has anyone noticed the large amound of red rubberbands on the floor all over the hillborough area? where are they from?
the only expanation is the post man but surley not!!!

We get them all the time up Norfolk Park,,,and YES it is all down to the Postie!

There are a lot around the postboxes in west.one... its gotta be the postie, bundling letters together, then the recipient chucking them on the floor... Lazy beggars!

If you save up all the laggy bands and then join them together and make them into a ball shape and cover it with with plastic you could make a golf ball !!

THOUGH WHY ANBODY WOULD WANT BEATS ME!!

We get postman pats droppings to on our drive, he is probably glad to dump all the junk mail at our house and then start a new pack of letters wiht a fresh elastic band. if they are dry they are quite a good lastic band if you need one for owt, go on recycle today hang em on the door knob untill they rot and fall off,

Mostly likely the postie is the guilty party. Annoying isn't it?!

apart from it being annoying, it has also gone unnoticed for a long time now. No one has kicked up a fuss and it is a very regular thing. I would agree that it would b a good idea to just leave it on the doorknob, at least someone gets to make use if it.

yeah its the postie, i have lodes of red rubber bands at work thanks to the postman

I get rubber bands off of the post at work and have been making a huge ball o' bands. It's about the size of a grapefruit now although what possible purpose it can serve is beyond me.

It seemed like a good idea at the time and I've just carried on with it - maybe it's a metaphor for my job!

It wouldn't be so bad if the postie just used one single rubber band... but no - at least half a dozen to hold three letters together. GGGGGGRRR!!

:'(

Feel left out... we don't get any here!

This is a littering offence, surely it's time Royal Mail did something about their postal workers and the littering they appear to be doing.

I noticed several on the steps to our office the other day and have put them in the bin. I thought it was just our postie being lazy, but it appears not.

It's not on just to dispose of litter like this and it appears that the problem is on a large scale in Sheffield.

Anyone reported this to Royal Mail?

On thier website it has a complaints bit.

I live in Liverpool and they are scattered about everywhere on the journey to my lad's school. So it looks like this is a nationwide phenomenon.

It would seem that the post office must be spending a significant amount of money on rubber bands that appear to get used once then lobbed on the floor. Plus there's the litter issue too.

They're just rubber bands. Do you want your post in the morning or not?

Jeeeez...

Environmentally friendly rubberbands would be much more acceptable - ones that instantly dissolve on hitting the pavement.

I had 3 red rubber bands on my doorstep yesterday morning and the only post I got was a coupon for 50p off a fresh orange juice brand.. So I must have got nextdoors quota of rubber bands.

Originally posted by pberry
They're just rubber bands. Do you want your post in the morning or not?

Jeeeez... Yes, I would like my post in the morning, but I don't want it with litter.

It's illegal, it's damaging the environment and it's lazy. Surely sticking them in your pocket and then the bin is much better for all concerned instead of dumping them?

Or if the post office wanted to save money and help the envirionment they could recycle the rubber bands by using them again and again.

I cannot believe you are happy for the postie to drop litter! Is it ok for people to drop cans in the street? Trow fags on the floor? Spit out chewing gum everywhere????

You have a point but it would be better to direct your energies to frying bigger fish, such as fly-tippers.

Anyway the bands can be collected and reused if it bothers you.

Does anyone else save the laggy bands you get with 2-packs of broccoli? Maybe it's just me.

Originally posted by pberry
You have a point but it would be better to direct your energies to frying bigger fish, such as fly-tippers.

Anyway the bands can be collected and reused if it bothers you. Oh so I shouldn't bother with them unless they are dumping a higher volume of litter?

This is an issue that seems to affect others and I hadn't mentioned it until I saw other people were also having this issue with their postman too in different parts of Sheffield, which would suggest it is a larger issue than I at first thought.

If it's a common occurance for postal workers to dump litter on the street or on your doorstep then it needs stopping, maybe then we can move on to fly tippers if needs be, but this issue also needs adressing.

Our postie does it too.. or should I say did it too.. Get in touch with the City Coucil Environmental Enforcement Officers and complain - they have to follow up your complaint and I know that one of them at leats is dealing with a similar enquiry - They are also heavily involved with the mysterious bananas of Northumberland Road... - try searching the forum for more of this...

Hmmm ....Bananas...Rubber bands...Me busted!

Yes i can confirm the rubber bands are being investigated......
...officers are working full stretch !...

TWANG !

I wondered where all the half eaten red bands were coming from. My cat has been bringing them in and eating them! So it's not just harmless litter, there's probably a small golf ball in my poor Spikeys tummy.

My husband went out and photographed the red bands just on our block of houses (very smal block I might add) and counted 32 - he's not quite as sad as he sounds... it was to make a point when he complained:P

Problem is, as I understand it, they have to be post office red. Not any old rubber band you can get from local newsagent, the brown things, so are costing a small fortune.

I think the best plan is for us all to gather up the elastic bands from our relative areas and post them all to the nearest sorting office. Do this without a stamp then with the Royal Mail being so beaureacratic, they'll have to spend 8 years re-arranging budgets to cover the cost of paying themselves for their own postage. We'd clear the streets, make a point and if it messes the Royal Mail about enough they might stop. I've started collecting the ones near my house in Sharrow, there are hundreds of the blighters.

Post Offices are closing because Royal Mail is losing £500,000 a day.

Wonder what the spend on elastic bands is................

they should be sacked for littering

apparently they are bio-degradeable

Watched a programme on rubber bands recently - they said royal mail get through 340 million a year - there is an article here on why they are red :

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article716493.ece

doesnt seem like the new colour did much :(

I quite like this :

Royal Mail donated 20,000 to the world’s largest rubber-band ball, which was flown to Arizona to see how high it would bounce. Sadly, instead of bouncing, the ball smashed into the ground at 400mph after being dropped from an aircraft and created a 9ft crater.

:P

Now I know this sounds stupid....stupifyingly stupid but.....

*puts tin helmet on and cowers behing the sofa*

Why can't they be re-used? :huh:

See I told you it was stupid :hihi:

Rather than drop the bands on the floor why doesn't postie put them in his (or her) pocket and return them to the depot so they can be re-used.

Is it just me who see this as the answer - I don't think so :rolleyes:

Perhaps the savings made then on the bands could offset the price increases :D

What really niggles me is the almost daily bands right on our front doorstep - not on the pavement/ public road etc, but right by my lovingly displayed pot of dahlias. I wouldn't drop litter anywhere, but least of all on someones private property & right outside their front door. Thought it was just me getting the litter treatment after I'd complained so many times about post being incorrectly (seemingly randomly) delivered :D

Post Offices are closing because Royal Mail is losing £500,000 a day.

Wonder what the spend on elastic bands is................


REALLY???? I think you will find they are finally turning a profit.

(Not saying that it is OK to waste bands just questioning the facts).

REALLY???? I think you will find they are finally turning a profit.

(Not saying that it is OK to waste bands just questioning the facts).

From BBC website 14/5/2008:

'Only last week Royal Mail announced that it had made a loss on providing this so-called universal service for the first time. Royal Mail estimated that the loss for the last financial year on this its core activity was £100m.'

On top of these losses it loses money operating the Post Office network.

The fact that this network provides a valuable service to communities that can not be measured in monetary terms is an irrelevance apparently.

Getting back on topic, does making the elastic bands more bio-degradable encourage posties to drop them?

Should items such as crisp bags, sweet wrappers etc be made of a similar material?

It wouldn't be so bad if the postie just used one single rubber band... but no - at least half a dozen to hold three letters together. GGGGGGRRR!!

He/She Must be making a very small bundle then! You need at least 3 to secure it properly all it could easily break and then the mail all over the place isn't it!

You try using a single rubber band to hold a big heavy pile of letters! They'll be slipping out all the time from the middle of the bundle!

I don't think they do it delibrately sometimes the band can just fly off in a completely different direction and you don't have a clue where it's landed!

Anyway they are Biodegradible! so don't worry about it!

If people cared that much they would picked them up themselves rather than leave them for months expecting the Postie to do it when he probably doesn't even know he/she has dropped it!

Now I know this sounds stupid....stupifyingly stupid but.....

*puts tin helmet on and cowers behing the sofa*

Why can't they be re-used? :huh:

See I told you it was stupid :hihi:

Rather than drop the bands on the floor why doesn't postie put them in his (or her) pocket and return them to the depot so they can be re-used.

Is it just me who see this as the answer - I don't think so :rolleyes:

Perhaps the savings made then on the bands could offset the price increases :D

Most DO! Do you really think they are going to drop 3/4 rubberbands at 300-400 houses everyday! Wouldn't be hard to be caught out! It was obviously an accident people! If it bothered you that much pick them up yourselves!

Yes, I would like my post in the morning, but I don't want it with litter.

It's illegal, it's damaging the environment and it's lazy. Surely sticking them in your pocket and then the bin is much better for all concerned instead of dumping them?

Or if the post office wanted to save money and help the envirionment they could recycle the rubber bands by using them again and again.

I cannot believe you are happy for the postie to drop litter! Is it ok for people to drop cans in the street? Trow fags on the floor? Spit out chewing gum everywhere????

I Think they were trying to say that you have taken it WAY out of context!

How do you know it was Delibrate though! How many Posties do you see standing there just lobbing rubberbands all over the place! They may occasionaly leave them if they've only dropped a couple! hardly crime of the century!
And They ARE recycled but as you will find after a couple of times stretched they will crack and break! So of course they have to order new ones wouldn't be very efficient to have a limit on the numbers you can use!

Most DO! Do you really think they are going to drop 3/4 rubberbands at 300-400 houses everyday! Wouldn't be hard to be caught out! It was obviously an accident people! If it bothered you that much pick them up yourselves!

So is it by accident then that I get rubber bands dropped outside my door nearly every day then....if the postie is so careless with the bands then heaven knows how safe the actual mail is.

The first two posts of this thread lead me to believe that this was a regular occurrence not just a few accidents.

Why should I pick them up....and if I did I would just post them back into the nearest postbox....the same way as I do with the junk mail I repeatedly tell the postie I don't want. And yes I am on the mail preference service but I still get junk.

If you save up all the laggy bands and then join them together and make them into a ball shape and cover it with with plastic you could make a golf ball !!

THOUGH WHY ANBODY WOULD WANT BEATS ME!!

We get postman pats droppings to on our drive, he is probably glad to dump all the junk mail at our house and then start a new pack of letters wiht a fresh elastic band. if they are dry they are quite a good lastic band if you need one for owt, go on recycle today hang em on the door knob untill they rot and fall off,

Knit yourself a diving suit.

Yes julado, I too get bands left at my front door nearly every day. So not an occasional eccident!

From BBC website 14/5/2008:

'Only last week Royal Mail announced that it had made a loss on providing this so-called universal service for the first time. Royal Mail estimated that the loss for the last financial year on this its core activity was £100m.'

On top of these losses it loses money operating the Post Office network.

The fact that this network provides a valuable service to communities that can not be measured in monetary terms is an irrelevance apparently.

Getting back on topic, does making the elastic bands more bio-degradable encourage posties to drop them?

Should items such as crisp bags, sweet wrappers etc be made of a similar material?

Universal service = stamped mail. RM make more than £100m profit on bulk business mail so are in profit overall, I think the figure was £163m this last year.

I'm a postie and I dont throw the bands on the floor, I put them in my pocket and reuse them once. After that I bin them as if they are used again they tend to snap when you're stretching them around a bundle and sting your fingers!

Most DO! Do you really think they are going to drop 3/4 rubberbands at 300-400 houses everyday! Wouldn't be hard to be caught out! It was obviously an accident people! If it bothered you that much pick them up yourselves!

I'm sorry, but that clearly isn't true - there are rubber bands on my street every day - loads of them. It is no accident, and yes, i do pick them up and put them in the bin - but why should I? It's everyone's responsibility to dispose of their litter - and rubber bands are litter.

So is it by accident then that I get rubber bands dropped outside my door nearly every day then....if the postie is so careless with the bands then heaven knows how safe the actual mail is.

The first two posts of this thread lead me to believe that this was a regular occurrence not just a few accidents.

Why should I pick them up....and if I did I would just post them back into the nearest postbox....the same way as I do with the junk mail I repeatedly tell the postie I don't want. And yes I am on the mail preference service but I still get junk.

As if you get them everyday! No one does!

Erm I'm sorry but we don't offer a "Filtering Junk Mail" Service and you are obviously a fool if you think we are allowed to and that all the different posties are going to be informed on every single nonsical request of every route they do.
If it's got your name on and it's been paid for you are getting it! Is it so hard for you to put it in your blue bin! Or I suppose the postie has to that for you as well!
It may be Junk Mail to but to someone else it's a way to advertise their livelyhood so they can afford to feed their kids!

If you are putting the rubberbands in the letter box well that's just petty and childish! Maybe the Postie should put them through your letterbox seeing how that's your way of resolving things!:loopy:

I'm sorry, but that clearly isn't true - there are rubber bands on my street every day - loads of them. It is no accident, and yes, i do pick them up and put them in the bin - but why should I? It's everyone's responsibility to dispose of their litter - and rubber bands are litter.

Well that "Litter" is keeping your mail from blowing all over the place from blowing all over the floor! There are far far worse things that you could have on your street!

You people have been banging on about recycling them, Yet you pick them up and throw them away?:loopy: Why not just keep them! They don't become useless just cause they fell on the floor!

Anyway if the council did their job properly then it wouldn't matter the streets would be cleared properly. "Street Force?, Street Farce more like!

I suppose when you open a wrapper on some chocolate, mints, gum etc and a Tiny bit blows off you run down the street chasing after it till you've picked it up!

As if you get them everyday! No one does!

Erm I'm sorry but we don't offer a "Filtering Junk Mail" Service and you are obviously a fool if you think we are allowed to and that all the different posties are going to be informed on every single nonsical request of every route they do.
If it's got your name on and it's been paid for you are getting it! Is it so hard for you to put it in your blue bin! Or I suppose the postie has to that for you as well!
It may be Junk Mail to but to someone else it's a way to advertise their livelyhood so they can afford to feed their kids!

If you are putting the rubberbands in the letter box well that's just petty and childish! Maybe the Postie should put them through your letterbox seeing how that's your way of resolving things!:loopy:

Ooooooo.....get you......did I touch a nerve :hihi:

I fully accept the junk mail that has my name on it....its the stuff that is posted alongside that doesn't.

You know - seeing as you are apparently a postie - the stuff you have to put through every letter box whether it accompanies addressed mail or not (that must add extra time to your round does it not).

That's the stuff I put back in the letterbox...if I don't immediately give it back to the postie. It is not my responsibility to dispose of it. I didn't ask for it in the first place and I am being responsible returning it so that Royal Mail can recycle it.....as I said I don't bother picking up the bands....unless I am in need of one. The bands do disappear so maybe someone is making a big ball out of them :hihi:

I live in maisonettes and there is no recycling here. What's the point of the mail preference service, the fact I have no junk mail written just above the letterbox if postie just keeps dropping stuff I do not want or require through.

As for the lakky band....I am the last drop on a block of 9 maisonettes and the band that holds the post for this block is always just dropped because it has served its purpose once my mail is delivered. :)

You appear to like the :loopy: sign....is that your new toy of the day :hihi: