There is bugger all I can do about it but I am bloody sodding pissed off

[bigmouthstrikesagain]

The bin collection here weekly and it is alternate weeks recycling and general rubbish. We separate our rubbish as directed and rinse out food from packaging, use the food recycling bin for food, take glass to the local dump. I am pretty organised about it. But today I have put out my recycling bin and it has not been emptied. I use bin liners for the kitchen bins as I was finding that the recyclables bin would get soggy from the rinsed packaging etc. and then be impossible to empty so as plastic carrier bags are allowed in the recycling I made the error of thinking keeping the rubbish in the bag was ok.

It is not - and I have been missed out of the collection this week. There was a sticker on the bin last week listing requirements but I misunderstood 'no black bin rubbish' as to mean no general household black bin rubbish - ie. the stuff that cannot go in the recycling bin not literally no black bin liners (as I could put them in the recycling bin as long as there was no rubbish in them!!)Arrgghh.

Anyway - there is no point complaining as checking the council site it is clear from the more detailed description that I cannot use black bin liners - so I am angry but not in a position to do anything - I will have to get dh to take our rubbish to recycling centre which he is going to be really really not excited about and it is my fault - ngah!

I set up recycling schemes at school when it was unfashionable in the '80's so I hate being a 'bad' recycler

Would I be unreasonable to eat a lot of chocolate and hid the rubbish from dh until I can return it to the bins incrementally ( hates being caught out emoticon).

[bigmouthstrikesagain]

We have an extra big green bin (as a larger family) so we are talking a lot of rubbish here! Not unusual for me.

[Fugghetaboutit]

That happened to me and I called the council and told them to come and get it and removed anything wrong. Either that or keep it in garden if poss

[LizKeen]

Surely all you have to do is empty the bin liners in the recycling bin and put it back out in two weeks?

It seems like a bit of an overreaction tbh.

[Twindroops]

YANBU I would be the same- although why does your dh have to take to tip?

[bigmouthstrikesagain]

so if we can go fortnight without creating another bin full of rubbish (which we manage to fill every fortnight) - then there would be no problem. That would be fine if I didn't have a large hungry family and could buy all foods etc. without packaging (I would love to!).

[bigmouthstrikesagain]

It is an overreaction - there are millions of things happening in the world more important/ distressing and pressing - even in my life there are more important things happening today - that is a given. No doubt.

[catfordbetty]

Could you add the black bin bags to the general refuse bin? How would the collectors know they contained recyclables?

[bigmouthstrikesagain]

Oh I can do that - unforunately for me I have been doing a massive clear out the last two weeks so both bins are full two bursting at the moment - it is just shitty timing when there is a loyt on my plate and getting rid of rubbish is just good psychologically and I havent been able to do it... I don't drive so I hate putting it all on dh to get rid of stuff at the dump.

[LineyReborn]

I know what you mean about the psychological lift you get from seeing all the bins emptied!

Eat the chocolate.

[bigmouthstrikesagain]

cheers liney I will [chocolate} and

[bigmouthstrikesagain]

!!

[BabiesComeWithHats]

You can buy clear recycling bags like these from Amazon, office supplies, sometimes Tesco.

Then you can just need to decant the stuff from the black bins across.

[WorraLiberty]

Just empty the bin bags into your recycling bin

Then ring the council and tell them your bin appears to have been missed.

[Fugghetaboutit]

^ Works every time.

[mrsjanedoe]

Rubbish collected only 2 weeks drive me nuts. I know the council are trying to save money, but this shouldn't be the first cut!

Not everybody has a big garden when they can keep stinky bins away from their windows, going on holiday means you miss a collection (or 2), it's a pain.

The amount of fly tipping and overflowing street bins have reach disgusting levels, it's obvious people just find it easier to dump their mess everywhere, which the council has to clean up.

OP, at least someone can drive the recycle to the tips!

[NoSquirrels]

Yes, when we moved house we fucked up the recycling, and didn't get the bin emptied for 2 weeks, and it was a right PITA. I also couldn't go to the tip myself.

Do you have any single-householder neighbours who might be willing to have a bit of stuff in their bin in return for a box of chocs?

Otherwise, if it's all recycling, it's clean enough and won't stink and already in handy bin bags, so can you stash some in the garage for now and squish down the rest forcefully?

[bigmouthstrikesagain]

I will use these helpful 'tips' and I will sort it cheers - but sometimes it would be nice if it was just a bit easier you know - i blame over packaging - i wish there were barrel grocers so i didn't have to buy all those cereal boxes and bloody Amazon over packaging pisses me off. And breathe...

[Viviennemary]

You can't put recyclables inside plastic bin lines although plastic bags can be recycled. It is annoying though that your bin wasn't emptied. It's a major disaster if this happens in our house. I hate it. So sympathy.

[trulybadlydeeply]

Have you got in both bins and jumped up and down?

I do this with our garden waste bin, and get double the amount in!

Get DH to do it if he's heavier than you . It should squash your non recycling down enough to get some of your left over recycling in, (not ideal, I know, but it's a one off), then you should be able to squash your recycling bin down quite a bit to take the remainder.

Also - we can put as much extra recycling out as we like - can you d o that next time? We use big cardboard boxes (lots of these atm as we do all our christmas shopping on line) or we can also use plastic storage boxes which they simply empty.

[WorraLiberty]

You can't put recyclables inside plastic bin lines although plastic bags can be recycled.

You can in my borough

But the bags have to be clear.

[WorraLiberty]

Oh yes I forgot about that truly

We can put out as much recycling as we want as well. So if we leave a couple of clear bags next to the bin, they'll always take them.

They won't take the normal rubbish in that way though.

[Elendon]

Most councils now like recycling to be loose. Where I live, it doesn't have to be clean, but not with food. This includes all glass products not broken, to be loose too - though I don't understand this because when glass goes into the back of a lorry it will obviously break into shards.

I do sometimes take my glass products to recycling centres, but just because I love the sound of breaking glass; plus I think it's better recycled in such a way.

[WorraLiberty]

but just because I love the sound of breaking glass

Me too!

Unless my kids are playing football...

[saraht84]

I totally understand you. I'm an obsessive recycler and our bins are every other week too. A few weeks ago some kind soul wandered past in the early hours and filled
our bin with takeaway food. Naturally it didn't get emptied and even after a phonecall the council wouldn't budge. I understand there are rules but I wasn't too blame

[SauvignonBlanche]

I get clear bags for the recycling from Sainsburys.