There is bugger all I can do about it but I am bloody sodding pissed off

[bigmouthstrikesagain]

The bin collection here weekly and it is alternate weeks recycling and general rubbish. We separate our rubbish as directed and rinse out food from packaging, use the food recycling bin for food, take glass to the local dump. I am pretty organised about it. But today I have put out my recycling bin and it has not been emptied. I use bin liners for the kitchen bins as I was finding that the recyclables bin would get soggy from the rinsed packaging etc. and then be impossible to empty so as plastic carrier bags are allowed in the recycling I made the error of thinking keeping the rubbish in the bag was ok.

It is not - and I have been missed out of the collection this week. There was a sticker on the bin last week listing requirements but I misunderstood 'no black bin rubbish' as to mean no general household black bin rubbish - ie. the stuff that cannot go in the recycling bin not literally no black bin liners (as I could put them in the recycling bin as long as there was no rubbish in them!!)Arrgghh.

Anyway - there is no point complaining as checking the council site it is clear from the more detailed description that I cannot use black bin liners - so I am angry but not in a position to do anything - I will have to get dh to take our rubbish to recycling centre which he is going to be really really not excited about and it is my fault - ngah!

I set up recycling schemes at school when it was unfashionable in the '80's so I hate being a 'bad' recycler

Would I be unreasonable to eat a lot of chocolate and hid the rubbish from dh until I can return it to the bins incrementally ( hates being caught out emoticon).

Have you flattened all of the cardboard as much as possible? I unfold boxes and put them flat down one side of the bin. It's amazing how much more you can fit in this way.

clear bags are on my shopping list

I am going to be venting my frustrations with some satisfying bin jumping (when it stops raining)

I know the council are trying to save money, but this shouldn't be the first cut!

It's not just about saving money, thought, it's about reducing waste. There has been an amazing change where I live since we moved to fortnightly uplifts. Rather than people filling their bins every week they are actively reducing how much they chuck out. If consumers actively buy stuff with less packaging etc, then shops will stop selling it and producers will stop making it. Savings all round.

Do you have any nice neighbours who tend not to fill their own bins up?

I'm really lucky that 3 people who live opposite me, all live alone.

They always tell me and other neighbours to pop any spare bags into their bins, once they've put them out.

We don't have bins here. Collection once a week for both.

Green bags,boxes and clear bags for recycling. Collection Tues
Black bags for rubbish. Collection Thursday

Don't have to rinse out food containers either

personally I would phone them plead stupidity tell them you have sorted it and get them to come out again - I suspect there will be others and they are likely to be lenient if its the first few rounds of a new way

OllyBJolly unfortunately, here it only reduces what people chuck in THEIR OWN BIN, but the waste obviously goes elsewhere.

I am not sure how you can chose to buy with less packaging, but contacting the retailers and big chains about it might be a good idea. (I just received a baby toothbrush, packed in a BIG shoe box. Why!)

My council will do an extra pickup if you call within 24 hours of your usual pickup time. It might be worth giving them a bell

How come you all have fortnightly collections? We have weekly here in north London. Our bins would overflow in 2 weeks due to recycling everything

Our collections are weekly but alternate bins one week recycling next week general. It is a pain.

Op bin day tomorrow for us, bring them round here and you can chuck them in with ours
In all seriousness though I love bin day I practically bounce out of bed on a Wednesday morning to rid our lives of all the rubbish. If I found out we were left with the rubbish for an extra couple of weeks I'd be gutted. I know it isn't a massive problem but it is just so satisfying to see it all go. And that satisfaction helps me to deal with the bigger stuff.

We have weekly here in north London. enjoy whilst it lasts!

I was upset a few months ago when I received a letter from the council, not just a flyer through the door but a proper named and addressed letter sent by post, saying that they had been made aware by the bin men that we'd had a problem with our recycling bin and went on to lecture me (not DH, I took this very personally) about what can and can't go into it.

I hadn't a clue what they were talking about as our bin has been emptied fortnightly with no problems, and no red tag of shame has been left on the handle either. All I could think was that our next door neighbour had put an absolute load of polystyrene packing from their new washing machine in their recycling bin and it hadn't been emptied, and the handle had been tagged.

I contacted the council and they said that they did indeed have information from the bin men that non-recyclable waste had been put in our bin so it hadn't been emptied. I informed them that this wasn't the case.

The council drove me mad with their petty rules... After one particular incident I have never recycled again. 1 less stress for me

Please check before you use recyclable bags as not all councils take those either.
We had issues with maggots in a brown bin so used biodegradable paper bags for the food caddy. They had 'recyclable' written all over them in big letters but the council refused to empty our brown bin with them in it.
For that reason we don't use the brown bin in this house.

I use bin liners for the kitchen bins as I was finding that the recyclables bin would get soggy from the rinsed packaging etc

Can you wait until the rinsed packaging is dry before binning it?

We have full sized wheelie bins for the recycling, we don't have to wash anything, anything that can be recycled can go in it - The bins are probably the only thing our council does well though!
It was just a mistake OP, I don't see why you feel guilty about it, DH can take it to the tip, its not a big job. Why not do a bit more clearing and get rid of any more clutter to make it feel the trip was worth it? :)