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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

Bin Day Etiquette

79 replies

BinToHellAndBack · 01/02/2015 22:35

Tomorrow is bin day here (actually it's recycling day, but this thread refers to both bins and recycling in equal measure).

We always put our bins as early in the evening as we can because a) we'd probably forget otherwise and b) it saves the loud trundling and banging at 11pm followed by cussing as you somehow manage to make the bin grind your knuckles along the pebbledash

However, I do not feel that the bin being out on the street is a free-for-all for the neighbours to rush over and cram their refuse into our bin. Sometimes there's more to go in! So AIBU?

I'm all for using the neighbours leftover space if you've run out, but would it be so hard to just ask? Or at least wait until the morning when there's unlikely to be any more. Last week our recycling bin was overflowing with old school work-books, I'd estimate about 70-100!

And I have no idea who it is. I heard the tell-tale flap of the lid closing about 30 mins ago (fair enough it's probably late enough this time to not be unreasonable). I rushed to the window to see who was there... nobody. So they must be trying to sneak.

Hmm, I need to get a life or maybe a bigger bin

OP posts:

Momagain1 · 02/02/2015 17:16

They come before 6 am? Is that even legal? Noise ordinances and all prevented that in one city I lived in in the US!

Would you rather find out what's the official earliest pick up time and put it out in the morning? If it is supposed to be 7 am, and they came at 6 and you werent ready, they would have to come back when you call.

Alternately, given the inconsiderate neighbors taking too much advantage of your not quite full bin, i would cease to worry about how late at night they get put out. Your dh gets in late? That's the time to put them out. If anyone complains, just tell them you have gotten in trouble because someone else was coming around and overfilling your bin when you put it out at a sensible time.

Enidblytonrules · 02/02/2015 17:26

'Mouth open wide icon' We have had wheely bins for over 25 years and I have never known anyone to add anything to my bin and I have never even thought of putting my rubbish in someone else's bin - occasionally our neighbour who was also our gardener would take ourgarden refuse to put into his bin.

I often add stuff during the day if the bin men have not collected yet (sometimes up to 2 pm) and have never found other rubbish in my bins. I would worry if that started happening because we are considered responsible for what goes in our bins and can 'get into trouble' with the council if 'wrong type of' rubbish is found in our different bins.

FastWindow · 02/02/2015 17:27

When I first moved to my house, all four of my neighbours shared the putting out and taking in of bins. As the occupants have changed, three of those no longer do it. One family even put notices on their bins 'do not use my bins under any circumstances' within a week of moving in. We put their bins out for a while, then when it was clear they only ever did their own, we stopped. Now is just us and one other. Fair enough... But when three of them don't put their bins out at all, and they are too full to last another two weeks, guess whose bin gets used :(

beeelaine · 02/02/2015 19:50

Dont put dog poo in other peoples bins - when you are pregnant you need to avoid dog poo - how do you know if someone there is pregnant or not? when you pick it up its in a bag so you should carry it home and put it in your own bin. If you own a dog it should not bother you taking it home.

I think it is polite to ask if you want to dump your rubbish in a neighbours bin - but if they are not in and its the morning of collection then i think its ok to use it as long as the lid still shuts and your rubbish is in a bag so it wont make their bin dirty and stinky.

If you have a perpetual offender putting dog poo in your bin then use the following notice (it seems to put them off using your bin) "Stop putting your mingy used sex toys in my bin you dirty cow"

Original poster

BinToHellAndBack · 02/02/2015 20:46

I've worked out who it is! There was another crate of hundreds of used school work-books next to their bin today. Ha!

They are not my favourite neighbours as their 6 children stay up in the garden (right under our window) making a racket until midnight for the duration of the summer holiday (I know they aren't doing anything wrong, it's just annoying), and they ignored a leak in their garden which flooded out cellar. BUT they always smile and say hello, let us know if we've left the car lights on, and have helped me carry shopping from the car when I was struggling with two babies.

So all in all good people. Plus, for all their bin-tipping (like fly-tipping but in my bin), they've never left un-bagged dog poo which is clearly the ultimate bin crime!

Perhaps only saying something to them if the council reject our bin would be the best course of action... (well, second best, jumping out of the bin at them was the best course of action )

OP posts:

starfishmummy · 02/02/2015 21:30

When we first came here ghere was a student house a few doors away. We got home one day and a load of stuff was sticking out the top of our bin. I donned the marigolds to ho and squash it down and poking out of the top of a bag of rubbish was a letter with name and address. I would love to have seen their faces when they found it all back on their doorstep!!

Hubb · 02/02/2015 21:51

Beeelaine that is brilliant!!! If I was a dog shit dumper that notice would certainly put me off.

I am in disbelief that anyone would put dog shit in someones bin at all though

I live on a sort of culdisac (no through road) so I guess I am lucky to not have to deal with random passers by abusing my bin. Neighbours have never displayed any bad behaviour either thankfully, I don't know how I'd cope, it's the sort of thing that would really stress me out!

Glad you solved the mystery OP and it sounds like it's a relief it was just school books phew!

Loletta · 02/02/2015 21:53

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

meglet · 02/02/2015 21:54

I've had dog poo bags dumped in my bin after it's been emptied. pissed me off because I then get a waft of it every time it's opened for the next 7 days .

EasilyDistracted77 · 02/02/2015 22:06

I'M NOT THE ONLY ONE! YEY!

This exact same thing really winds me up too. It shouldn't matter, it really shouldn't, but as I'm making the effort to recycle as much as I possibly can, there is hardly anything which actually goes into the 'rubbish' bin, and it really pisses me off that my neighbours who don't give a stuff about sorting out recycling think that it's ok to put their overflow bin bags into other people's wheelie bins, WITHOUT EVEN ASKING FIRST.

What happens when councils decide to start charging for what you throw away (rather than recycle) ...?

CrazyMrsBtobe · 02/02/2015 22:53

Every sodding week the twats upstairs fill up everyone elses bin till its overflowing. None of the bins will be collected if they dont close and every sodding week I have to go back out and squish all the rubbish down so they are all taken. This is despite polite notices in the hall and emails being sent from the landlords.

I wouldn't care if it was occasionally but it's every week. Im almost tempted to drill a hole and put a bike lock on it and just unlock it in the morning.

Bin politics bollocks.

unlucky83 · 02/02/2015 23:21

Dog poo bags - nooooooooo please don't put dog poo -even in bags - in wheelie bins on the road...
A few years ago, house I was renovating so not living in - I put the bin out, didn't bring it back in till late the next day...quick glance it had been emptied but didn't inspect it in any detail...
It lives in the garage, gets emptied max every 2 weeks...but I had lots of rubbish - so taking stuff to the skips not using the bin...
After a week or so I thought there was something whiffy in the garage (this is the height of summer, very hot) - smell got worse and worse - I was checking behind stuff, in the rafters etc - thought something must have died in there...couldn't find the source. Worried there was a cracked sewer underneath the floor or something.

Then after a good few weeks I innocently opened the lid to put something in there ... I nearly fainted the smell was so bad ...from one little bag in the bottom - I felt guilty putting it out to be emptied -poor dustmen...
I left it open in the garden for weeks to 'air' but the smell is ingrained in the plastic ...years later and it still vaguely smells now...
(Being precious about bin ownership ...In previous house I cleaned out our maggot infested, smelly garden/kitchen waste wheelie bin and then made a big effort to double bag everything etc to keep it clean...they go out on the street with others but when I went to bring it in there was only one left - smelly and maggot infested...I went out and bought numbers after that...
At the new house I had a different problem - we'd left grass rotting in there for a few weeks - it wouldn't empty properly and was filthy, stinky and I kept meaning to get round to cleaning it out ... then one week I came to take it in and there was only one bin left - and it was lovely and clean ..I felt so guilty...(unless the negihbours had got fed up with the smell and cleaned it for us)...I went out and bought numbers again... )

HairyPottyMouth · 02/02/2015 23:48

My neighbour from the next block is a shit unbelievably rude and opens our bin store to fill our bins because he can't be bothered to take his own bins out.

janestheone · 03/02/2015 09:30

oooh, I never knew. We live in an apartment building and the bins are in a courtyard at the back (the bin men have a pass key to come through the building to collect them, this is normal in urban France). Bloke who lives upstairs gets paid to, among other things, clean all the bins out after collection (which is weekly). The bin men aren't allowed to talk or play a radio etc, but even so I always wake up - they come at about 5.30 a.m. When I lived in the UK it would never have occurred to me to put stuff in someone else's bin, nor to go out and add stuff after the bin had been put out. Do people really do this?

TaliZorahVasNormandy · 03/02/2015 10:15

I had a neighbour who kept cleaning his car out and dumping the shit in my bin, which he parks next too.

Eventually I moved the bins back inside my gate. Which is annoying because I have to wrestle the fucker up a step to get it out.

IHeartChristmasMoomies · 03/02/2015 12:27

Beeelaine - totally agree poo in a bin is horrible, but why would anyone, much less a pregnant woman, be furtling about in a wheelie bin?

Ours bin are in an alley and are put out at the end normally the night before. I have no problem with the empty space being used if the bin is already out - annoys me if it's not, or if they fill it so much the kid won't close. Luckily this isn't often.

We're considerate binners though. Which is why we still have mountains of cardboard to go in recycling this long after Xmas - we don't have a car to get it to the local place.

Jengnr · 03/02/2015 13:06

I can't believe anybody would get worked up about this. It's space in a bin, space you're not using.

Seriously, why do you care?

TabbyM · 03/02/2015 14:55

I am a fervent recycler and the only one in our block who uses our recycling boxes. What pisses me off is that our non-recycling bin can last for 6 weeks but NOT if dodger neighbours put all their vile many stuff in my clean (ish) bin.

kawliga · 05/02/2015 16:39

why would anyone, much less a pregnant woman, be furtling about in a wheelie bin?

Because they need to add rubbish to the bag that's already in the wheelie bin, and they know the wheelie bin is clean because it is jet washed and bleached every bin-day? So they are not expecting to end up elbow-deep in dog poo which somebody else has thrown in there?

That's why. So glad to see all the people on here who prefer a clean bin to one infested with maggots and horrid smells.

MiaowTheCat · 05/02/2015 16:57

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

kawliga · 05/02/2015 17:44

Strictly speaking they are not supposed to go out the night before. The council will set the time (usually 6am) of the morning when they should be put out. They go out the night before because few people will wake up at 5.45am to put the bins out or rather, when they wake up they are rushing about getting ready for the day and no time to worry about bins.

toomuchtooold · 05/02/2015 17:47

I live in Switzerland now where you have to buy special council bin bags meaning you pay per bag instead if the cost just being in your council tax. And everyone here is really rules obsessed and extremely private so I think putting your rubbish in their less full bin bag would be about as welcome as taking a poo on their doorstep. But I am gutted I never thought of using the neighbours bins in London. They wouldn't even have minded I think but I never thought so I just used to pile the nag.if nappies (twins) about a metre high above the top of the bin.

concretekitten · 05/02/2015 18:01

I used to have a neighbour who used to put her empty wine bottles in my bottle bin, there was plenty of room in hers so think she was just hiding them from her DP.
She also used to just put her normal rubbish in my bin once hers was full, she asked if she could once, it was the day before bin day so was fine, then continued to do it alllll the time without asking.
I found it really rude.
YANBU btw x

CobbOnn · 05/02/2015 18:21

Really?! Ita a bin. For rubbish. Overfilling is b ad form, but otherwise who gives a shit if someone else's rubbish goes in your bin. YABU.

unlucky83 · 05/02/2015 18:54

My parent have this rule - no bins out overnight - the bins are supposed to go out at 6am ...and apparently you can be fined if you do leave them out overnight.
Mainly because of vandals setting fire to them or them being used by burglars to eg climb over walls/gates to break into people's houses.
We are supposed to put them out at 6 and if they haven't been emptied bring them back in at 9pm and put them out again the next day at 6am...
We ignore it...my nightmare neighbour had a go at me because one day I disturbed him as I (as quietly as I could - but I do have to lift it up some steps) put my bin out at 8.30am because I'd forgotten the night before...can't imagine what he would have been like if I put them out at 6am every week...

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