Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. Flexible and made to last.

Meet the Other Phone.
Flexible and made to last.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

The bin men

72 replies

FunkyBarnYardBroom · 09/05/2014 15:37

So AIBU?

Every week on bin day I put the bins out at 7am ready for them to collect. I pop them nearly to the side of the pavement against my fence so as not to obstruct the pavement.

I go to work.

Every time I come back they are blocking the pavement and the access to be drive. I live on a sharp bend and road parking isn't an option as the opposite houses don't have drives and park the length of the street on that side. Luckily not many cars go up and down my street and I haven't had anyone freak out at me for blocking the road temporarily!

So I have to block the road each time get out shove them to the side. Park and then take them off the pavement.

Am I asking too much that not only are my bins placed out the way of my drive. But they congregate a couple of the neighbours bins there too!

Is this normal on bin collection day?!

OP posts:
Original poster
FunkyBarnYardBroom · 09/05/2014 19:10

Thatbloodywoman. Do you know a refuse collector?

OP posts:
ThatBloodyWoman · 09/05/2014 19:12
Wink
PosyFossilsShoes · 09/05/2014 19:13

For those who tip refuse collectors / posties - how much is appropriate, and how do you do it if you're always at work when they come round?

CorusKate · 09/05/2014 19:18

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

specialsubject · 09/05/2014 19:21

binpeople where I live now put the bin back exactly where they find it. But this has not been the case in previous homes.

I agree - polite call to the council stating the obvious about not blocking the road. It really doesn't take any extra time.

bigdeal · 09/05/2014 19:27

they have plenty of time to get the job done ,they are in such a rush to finish early they just dont give a shit about letting people past ,putting the bins back where they found them ,and they leave a trail of mess , they used to care ,bunch of lazy slobs now .

ballstoit · 09/05/2014 19:31

My bin men collect my bin from next to my house, and put it back in the same place...one of them does comment on my 'nice arse' though, if I'm bending into the car to strap dc3 in Hmm

ILoveNoodles · 09/05/2014 19:37

What the hell do you people do to your binmen?
Ours always check and take our bins even if we haven't put them out, esp when it's our turn for the really early collection, or I forget it's recycling/green bin week.
They always put the right ones back, not blocking the path to our doors or blocking our drive.
If you ask them they take stuff we would have trouble getting to the tip.
They are really friendly, always got time to wave/smile to kids.
And a couple of them are downright good looking!!!!
And I live on the Essex/London border so not a friendly little village!!!
The old binmen (who also used to do all that) used to knock for a Christmas tip, but this lot don't seem bothered about tips.

ThatBloodyWoman · 09/05/2014 19:41

bigdeal I think you'll find job and knock is history for a lot of refuse collectors now.

Rocketsauce · 24/08/2017 21:55

Try walking 15 miles a day and shifting 30 tonnes of rubbish a day. Ok it's not rocket science but at £8 an hour it's not as good as everyone thinks.
And yes I'm a binman,I know you all hate us but we don't make the rules....and yes I worked when we did the old ash cans and it was much easier,five on a round and finished for 10 every day. But things have changed,many more properties. Trust me I'm tired every day.
So when someone who has never done the job tells me it's easy....we'll just try it.

Scholes34 · 24/08/2017 22:14

My binmen are great. We exchange hellos when we meet and are polite with each other. Best thing about them is that they block the road and slow down the rat-runners through the estate in the morning rush hour. For that reason, I wish we had daily collections!

NK493efc93X1277dd3d6d4 · 24/08/2017 22:16

Yes our bin men are unreasonable too. A hundred bloody rules about how to set out the rubbish for collection and then the empty bins just get flung in the direction of your house. Sometimes they use our bin to collect the bags from all the other houses and then just abandon it in middle of pavement once they've finished with it.

strawbsalot · 24/08/2017 22:29

One of our binmen does the whole street's collection with a fag hanging out of his mouth, i like it.

PinkSparklyPussyCat · 24/08/2017 22:34

They were blocking the road the other day even though there was a driver still in the truck. It wouldn't have cost them any time to move over so the cars could get past.

And don't get me started on the knob that drives the food waste truck who thinks speed limits don't apply to him and that using his mobile phone is acceptable. DH actually heard one of the collectors moaning about the speed he drives at. I kept meaning to complain but didn't get a chance but I think it must be someone else now as they've slowed down.

EllenJanethickerknickers · 24/08/2017 22:37

Zombie thread!

QOD · 24/08/2017 22:38

A zombie bin thread. Whatever next
👻

mrsb2016 · 25/08/2017 13:18

Getting mine emptied is difficult enough, the same 6ft odd guy every fortnight refuses to empty it stands with his arms folded sulking, yet me a 5ft female can do it,every other member of crew and even his boss can do it, I've even offered that if they bring the bin wagon I will do it myself I have to take to Twitter and FB send a tweet or do a angry message and it's done later its not heavy, it's not full of the 'wrong' things, or anything else just a incompetent person with an attitude if I don't stand and watch he will miss it and I live on a main bus route in a busy town so that's not an excuse either breathe rant over

ChickenVindaloo2 · 25/08/2017 13:28

I'd post about how I remember in the 1980s, the binmen cheerfully hoisting the bins on their back and taking extra rubbish, whistling a tune and chatting to my baby brother. And compare that unfavourably with the lazy jobsworthy arses these days who DO go out of their way to be unhelpful eg they will take rubbish out of bins and dump it at side of bin if it's the "wrong type".

But then I'd get pelters for:
a) posting on a zombie thread; and
b) not bowing down to worship the poor snowflake bin men who have such an awfully hard time what with er, having to work for a living like everyone else.

So I won't.

4dogs · 25/08/2017 13:30

I live in a pedestrian cul de sac with 12 households, as I am the first house in the close I have a drive. The bin men leave the bins blocking my drive every bloody week, if I phone and complain it will be ok for a week or two and then it starts again. This week I need to move about 22 wheelies if I want to go out as it was garden waste collection week. My neighbours mostly work so it gets cleared when they all get home but if I want to go out before then I have to do it myself.

bumblingbovine49 · 25/08/2017 13:34

Just discussing this very problem with DH. We are going on holiday tomorrow for a week. The bins are collected Tuesday. I usually line them up facing outards just within the border of our driveway but right next to the pavement so that they are easy to collect on Tuesday but are not in the way at all before them. However I know that when they are emptied they will be flung in the middle of the pavement and will cause an obstruction. They often stay like this for the day anywat as we are all at work when this happens so we move them back when we get home. Howeever . I don't think people will be happy at all to have the empty bins sitting in the middle of the pavement for 4 days until we get home on Saturday.

Both neighbours are also away so I think we will just skip this collection, butI dread to think what the food waste will be like when we get back, especially if it hot while we are away!!

safariboot · 25/08/2017 13:34

At least OP's bins were being collected, unlike here in Birmingham where the binmen (and women) have decided to go on the most half-arsed pretence of a strike I've ever known, but enough to ensure that many roads got no collections for several weeks in a row and the city is stinking.

HorridHenryrule · 25/08/2017 13:36

They are still at it in Birmingham. My partner has to work up there and the piles of bags beside bins is disgusting. The bin men are taking a cut in their pay that's why there is a stand off.

ChevalierTialys · 25/08/2017 13:41

Remember people like refuse collectors have been on pay freezes for years now, with a reduction in staffing, and often a lot of wrangling over eroded terms and conditions.

They get a lot of undeserved flack.

@thatbloodywoman I love this comment. This goes for all public sector workers. Endlessly being told we are not doing a good ebough jobs while all our resources are slowly removed one by one.

Sorry to go slightly off-topic Grin

Viviennemary · 25/08/2017 13:45

They have to work quite quickly. And wind does blow them sometimes. Bins all over the place.

RB68 · 25/08/2017 13:51

hmm yeah I usually end up with nos 4 5 6 and 7 outside mine and then 6 & 7 moan they can't get past..... well not exactly my issue is it. I now just take mine to put away the others can do their own whingey sods. And if it blocks their road access its their issue not mine

Swipe left for the next trending thread