to think reducing general waste collections to every 3 weeks is unrealistic?

Omg toddler waste already smells disgusting as is. Imagine a two week fermentation between collections :-{

In my area you can get a second general waste bin ( with a different coloured lid so can’t just steal a neighbours) if you have a child in nappies , someone in household uses incontinence products/ medicsl waste or it’s a large household of five or more. It’s worth checking to see if there are any exemptions you fit in where you live.

I had one when collections shifted in my area and it was just an online form and uploading a copy of birth certificates for children under 3.

Wow if you have nappies or sanitary pads/tampons etc. it would stink!

We have weekly collection of a very small general waste bin here which suits us. The only time it’s a problem is when we have guests.

Our much larger recycling bins are fortnightly but we also take our glass and cans to a recycling plant that pays 10c per item.

We also have a food composting system.

I think it depends how you manage your waste.

Here there are weekly food collections that I always bag. For the black bin it is bi-weekly, but again I bag any stuff before it goes in there. If it was really yukky stuff I would probably double bag it.

Everything else goes in the recycling which is by far the most waste generated.

My neighbor was asking why I don't have my bins or caddies cleaned. Simple really, you bag all the nasty stuff up and then you don't need to.

Three weekly collections would be no issue. I suppose there is an argument that if you are bagging stuff then you are using more environmentally unfriendly materials (bin liners).

Yes, I agree. We still have fortnightly normal waste collection in Liverpool. Same for blue bin recycling. Food waste is collected weekly. I’m long past the menopause and we don’t have a dog or baby/toddler. But as many families do, three weeks is too long. Our blue bin recycling is now much better than it used to be - finally we can put yogurt pots and plastic food trays in there, so we have very little in our regular waste bin now - but it’s not the quantity that’s the issue, it’s the contents for many families.

Good god! That is insane. Where I live (SE Asia), I think our rubbish is collected a couple of times a week. I have no idea because we just put it into general skip bins outside our housing complex and it's regularly collected. I don't understand why the UK can't offer proper rubbish services?

I agree. Volume-wise we manage (although with dcs I doubt if for much longer).

But the smell, and pests all around make me sick. Really no excuse for the council to risk unhygienic conditions of living for the sake of budget cutting policies.

Sidenote, a lot of packaging is not actually recyclable if you read the label...

Ours is monthly. Size wise it’s fine but we’re only a household of 2.

What made me laugh was when our local council announced rubbish collection was going from two weeks to three weeks they said the main reason was to reduce fly tipping! I'm still trying to work out if they were actually being serious when they said that.
We do have separate bags for nappies and recycle everything yet our bin is full in two weeks. As I said DH can take extra bags of rubbish to work with him but I really feel for families who don't have that option.

On volume of general waste we could easily manage a month between collections as only 2 adult household plus Dcat and recycle as much as we can
Prefer not to though due to smell in warm weather

The black bins are now covered in maggots and flies due to the persistent heatwave and lack of weekly collections.
Even the tiniest drop of food leftovers can cause an infestation.

Ours has been every 3 weeks for a number of years. I wasn’t sure how I’d cope when it was first announced, but we were given huge recycling wheelie bins and that made a massive difference. I rarely fill the general bin now.

In all seriousness, I find it reprehensible that such nihilistic misanthropic attitudes find easy expression in the Green movement. I know my comment was flippantly phrased but it's honestly felt : a person who states that there is an excess of people on the planet has no business being alive themselves. Because the alternative solution is that other people need to die.

I agree ... I wondered how long this chestnut would take to come up ... 🙄

@TheRuffleandthePearl

It would be bloody marvellous for the planet if there were a lot less humans on it, using up resources at an exponential rate.

In other words........

Oh the bad nasty humans, all evil, the world would be better off without them yada yada yada........ 🙄

Speak for yourself @TheRuffleandthePearl !

.

Ours is currently weekly for general waste, fortnightly for recycling. We recycle far more than we have general waste (our recycling bin is larger too), so often we're putting out a wheelie bin with just one small kitchen waste bag, whilst the recycling bin is verging on overflowing. Sometimes we don't bother putting the general bin out till the following week. Many of our neighbours do similarly but they're mostly older, retired or single.

In April our collections are changing - I'd hoped that in addition to the new weekly food waste collection (which was standard where we lived previously), they would introduce weekly recycling collections. Instead, they're bringing in fortnightly general waste collection (makes sense), whilst leaving the recycling as is 🙄

But in the meantime, you are still excess.

Having one child means husband and I are not reproducing more. Us 2 will go, leaving one behind. Maths innit.

Off you pop then.

It would be bloody marvellous for the planet if there were a lot less humans on it, using up resources at an exponential rate.

It's in the garden in a wheelie bin, I don't stash it under my bed until bin day. There's things far dirtier outside on the ground than my bin contents waiting to be taken away.

The conversation seems to be concentrating on quantity of rubbish and how soon your bin gets full. But surely even if it's half a third full, it's unsanitary to have it hanging around for two or three weeks? We have a weekly collection here. Used to be twice a week many years ago, but they changed it to once a week and gave us bigger bins.

Our recycling bins are much fuller than our general waste bins. We could easily go to three weekly collections, or even monthly.

But my recycling is also always over flowing. I cannot hoard the recycling anymore than general waste as it just instantly refills the bins.

Any food waste goes in our compost heap or council food waste bin, plastic bottles and pots, tins, paper, cardboard, drinks cartons, glass gets collected by the council. Food wrapping, bread bags etc go to the supermarket soft plastics.
Unwanted but usable stuff goes to charity or out on our garden wall or on the local free things group.

All that really goes in our black bin is what comes out of the hoover and cardboard that's food contaminated, and bathroom bin contents.