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

How would this help reduce waste? Unless you’re putting toilet paper in the bin? 🤷🏻‍♀️

We’re a family of four (including a baby but she uses reusable nappies and wipes) and could easily go three weeks before a general waste collection. As a PP said above it’s mostly non recyclable plastics that end up in our general waste bin.

We couldnt manage once every 3 weeks and we recycle loads.
We are a family of 6.
If we were a single persin houselhold or just a couple or maybe 3 person household we could manage.
But until DC leave home we couldnt.
I also think its not very hygenic to have it hanging around for so long, in the summer will be liads of maghots/flies and it will stink.
Council tax is expensive snd rubbish collection is a badic service everyone uses and id be furious if it went to once every 3 weeks

Our collection is every 3 weeks, allowance is 3 black bags. We recycle most stuff so only have 1 black bag of general waste every 3 weeks. If you're recycling tins/glass/plastics/cardboard & paper/food waste/soft plastics - what are you putting in the general waste?

Our wheelie bin is 3/4 full and we recycle everything. Recycling bin is overflowing.
I can’t wait until we have soft plastic because I’m sick of saving it in house (it’s one use of the clothes recycling bags that I keep being sent.
We don’t have food waste collection yet.
But we have 3 indoor cats and cat litter etc is a pain.
We definitely couldn’t go every 3 weeks until I could compact my waste!
I don’t know what people who can’t drive do with their soft plastic, having to carry on bus would be a right pain!

Same here.

don't really use glass or plastic, except for toothpaste don't have condiments and sauces

@123teenagerfood what kind of things do you cook? I mostly cook from scratch, but I use tins of pulses and tomatoes regularly, coconut milk, jars of pickles, olives, chutneys etc. We use a lot of milk and yogurt in our diet as well.

Do you eat a very plain diet?

This thread is really interesting. My household (2 adults and 3 children) doesn't produce very much general waste... our standard size wheely bin is less than 1/3 full when it's collected each fortnight (and that includes nappies).

I think this is because we recycle loads. The recycling bin is always full to the brim (usually squashed down!) and we also recycle soft plastics at the local supermarket collection point.

I'd happily reduce the size of our general waste bin (or the frequency of collections) in return for a bigger recycling bin (or more frequent recycling collections).

This thread is really interesting. My household (2 adults and 3 children) doesn't produce very much general waste... our standard size wheely bin is less than 1/3 full when it's collected each fortnight.

I think this is because we recycle loads. The recycling bin is always full to the brim (usually squashed down!) and we also recycle soft plastics at the local supermarket collection point.

I'd happily reduce the size of our general waste bin (or the frequency of collections) in return for a bigger recycling bin (or more frequent recycling collections).

Us too.

There's 5 of us though.

We've only had a 3 weekly collection for the last 9 years. It's fine. We've adapted and managed.

We are a family of five with our normal sized general waste bin collected every 3 weeks. It's barely ever half full.

As PP, we recycle what we can (not particularly overly zealously) but really the only things for incineration are cat poo (we use wood pellet litter), dog poo (Spaniel), night nappies for our youngest, used tissues and things you can't recycle like toothpaste tubes or glitter/paint newspaper from the kid's craft projects.

I use/prefer period pants to disposable pads (personal choice) and soft plastics go to the container at Tesco.

What on Earth is everyone else buying/throwing away to create so much waste?

I’m with the people who don’t have that much to bin. Mine is mostly cat litter 🤢 and milk cartons (I can only recycle these at the dump six miles away and I don’t drive, so that’s that.) Councils reduce rubbish collections so that people will recycle more.

Our council incinerates the non recyclables for energy (great) but they only collect the non recyclables once every 3 weeks and as a busy family, caring for an elderly person, plus dog, this is really fucking aggravating and difficult. Plus you have to book the tip. We pay extortionate council tax and the “service” is totally shit. My cardboard was left this week by the recycling crew. If it’s “wrong” they’re supposed to put a note as to why. They didn’t and there’s nothing wrong with it.

what a shit show
tens of councils re inventing the wheel
jusy have one system that actually works!!!!

I'll tell my kids to shit less.

Yes we’ve had this since August. It’s been difficult to say the least and we are a two person household! I recycle everything I can but the general waste bin is so small that I never get rid of it all without a trip to the tip. We’ve got so many bins that my drive barely has room for my car. Fortunately the food waste bin is collected weekly.

we only have a small bin and fortnightly collections, not sure how we would cope with three weekly. It’s the gross stuff like cat litter/dead rats and pigeons the cats bring in that I especially wouldn’t like to have sitting around. Nappies, san pro and dog poo would he gross too, but we don’t have any of them generally. We recycle as much as we can inc food waste, but not soft plastics, and I know that needs to be our next step really. Doorstep collection for that would really help!

Our black bin is about a quarter full after two weeks, so we could definitely go longer between collections.

Recycle is the third of the 3Rs - reduce, reuse, recycle. If you are struggling with your waste allocation, you should look at reducing how much you produce in the first place.

I know right? I was, and am, drowning in laundry and housework as it is with 4 kids, 2 of which are currently in nappies 😂

I don't get this. Ours has been three weekly for years and it's never full. Do you have food recycling available? We compost all raw foods and have a council provided food recycling box for cooked, that probably makes a big difference. We also have a council provided nappy collection. I take thin plastics to the supermarket recycling point.

The only thing that goes in the bin really is the cat litter and things like rubber gloves/non recyclable thin plastics, whatever needs emptying out the hoover etc

We're every 2 weeks for general waste, alternating with recycling the other weeks. We don't have food bins so food waste is the main thing going in my waste bin. Composting doesn't work during the cold months so that can't be used (at least half of the year). Every 3 weeks would be a bridge too far.

Lol no thanks. Tried reusables briefly with our twins and it didn't work for us.

People are dumping household rubbish bagged up
into charity clothing banks . My local bank has been taken away for this reason.

Just no. Parents are already juggling work, houses, family commitments. I had multiples and for a few months, three kids in nappies. No way could I have managed reusables! Washing is already out of control.

Have you birthed multiples or had kids in close succession? Our large bin used to be overflowing with nappy bags. Some households need more space.

I’m sorry, but I just don’t believe that. Limiting collections doesn’t mean people are able to reduce waste. It means they need to find alternative ways to get rid of it (tip, fly tipping).

People don’t fill their bins to fill the space. They have crap they need to get rid of that can’t be recycled.

Any council cut is for cost savings, not environmental benefits. If they cared about the environment, they wouldn’t be cutting public transport left right and centre.

Ours is every 3 weeks too (also in a reduced size wheelie bin), the other two weeks is one week plastic/can recycling and the other paper/cardboard. Food waste is weekly and garden waste every two weeks. We're a family of 4 and it's totally fine, never had an issue even over Christmas and we are generally quite high consumers. In the lead up to it being introduced there was so much wailing and gnashing of teeth on the local Facebook pages, now it's crickets presumably because it wasn't the end of the world that so many were predicting. As long as you recycle everything that can be recycled and use the food compost bin for every scrap of food waste, then the general waste is really quite minimal.