Four weeks between rubbish collections - disgusting or what?!

[emptyshell]

Just checked the local council website - as many of us are, we're on a two-weekly rotation with rubbish now - black bin on week 1, green recycling bin on week 2. Was due to be black bin day today - as expected they've pulled the bin wagons off the routes for snow.

However - they're not swapping the weeks around or anything logical to catch up - they're going to leave it another two weeks before collecting the black bins at all - meaning some of the stuff's going to have been in there for four weeks by the time it's collected. We're very generously being allowed two more bin bags alongside our bins for the extra time, but they're going to get shredded to heck by the local wildlife and this is going to be a completely disgusting public health hazard.

Thankfully we've got two houses on the go at the moment so have double bin space - but still - totally disgusting to expect people to go for four weeks between a bin collection. Last year when they had to pull the wagons they at least did a catch up double collection week where they did both bins.

[RuthChan]

YANBU that is disgusting.
At least it's cold so the rubbish will be nicely refrigerated. Much better than a 4 week wait in summer!

[girlywhirly]

I would use the extra bin bags to put non-perishable rubbish in, leaving the bin for stuff that might attract scavengers. Flatten and compact down stuff before you chuck it. Make a game of flattening/folding up used wrapping paper with the dc on Christmas day, takes up less room in a bag than screwed up!

Wash out plastic items that can be recycled and flatten things like milk containers, and tetrapaks if your council takes them. Ours doesn't take these from the house but we bag them up and store in the garage to take to the tip where they do take them. They take up an incredible amount of 'dead' space in a bin if just chucked as they are. Flatten or tear up cardboard to make more room in the green bin, if permitted. We are able to put food waste, raw or cooked in our 'green' bin, as our council makes compost at a special production plant, so we just wrap it in newspaper to put in the bin.

I doubt in these freezing temps anything will rot and become a health hazard. And there will be no active flies to cause a maggot problem. Obviously, if there are a lot of nappies or incontinence products to dispose of, that makes bin space a bit tight. I think with a little bit of thought and extra effort you can minimise the problem, and it would be unreasonable not to try. I would rather do this than have the bin wagon skid into my car because of the snow/ice.

[emptyshell]

Oh in a way - we're sorted since we're moving house so have two bins to put stuff in... rest of the street however could be somewhat "interesting" by the time the bin men rematerialise! (We've got at least one fox that puts in an appearance in the gardens on occasions)

Annoyed because it was black bin day today before they pulled collections - so obviously we're all starting from a full bin starting point - since the snow hit at the worst possible time for us relative to our bin day!

[moomaa]

I wouldn't want to be in a bin lorry in these conditions, the side roads are the worst. Last time we had snow we put anything that wouldn't go manky into our shed in bin bags. T'was ok.

[GrumpyOldHorsewoman]

YANBU.

The recycling collectors don't bother to come up to me because it means a drive up a 250m lane only for our house and the one next door. They must be expecting me (and my neighbour) to drag my bin 250m down the hill and then 250m back up again. I have complained to the council - it's not an access issue because the ordinary bin lorry gets up and down every other week without difficulty, it's just that the driver of the recycling lorry is a prick, as one of the regular binmen told us. When I complain, the bin gets collected, but then it doesn't get collected next time (unless I complain again). Consequently, my recycling has been removed 5 times in the 15 months I have lived here. I just take it all to the local tip (4 miles away) now because obviously nothing will be done.

[Niceguy2]

We're in the same boat. What I did last year was fill my green recycle bin with bin bags so at least its neat & animals won't bust them open.

Then when they came to collect it, shove them at the side. Our council waved the stupid whole bin lid shut rule given that it was 2.5 weeks between visits here (we're weekly).

[MrsVidic]

we had to wait 6 weeks last year, it was horrid

[ItsJustMyOpinion]

My dh works on a recycling lorry as opposed to rubbish lorries, but its still the same. When its bad weather like we have got now, although where we are its not as bad as a lot of other places, if they can't get out in the lorrys after trying (and sometimes can take a few hours for their boss to make the dicission they are not going out) the next day they can get out they will try to catch up by doing the round they couldn't do before. But depending on how many days they are out of action for will determine wether to try and catch up or leave it for the next week.