help, what can i do, i think i have thrown something valuable in the bin a week ago

[EleanorReally]

i have emailed the council
what is the likelihood of them finding it?

Erm I'd say zero

They won't find it and won't even try. What was it?

Zero I’m afraid. You waste has probably been dumped out of the lorry in to landfill, or gone for disposal elsewhere (incineration etc) depending on local policies. Nobody will go looking for it.

i just hope i am misremembering.

Chances are it's in landfill or been incinerated by now.

Even when a lot of effort has been put into finding either a body or a hard drive with a lot of Bitcoins on as in two famous cases there was no success.

Also at work we had a team of people who once spent a month looking for something hazardous that shouldn't have gone in landfill but couldn't be found.

Sorry that's not what you wanted to hear. I'd also expect the council to not be agreeable to any kind of search.

Can you claim on your household insurance?

I hope it's not your spare car key. It cost me £300 to replace mine.

I used to work with bins at the council. The day your waste is collected it is compacted with up to 30 tonnes of other waste. Then it’s emptied out the yard. The same day or possibly next it’s loaded into a lorry using the manitou. Then it’s off for incineration or landfill. There is zero chance of anyone at the council looking for it. As soon as that bin was emptied, whatever was in it has gone forever.

i think i might claim on household insurance

What was it?

It's unlikely you can claim on household insurance as the item wasn't damaged or stolen. It could still be in your house for all the insurer knows.

it was foreign money

How much?

They aren’t going to send one of the team away from their normal waste collection duties to sift through hundreds of bags of compacted waste for the possibility they might find some foreign money that is still usable.

its probably long gone to landfill anyway

Zero, and they won’t even look. Your insurance is also very unlikely to pay out on your mistake.

I used to be a bin woman, there’s no chance they will even look as it’s just not possible it really is a needle in a haystack situation, there’s just far too much rubbish even on one route, and this is a week ago.

'Apropos of nothing but I once watched a bin lorry "eat" a 7' x 7' steel garage door in about 2 minutes. The chance of OPs paper? money surviving is zero.

turns out that i might not have, it was not in brown envelopes which i am remembering throwing out but blue/white and it is the brown envelopes i am remembering - phew, but they are still missing.

How much was it

I hope you find it.

I was just wondering do you have a letter wrack or file boxes and you could keep important envelopes in a safe place. If needs be you could keep a notebook telling you where that envelope is found so you can find it easily.

I did this too.

I bought some Bobbi Brown mascara recently and threw it away by accident the same day. Was very annoyed.