to put rubbish in public bins because it won't fit in the wheelie bin?

Oh wow that's a lot of bin!

Op - Do you have the same op in terms of massive recycling bins?

We have four weekly recycling. The bins are indeed massive. I have 2 240l for mixed metal and plastic and the same for cardboard. Add in 2 240l for garden / food waste and then a 140l general waste. It is a lot of bin tbh. It’s fine for me (rural) but lots of people just have front yards fill of bins.

That really does surprise me. Normally, it's the collection of extra waste over your 'allowance' every time that they aren't wanting to do (and I think they get charged by the ton) - not the one-off cost of supplying an extra receptacle.

Oh I saw you said supermarkets. That's fine then, it's only bins at parks which I'd avoid as it could lead to littering for wildlife. I'm sure multi million pound supermarkets will cope with a tiny addition to their waste!
Realistically it's that or a potential rodent problem, you have enough going on in life this isn't worth stressing over.

Do any neighbours have space for a bag in their bin? I'd check just before bins are collected and pop the extra in there instead if so. Might not be ideal but better than a public bin probably.
Or carrier bags into bins at aldi/tesco or similar

I honestly don't understand how a monthly recycling collection can work for anyone in your county? Unless you have a massive recycling bin! I seriously would rethink and contact your council or write to your MP. It sounds ridiculous. Surely other people in your area are also struggling to fit all their recycling in their recycling boxes if they are only collecting once a month!

We'd honestly be overrun with plastic bottles and cans if they just missed one week of recycling collections here on my street.

We recycle everything though, and literally we are only left with hardly any waste once recycling is dealt with. Our black bin is only ever half full when it's collected.

Have you asked council if they can collect recycling more than once a month?

You say you are using supermarket bins, why should the supermarket pay to take your waste away?

Double-check what can be recycled in your area (it does vary by area).

Talk to neighbours, who may have spare capacity. We generate approximately one kitchen bin of non-recyclables per fortnight, so we always have space.

I work in the industry and have prosecuted for fly-tipping by finding documents in the waste. Using litter bins and enforcement against that is much harder as you almost have to catch them in the act.

They have to find you before they can fine you. Not impossible, but certainly easier said than done. Are there really people employed by the council to go through bags found in bins, looking for identifying information? Could they apply the same enthusiasm to fly-tipping and real crime? People keep mentioning CCTV and Ring doorbells, but surely it's a highly bureaucratic and expensive exercise actually gaining access to this? I'm very sceptical that councils hand out fines for this with the same frequency that they do for parking, for example.

I use a lot of packets as a lazy cook /work nights - I can’t get how you manage to fill a bin of recycled stuff so quickly

household is 2. Me and a 7yr child.

we have a black bin and green recycling bin. They get emptied every other week and never full

of council won’t give you a bin then buy a large one and use it. The bin men don’t know who has who living and just empty the bins

several large bins down my road and I know who lived there and only one house had a sn child /larger bin for nappies etx

all the others must have bought them

but yes don’t put your rubbish into council bibs as could be done for fly tipping

can you ask neighbours if can put sone stuff in thur bins

i think it’s fair game if on the street ready to empty and things get added to them if space

You can recycle most things now packaging wise, check your council website for exact arrangements where you are because I suspect that you can solve the issue that way.

As a comparison we have one black sack per fortnight these days, so even if you have a full bag of nappies in addition, you should be fine if you recycle to the max. We can recycle all plastic here bar cling film

Wish people living in my council do use kitchen bin bags, not black sacks. We have the small 120L bins for rubbish which collections went from weekly to fortnightly a few months ago. You always see black sacks overflowing

You can swap the bin for a standard 240L for a one off payment of £38. Not many have taken up this. Probably refuse to pay £38. Yet ok to pay £38 on takeaways and coffee chain coffee.

It's true I'm afraid. Litter bins are specifically for litter so the council or the environment agency enforcement officers can fine you for using the bin for household waste.

Just be careful as you are committing an offence by putting household waste from home into litter bins. If you are happy to take that risk then carry on.

But I'd check that you can just do more recycling first... Are you sure you are recycling everything you can?

It's probably one of those well-publicised "making an example of somebody" cases to make councils and the police look more powerful than they really are, and to get the keyboard warriors frothing on both sides: how dare they prosecute, and how dare anybody use the wrong bins. On the rare occasion that they get a prosecution, they tell the local press, and the council briefly looks big, strong, powerful, and authoritarian. It was like the prosecuting the grannies who hugged their grandchildren when we were not in the same bubble: there were one or two well-publicised prosecutions, to make the authorities look powerful. We didn't hear about the thousands who ignored the nonsense and got away with it.

As we all know, the reality is that the police and courts have been cut to the bone, and barely have time for really serious crimes, never mind things like this. For a "number of times" this has happened, there are tens of thousands of times it hasn't happened, if the amount of fly-tipping is anything to go by. I myself don't need to put household rubbish in public bins, but I wouldn't hesitate to do so if necessary.

Lots of things in the news are not as they seem. If you have to put household rubbish in a public bin, just do it. If you feel conscience about filling them up, look for emptier ones. It's true that bins in high streets often have small apertures to deter this, but there are often other places. Most places with a car park have a bin: motorway services, leisure centres, etc. And for the replies of "just take it to the tip": that very much depends on where you live. I happen to live within a mile of one, in a small town, so not a very busy one. Many of these supposedly ubiquitous "tips" can be nightmarish: needing to book in advance, long queues (even with booking), limited number of visits, etc. And they wonder why there is so much fly-tipping.

We are a family of 5, have a standard size bin collected fortnightly with no issues.

Do you have a local recycling centre? Ours has a non recyclable bin.

Not all areas collect it!

Our council only collect glass bottles/jars, cans, plastic bottles, paper/card, and food waste at the kerbside. No plastic packaging, no yoghurt pots or other plastic food containers. No batteries. No small electricals (they claim to take them, but if you actually try and put one out on top of the glass container as instructed the binmen refuse to empty the entire container which then causes a glass overflow the following week that's a pain to get rid of 🙄).

I've occasionally put small bags of rubbish in the public bin. I tend to keep s carrier bag in the car for any rubbish that I gather such as crisp packaging etc then stop when I'm out and about and put it in a bin. If you need to do it take a small bag, recycle what you can and make sure there is nothing with your address on. My argument is that I'm paying my council tax for a public bin to be emptied as a member of the public I'll put rubbish in it.

I don't understand why this the harder plastic that won't scrunch up isn't going in the recycling?

But in answer to the original question, yabu to use a public waste bin for domestic waste.

Our black bin is full, our recycling is full. I get ds2 to jump on our recycling. I can understand why op struggles. Having read all the replies I can't see that anything is going to help her much, other than applying for a bigger bin.

We have a half size wheelie bin for a family of 3 or 4 people living at home and mainly wfh too. We never fill it, it's often only half full on collection day (fortnightly). How many people in your household op? I'm not fully understanding how you generate so much rubbish?