To be annoyed with council's '3 black bin bag' rule?

[sallymanda]

Now, don't get me wrong, I do recycle and -9 times out of 10- usually manage to put out only one bin bag out a fortnight.

Yesterday, a leaflet came from council stating that no household should put out more than 3 black sacks a fortnight (for those that don't know, black sacks=non-recyclables).

They say that people can have an exemption from this but there are so many problems with this in practicality:

1, How will bin men know?

2, What about houses of multiple occupation? Flats etc.

3, How much detail must be given to have an exemption? What if a person suffers from an illness that means they cannot control bladder/bowels, do they have to tell the council such personal information? Or, as this is mumsnet, have to put out nappies? Which, after all, can't be recycled?

I am also at the tone of the leaflet- you'd swear that people were committing murder not putting out their rubbish!!

I mean people PAY council tax- it's not as if it's a free collection service.

All this will mean is rubbish lying around the streets.

I'm annoyed (as you can probably guess!) AIBU?

janepurdy Are you seriously claiming that your council tax is only £130 per year?

I could understand £130 per month

Around here even the cheapest Band A council tax is over £900 per year and in Band E we are paying £1600 per year

We have people here with continence problems. We told them and they gave us an extra bin.

Sirzy our neighbours aren't very nice and are frequent fliers with the local police. I'm not going to explicitly tell them how long we will be away for.

And yes, our small wheely bin is fine 90% of the time. But if we're having a clearout or are away on bin day so we have 4 weeks between collections we have real trouble. We're still getting rid of (clean) waste from Christmas time, one bag a fortnight, because we were away the day after boxing day so missed the extra large collection, plus had to get four weeks rubbish in the bin (with DS in nappies).

We are a family of five, and only fill one bag every fortnight; half the time it is only half full and we leave it for a month. We do compost all food waste and recycle all paper, glass and plastic (except the non-recyclable cling film). We don't have nappies any more, but I can't actually imagine why people would create more rubbish than we do unless they have babies or incontinence problems.

I actually think people don't bother to recycle and compost everything they can, and that is lazy and selfish behaviour.

You cannot put your household rubbish in street litter bins round here. The council go through any bags and try to trace where they have come from as the bins are for loose items only. Our local newsagent was just fined for putting some of their waste in the street bin.

claraschu, fine you're entitled to your opinion on that and if a person has time on their hands and are able, they should recycle, however, people don't pay council tax for the council to pass moral judgement on their behaviour.

But that's councillors all over for you- small-minded, jumped-up moralists or just simply on the make. Classic example of a job where if somebody wants to be a councillor, they shouldn't be one.

Fortnightly collection is bad enough, but only 3 bin bags is ridiculous. It's obvious that it will lead to an increase in fly-tipping, disease, and ill will towards the council.

Not a fan of Eric Pickles, but even a stopped clock shows time right twice a day and all that, but he is right it should be a right for council tax payers to have rubbish taken with minimal fuss.

It is, after all, something that people have to do.

malovitt, DNA-testing on items in rubbish next, no doubt.

They recycle nappies in the Netherlands. There is a huge metal container stationed by every pre-school/ daycare and they are for public use. We also recycle tins, paper, plastic and have a compost bin. The black bins are chipped and you are charged each time the bin is emptied and get a statement every year. The more you recycle the less it costs you. Our bin goes out about eight or nine times a year. Clear outs go to the tip as that's cheaper than the bin.

May be that's a better idea-reward people instead of punitive measures. I'm sure that a lot of people would actively recycle more if they saved money.

sallymanda Tue 25-Feb-14 08:17:50
"Britain's nuts; other countries must be looking at us and thinking we're daft to put up with this kind of c*."

errr...recycling and restrictions on binning have been going on far longer on the continent

my relatives abroad think the British are rather odd living on a small island and merrily piling up the landfill

they can't believe how much people here buy unnecessarily and then put in the bin

or how much litter there is everywhere

I have to say I never had a problem with one sack/week even when dc were in nappies or dd wore incontinence pads

but that may be because I walk to the shops rather than drive, so am less tempted to buy more than I can easily get rid of

Kidney, if you are running a business then the business rates should cover collection from that. Also there is sometimes leeway if you have a larger household (not sure if you have kids as well as four adults)

Apologies to any councillors who aren't jumped-up or moralistic or out for themselves, just in my experience an awful lot are.

Of course it's about money. Your council tax doesn't even begin to touch the cost of running a city or county. Most of that money comes from government grant and that is being massively slashed.

Waste collection and disposal of non-recyclables is hugely expensive and so councils are trying to economise without raising council tax.

I'm not, the chap below is, but I think he just uses the place as an office? I really don't know the details, just that we aren't allowed another bin. And nope, no DC's living here.

But how can used nappies be recycled? Eww. Please enlighten me.

Well our council is as corrupt as a Tory MP's moat decorations, so I won't argue that point with you but what do you think councils should do? They've been trying to gently nudge people towards recycling for years now and it simply hasn't worked.

While I was pretty good when I lived in a flat it was a PITA and I sometimes didn't recycle everything, now I live in a house with enough room for recycling bins outside there's really no excuse. But a lot of people don't do it at all and it's easy to spot that on my small street of around 10 houses, there's usually at least 3 who don't put recycling bins out.

A friend from Canada said they can buy extra 'tags' cheaply from their council equivalent, so if they do have a spring-clean or unexpectedly large amount of money, they just attach the paid-for tag and leave the bag with the rest of the collection, which seems like a logical solution to me.

What is never mentioned is the actual disease risks that fortnightly collections of non-recyclables carry: imagine if bin is collected on day 1 and day 1 happens to be the day a woman has an awfully heavy period-as often happens- so there's a load of sanitary pads sweltering in a bin for a fortnight.

Imagine having to inform the council that you need an exemption for an issue that is none of their business such as a medical condition that you'd rather was kept quiet.

It's just part of the bigger picture where the authorities can get as much information out of people as possible.

We have had fortnightly collections for nearly 15yrs and never have a problem with rubbish until this Xmas, collection days fell on bank holidays, so we had no collection for the recycling for a month and no non-recycle for three weeks, so bins where full and overflowing but our council will take bags of rubbish that are left at the side of the bins.

We have a grey wheelie for non recycle, a blue bin for metal and glass, a brown bin for compostable including waste cooked food and plastic boxes for cardboard, we can also get a compost bin for the garden. Anyone that can demonstrate they need an extra non recycle bin can have one.

unexpectedly large amount of rubbish not money. Sheesh.

Kidney, if you are running a business then the business rates should cover collection from that. Also there is sometimes leeway if you have a larger household (not sure if you have kids as well as four adults)

I was unimpressed initially but we are a family of 6 and manage with one wheelie bin a fortnight. We recycle EVERYTHING that the council will take. On the occasions that we generate more due to decorating/xmas we take the overflow to the tip (this is not the norm). You get used to it and you get more vigilant about recycling stuff

Yes, I've formed the impression that other European countries are way ahead / far stricter than us on waste management, we use far too much packaging in this country.

We've been on fortnightly collections ever since we moved here 13 years ago, one wheely bin for non-recyclables, one for paper/card/plastic/tins and a small box for glass, garden waste you pay extra for. There's no food waste collection. However the plastic is limited to bottles only, you can't put in yogurt pots, fruit punnets, anything like that so ours does still mount up a bit. We compost what we can, but our compost bin is full to the brim at the moment so we've stopped till it composts down. Even for the brief spell where we had two DCs in disposable nappies one wheely bin a fortnight was plenty.

Sorry, double post!

I didn't have anything in my regular bin last week - it all went in recycling or food waste.

It does seem bonkers to have a sack limit rather than a bin - much harder to get neighbours to put out for you if you are away and means you have to use unnecessary bags for eg polystyrene packaging that could be loose in a wheelie bin.

Haha nickymanchester a fatal flaw in my sums! Indeed not.