to be annoyed at next door neighbour's rubbish?

[mizu]

that they put into our bin?

Has happened twice now.

The annoying thing - apart from my unwillingness to confront them - is that what they put into our green wheely bin is recycling stuff.

1st time was just after last Xmas and they put loads of cardboard and AN OLD KETTLE into the top of our bin as theirs was overflowing. I actually saw the guy do it but was in the house at the time doing the dds beds and just happened to look out the window. Didn't say anything to them.

Then this Friday I checked the bin in the afternoon to see if the binmen had been and our bin is FULL (usually only a third full). There is a massive black binliner of cardboard in there.

Again didn't confront but DH and I emptied the bag (on the street in front of both our houses) and sorted out all the cardboard and put it into our recycling box. Knew it was theirs as some of the cardboard had been drawn on and had the girls' names on from next door.

Sorry so long but should I have confronted them or am I being silly? Keep thinking that I will def knock on their door if they do it again but don't want to cause tension.

If you know for certain, 100% sure, that it is theirs, take it out and put it back at their front door. If they say anything (which I would doubt frankly) then point out its your bin, for your family/house to use and you're very sorry but you can't also accommodate their rubbish and if they need to they should buy for themselves another bin ! I definitely wouldn't do their recycling for them, what incentive do they have not to do this again now?

How rude! Of them, I mean.

YANBU. But not sure what I'd say as, like you, I wouldn't want a big punchup. But then there's surely a way of resolving it without a scene.

Someone assertive and tactful will be along in a mo...

Yes assertive and tactful, that is what I need, minibmw that is what my mum said, that they will keep on doing it now.

I will confront them, I will, I will, next time.....

There are many ways confront them, you don't even need to do it face to face .... next time a random bag appears in your bin, search through it, its most likely going to have things that will prove who it belongs to, put the bag back on their door. And again, and again until they truly have the point.

It may happen that they then confront you in a "what do you think you are doing" kind of way, then you'll have to be assertive I'm afraid, but this is a problem that can definitely be solved !!!

If all else fails, can you move your bin so that only you can access it until bin day?

what is the problem? surely if their bins are full, the rubbish is better off being put in a bin that isn't full than being left laying around the street/garden?

DuncanDisorderly, of course its better not to have rubbish lying around, but from the sounds of things (to me) these people are dumping their rubbish in their neighbours bin without a thought as to whether their neighbour would like to use their bin themselves or have a need to put more rubbish in.

This could have been avoided by their showing some manner and asking if they could, on occasion when they have too much, use their neighbours bin also. But they didn't, and so of course the OP has the right to be annoyed and offended.

Lock the bin

www.binloc.com/about.html

I suppose you could always knock on their door and say "I found this in our bin and it appears to be yours. Do you mind if I give it back?"

Or get your DH to do it? Sweeping generalisation, I know, but men are very often much less worried about upsetting people, hence more direct.

Yes Duncandisorderly, but the rubbish they are putting in the bin is stuff that either has to be taken to the tip or recycled. And the council here are starting to fine people for putting stuff that could be recycled into their wheely bin.

Minibmw, we put our bin out early on bin morning, no earlier.

YABU ( I dont think ive ever said that before ).

We are a family of 5 and even though we recycle quite strictly our general waste bin gets full,with collections only every 2 weeks its not good to have sacks lying around.

The council told us to put our rubbish into any spare space in other peoples bins and indeed when on rare occasions our bin hasnt been filled I put others rubbish in mine.

You cant always ask the 'owner' of the bin either.

Its a bit OTT and I wonder if you have other resentments with your neighbours?

"You cant always ask the 'owner' of the bin either"

Then you don't bloody use it, then!

What happened to basic good manners?

Well our 'binmen' come at about 7am -wheely bins generally start going out at about 10pm and im certainly not going to start banging on doors when people are going to bed to get to work this next day ....to say is it ok if i put my rubbish into the spare space in your bin?

And dont be so judgey about my manners.

You call it judgey. I call it having an opinion. I think it (i.e. the action) is bad mannered.

I wouldn't dream of putting my rubbish in someone else's bin without asking, and if they weren't around to ask, then I'd keep it back for the following collection or take it to the dump myself.

And how much unexpected rubbish do you create between 10pm and 7am? Surely you must know in advance if you've got an excess building, in which case pop next door earlier and ask if they would mind.

WHAT? "And dont be so judgey about my manners"

MANNERS are everything nickschic, neither you, nor anybody else are ENTITLED to dump rubbish into someone's bin without making sure you have SQUARED it with them, it's fundamental manners.

Basically, if you haven't asked before hand, you keep your rubbish until you have had the decency to check with them.

This ridiculous growing sense of entitlement to run roughshod over everyone, forgetting common decency, manners and personal boundaries really winds me up.

OP, YANBU

Stuff their refuse into a bin bag, ring the doorbell and tell them they seem to have misplaced something.

nicks chick we have 6 people in our house so we have the same problem with overflowing bins. We called the council and they told us that if you have a larger family, two children in nappies or a disabled person in the house you can pay £30 for an extra bin- which we did which solved the problem.

nickschic sorry spelled you name wrong

And for green bins, you don't even need those conditions to qualify for an extra one. My SIL just rang up and asked, paid the 30 quid and now has no need at all to hijack the neighbours' bins. (not that she ever has. Her DH had a personalised parking space up at the local dump).

Fernie thats not allowed round here the extra wheely bin we did have, that we'd paid for they took away as they said, the collectors were on tight schedules and due to the new recycling bins then most people probably wouldnt need an extra bin and if you did then to wait until collection morning and put your rubbish into any spare space.

Clam and misshissyfit just to calm your fit of pique Id like to explain (not that I have to) none of my neighbours have ever complained about this,in fact the bin we mostly use is my friends and she says during the week I can put rubbish in it if i need to.

If we have spare rubbish i make sure the bag isnt ripped,then I or dh open the lid on someone elses bin (theyve already put it out so im not taking space theyd be using) and we put our rubbish in there - we deliberately do it later at night so as to not take space they might need.

If dh has to go to the tip with bigger items or anything we take lots of other people stuff too.

fernie I am nickschick too .

Tell the neighbours that you've had a warning from the council re recyclable waste in your bin and though you have no problem at all with them sharing your bin if theirs is full and yours empty, you need them to ensure they do not put any recyclables in there or you are going to get fined.

Can't folk be fined for having the wrong stuff in their bins? We often have to go to the tip. Wouldn't dream of putting stuff in someone else's bin.

Then nickschick, that is a different scenario, if you have a sort of ongoing permission. My neighbours and I have a similar thing in that if they see me doing a shedload of gardening or breaking up packaging or whatever, they'll offer their bin to help. And I wouldn't therefore need to knock on their door at 10pm and ask again. And vice versa.
But the OP's scenario is completely different. AND her neighbours are putting non-recyclables in her green bin. Which is more than A Bit Off.

OP yadnbu.

I have the same problem with my neighbours - worse sometimes, because we have a dedicated food waste disposal collection which they also hi-jack my bin for. I really resent having to clean their filth out of my bins, just because they only have a small amout and don't want to go to the effort of using their own.

Fortunately, other than this they are brilliant neighbours. I am too wary of upsetting them to say anything, so I now have the ludicrous situation on bin mornings when I rush mine out at the last possible moment - just as the lorry pulls onto the street.

All my other neighbours think I am mad/chronically disorganised, but it is the only non-confrontational solution I have come up with so far.

Nickschic, they're putting in stuff that could otherwise be recycled.
It's not on and i wouldn't do it and I also wouldn't like it if somebody put their stuff in my bin.

I would knock on the door and say to them, if you need space in our bin to throw away actual refuse (rather than recyclable stuff like cardboard etc..) then please check with us first to make sure that we have no need for the extra space.

That way it should get sorted since I presume if they asked and you had the space, I don't think you'd mind would you? It will hopefully also make them think twice about just putting stuff in there.

Could you move your bins and put them on the back garden so they can't access them?

My bloody neighbour keeps swapping bins, I wouldn't be so annoyed if I hadn't spent an hour cleaning and bleaching it to stop flies and smells