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

Every three weeks here for years.

Ours has been three weekly for a long time. It’s fine as do much can be recycled these days and obviously food waste doesn’t go in the general waste bin either. So here’s not much to go in it really?

Same here! Although we are soon to get food bins and I fear this is the beginning of a slippery slope!

How big are people's bins? Mine will only fit 2 bin bags in. We're at 2 weekly but it's not enough tbh

We are lucky . At the moment it’s general waste one week , recycling the next . Anything that doesn’t fit in the bin gets burnt .

Ours has been 3 weekly for years!

We’re a family of four and would be fine with this. Our general waste is collected every fortnight at the moment and the bin is always less than half full.

They’ve done this in our area, but you can actually recycle more - plastic wrappers etc. so the general waste even over Xmas didn’t even get full. Do review what you can actually recycle as it’s likely improved.

My area has been once every 3 weeks for God knows how long, I don't drive so it's difficult. Fortunately there's a few bin company's that will empty your bin from.anywhere from £10 to £15 depending on the company

We have been 3 weekly for a few years and find it fine for us. I've just put mine out tonight and it's not full. We get recycling weekly. Cardboard/glass/cardboard/plastic/paper/food waste etc. Everything except soft plastic. I can see why nappies and animal waste might make it smelly. In that event I'd have to make a tip visit i think. But without those, there is nothing in my bin to smell as it goes weekly in the recycling.

We’ve had three-weekly general waste collections for well over 10 years. Other than at Christmas when there was more rubbish than usual when the dc were younger, we’ve never had issues. We recycle everything we can and compost too. It requires a change in routine but it’s more than doable (family of 4 with two pets).

We’re a family of four (our children are out of nappies though which obviously helps a lot) and I don’t think we’re particularly attentive to recycling compared to average and we manage 3 weekly rubbish collections with room to spare. It’s not a problem for us.

We don’t have any additional needs that create more rubbish though

The only time our slimline wheelie bin has ever been remotely full was Christmas. Collected 2 weekly. What are you putting in? Family of 5 here.

Ours is 2 weeks at the moment. 3 weeks could be problematic if bank holidays/weather/strikes extends it beyond 3 weeks.
normally we don’t create much general waste however if we have friends over this increases and of course Christmas creates more waste.
those who manage to only create a bag or two perhaps have different social lives to me- and of course so many factors can influence the amount of rubbish a household creates.

We have 3 weekly general waste, but weekly recycling. It has made a big difference now that we can recycle soft plastics as well. Family of 4, and we manage usually with the 3 weekly collection.

We’d be fine with this but we don’t have a baby in nappies or a dog. Our general waste is mostly thin plastic which doesn’t take a lot of space. We struggle more with the packaging recycling to squash it down enough.

And yet the tories / reform are promising to cut taxes. How does that work i wonder?

Ours has been every 4 weeks for years, there are 4 of us in the house (plus nappies for a few of those years).

It does come down to thinking about what you're throwing out. What's really going into your bin? Food waste goes in the food bin, soft plastics in with carrier bags at supermarkets, batteries to supermarkets, plastic/metal/glass/paper/cardboard to your other recycling bins. Then figure out what's actually still going in your general waste, because it shouldn't be much after all that.

This. What exactly are people throwing out? Ours is fortnightly, but there’s only ever one half-full ish black bin bag per week. It wouldn’t be a disaster if it weren’t collected. We could go to monthly. It’s our recycling bin (also fortnightly) that is frequently crammed.

We are every three weeks rotating general waste, glass and plastic, and then cardboard. Family of 2 adults, 2 teens and 2 pets. It moved to three weekly a couple of years ago from fortnightly and I really thought I wouldn’t cope but 99% of the time it’s fine !

Ours switched to every three weeks a few months ago, it’s been ok so far. I do wish recycling was every week though, we do struggle either way it fortnightly.

We have an Insinkerator (food waste disposal) in the sink and a compost bin. So all
our food waste goes in them.

Plastics, metals and cardboard recycled.

Pill blister packs go to Boots recycling.

There’s not loads left. Non recyclable plastics mostly.

I'd struggle with this due to nappies, cat litter, etc. I agree that 3 weeks is a long time, even with recycling! Which is always full too!

our landfill bin is three weekly.
our food/garden waste is fortnightly.
our plastics and tins are four weekly.
our glass is quarterly.

it’s too long. the bins are regular sizes but families struggle in that size of bin. And the bins smell now and we have rats. wonder why. Also the cleansing depot has no walk yp wirh your rubbish facility. cars only.

It’s also going to be very unsanitary in summer because there are many things that go in general waste (such as nappies, dog poo, used sanitary products etc) which should not be sitting in waste bins for three weeks, given the life cycle of flies is 2 weeks. Some Councils are doing additional collections for such things but most are not. Disgusting. In most comparable countries waste is collected daily.