbish needs to be collected from places like army barracks as quickly as possible. The refuse teams have a huge, and often overlooked, responsibility.
“There is definitely pride from the refuse point of view and the sweepers’ point of view,” adds Glen. “I could talk all day about certain sweepers and the relationship they’ve got with their residents. I’ve had cases where people say, ‘Can you open up my door and open up the curtains while I’m on holiday?’, and you can’t do that, but that’s the sort of relationship and trust that they’ve got in the staff.”
It isn’t just Westminster residents who appreciate the sweepers. As Abdul Jabbar pushes his cart around Parliament Square, he is regularly approached by tourists, looking for a place to leave their rubbish after lunch with a view of Big Ben.
Conversations that begin with instructions on where to put general waste and recyclables often evolve into friendly chats.
Abdul has been in the job since 2005. “I was like a social worker in my country, I worked for the people, helped people,” he says after collecting a dustpan full of autumn leaves, an extra responsibility that arrives each year. “When I came here, I could see the public service in this job. I love it.”
Abdul Jabbar. Image: Marcus Rose
Challenges
While there is a definite sense of pride among the workforce over their important role in keeping the heart of the capital clean, they also face major challenges.
“You can imagine what the West End’s like in the evening and night, certainly during the summer, there’s glass everywhere,” says Glen. “Plus, you’ve got people who might be intoxicated, they’re out partying, and you’ve got to work around that as well.”
One of the issues that arises far too often is physical and verbal abuse. Hundreds of cases of abuse are recorded nationally across Veolia’s workforce every year, including assaults, racial abuse and road rage. Many more cases go unreported as, sadly, the workers see them so frequently that they feel normalised. In such cases, Veolia and the union urge workers to walk away.
“Dealing with the public can be awkward sometimes,” says loader Ricky, as he reflects on his daily rounds on the RCV. “Everyone wants their bin collected, but they don’t want the bin lorry in front of them… Some people want to hoot, make hand gestures – and not wavy ones.”
Glen says all incidents of abuse are taken seriously. “You’ve got people coming out of pubs and clubs who just see some of our street workers as a target,” he says. “The managers are on it, they’re going around, and the team leaders are going around to ensure their safety. We’re planning to implement the emergency phones, where you just hit a red button and the security team will come out within minutes. So it’s better than it was, but it’s unpredictable on the street.”
As a result, Veolia will look to prosecute the small minority of people who abuse the workforce. It also runs a campaign, StreetKind, which raises awareness of such behaviour.
One symptom of this sort of harmful behaviour is the impact on workers’ mental health. It’s something Glen takes seriously. “Mental wellness is huge, and it’s something that nobody wants to talk about,” he says. “A lot of the managers here have done the mental health first aid training, and Veolia sent me on it as well. My members have been made aware of that, and that’s becoming a huge part of my job now, signposting where they need to go, what they need to do and listen to.”
Green initiatives
Image: Veolia UK
Aside from the dynamism required to adapt to the changing seasons, public events and other variables, the industry is in a permanent state of change as it adapts to more sustainable working practices.
Most of the depots now run with mainly electric fleets. E-bikes have also been introduced. These quad bikes have a box or cage on the back of them, which can replace the standard sweeper barrows.
Changing public attitudes to sustainability also requires flexibility from the Veolia workers. For example, more people than ever are recycling their waste responsibly. Of the staggering 192,000 tonnes of waste collected every year, 28,500 tonnes (23%) is recycling.
“Look at my old round, for instance,” says Glen. “The refuse that they’re collecting has gone down, the recycling is coming up. That’s where we want it, obviously. But it’s then a case of, what do we then do with the staff? They just move over, put another colour high-vis on, an orange one instead of a yellow one. So, there’d be no job losses. And they fully understand it, and we’re in that process now of negotiations on what we do and how we manage the resources.”
Glen says staffing changes like these are possible due to the good relationship between his UNISON branch and management. “My members certainly are worried about change, but I think you’ve got the information from managers, and you work with the managers, which I am doing,” he says. “If people are informed, they’re less likely to be worried and apprehensive about the change and it does work.”
One thing that comes across throughout the workforce is their commitment and camaraderie, the latter described by Ricky as “giggles and banter and fun and games”.
There’s also pride. Says Ricky: “You can feel a sense of achievement when you look down the street and you see it’s a pigsty, and then you look over your shoulder when it’s done and you think, that’s OK. I’ve done alright.”
