to put extra black bin bag out with neighbours?

[Tate15]

Stupid three black bin bags a fortnight!

I have five this week. Neighbours have one or two black bin bags.

I think it's ok to add one of mine to their pile but my daughter thinks it would be a faux pas of the highest order!

And as such she won't be arty to helping me put the bin bags out!

Would you mind? The bags are double wrapped, no holes and only go out in the morning.

We have four wheelie bins. It's great.

Gives me the rage though when my Dad's neighbours put their garden waste in his green bin leaving me to heave it out onto the pavement.

I think you should ask them.

Clearly we are spoiled (or else very behind the times) here in France, we have two normal bin collections a week and one recycling collection a week...

Limits on bin bags sounds even worse! We don't have that here, probably because all household waste is incinerated so there isn't a landfill issue. But we do struggle with the reduced collections and the refusal to take the bin if it's too full or take any bags outside the bin.

Maybe instead of wanting bigger bins to fill with nappies and pet bedding, we should be thinking of reducing what we need to put in bins.
I'm amazed that people think it is acceptable to dump over 5000 dirty nappies in landfill before their child is potty trained

We have fortnightly collections for landfill, and I wouldn't mind so much (although DH is useless at recycling) but we also only have fortnightly collections for recycling and are given piddly little waste boxes for them - so invariably end up with recycling all over the front step which makes it look and feel like we're living in a hovel. It makes me unbelievably cross that it's so badly thought out.

It's ok though, I'm winning. We've got rear access to our garden and our neighbour keeps her black bin down there. I've moved our bin around there and rung the council and they're bringing us a replacement black bin for the front so now we have two :D

As a general rule though, I'd say ask your neighbour first before putting rubbish in their bin - that's what we do and it's fine.

I agree on the nappies. It's dreadful to thing of billions a year piling up; they won't degrade for centuries. There should be more surcharges on products like that to encourage use of alternatives.

What else are people tossing instead of recycling? Some of the quantities of garbage mentioned are mind boggling.

My black bag contains flexible plastic (not recyclable), anything that I can't clean the food off and will attract foxes which make a huge mess (eg meat trays where the juices have soaked in), nappies (I tried reusable but DH and childcare weren't up for it) and packaging (those irritating foam things or the plastic ones with air bubbles) and metal foil / packaging. It has any sheets of paper with personal details as I haven't got a shredder - maybe I should get one.

No food, cardboard, hard plastic, all other paper, glass - that all goes in the recycling.

And we still average about 1.5 black bags a week for a family of four.

there are 3 of us, sometimes 4. almost everything goes into the green recycling bin, veg peels and fruit go in compost bin in garden and we are left with a brown bag which usually has 1 black bin bag in a week, rarely more unless we have had a clear out. the green bin is collected fortnightly brown bag weekly. if the green bin gets full and it usually does, we have a green bag that goes out beside it. they won't take anything that are not in the bins / green or brown bags

I save up bubble packaging and the like and every so often offer it on freecycle. People who are moving or who ship items for eBay and the like are happy to have it. Similarly, metal and foil can be offered to those who collect scrap for recycling or resale.

Yes there is a bit of inconvenience but we all can't do what is easiest for us all the time and expect our descendants to have much of a planet left.

I would ask them first, so as not to get their backs up if they notice.
It's a bit cheeky otherwise.

Ours are all alternated each week and we don't have to wait longer than 2 weeks for anything.
We have 4 wheely bins and our council waste dept are on tv regularly as they are the best in the country.
Seems like we chose the best place to live for waste management.

Update!

The bin men came earlier today, just as we were leaving. They picked up my three black bags and then I spotted a straggler bin man walking up the road.

My daughter rolled her eyes and got in the car and I ran over to my prey/the young bin man and asked him ever so sweetly if he had a moment!

I walked him to my gate and showed him the extra bin bags I had and fluttered my eyelashes and asked if he would be a sweetheart and take a few extra bags as we hadn't long moved and I was scared rats might get to them!

I had him cornered so he very kindly took all of them!

I got back in the car and my daughter once more rolled her eyes at me!

LeaLeander Indeed.
The Please don't use plastic bags campaign is a drop in the ocean compared to the millions of nappies that go into landfill every year.
5p a nappy anyone?

It's never going to happen sadly...

We live within sight of a public bin / bus stop. Loads of elderly people deposit a carrier bag of rubbish in it every day. My mum used to do the same where she lived. The council are forever swinging by to empty it. (Every 90 mins or so.) It's my plan b for when they start limiting landfill rubbish. (We have a ridiculous amount of recycling too.)

I also strip the packaging from goods bought in shops.

Today I bought zoflora disinfectant which came in a box so as I put in bag I deftly removed box and asked cashier to bin it.

The duvet cover set I bought was packed tightly so when I got outside I removed the plastic cover and took out the large bout of cardboard and put it in the shops bin outside.

I don't want to bring home anymore rubbish than I have to, so all excess packaging goes straight in the shops bin after I've paid. Obviously, not for something that may be subject to being returned!

I bought a roll of 100 carrier bags in one of the pound shops and gave to my son and his girlfriend and they walk a bag a day to the public bin near them so that they are not stressed with rubbish building up in their home as they can't leave rubbish outside.

People have been fined for using public bins for household waste, just make sure that there's nothing with your name or address on it.

Putting cardboard in the bins outside shops doesn't really help environmentally. Can't you take it home and recycle it?

I think you should try and review your recycling habits and how much you throw away before making this your neighbour's problem too.

In my household, there are only two of us (no kids in nappies nor pets either). Rubbish is picked up every three weeks now. I only have a slim bin and I only put it out every six weeks.

My top tips for slimming your bin:

• Have a small kitchen bin (12L) only. It is a lot easier to put quite a few supermarket-size bags in a wheelie bin rather than try and stuff a couple of big ones in.

• Recycle religiously

• Compost what you can. I only compost vegetable and fruit peelings, and I just do it by throwing them on a heap in the garden. The heap is hidden by a bush. It has made a massive amount of difference to the size of what I throw away.

• Reduce packaging if you can, by buying meat, fish, fruit at butchers, fishmongers, or in a loose form.

• Flatten and/or cut packaging. This might be the easiest thing to do to make a difference without radically changing your habits. I shop at Aldi and most of their fruit and vegetables come with excessive packaging. If buying grapes, tomatoes, etc., I cut the plastic trays they come in in 4 pieces generally so they hardly take any space in my kitchen bin. Previously, on shopping days, my bin was just about immediately full with discarded packaging. Your bin bags are probably voluminous because of all the packaging but the space in the bag not being optimised.

Waste restrictions will only get worse so it is worth looking at changing your habits. Good luck!

Wheretheresawill1 I'm not joking. And I know someone who does it for a job. I'm not saying it's actually effective, but if you want a bigger black bin, you have to consider your recycling habits. Waste Doctors

As for the nappies, they take 500 years to rot away in landfill, so the council really doesn't want them any more than you do!

I'm amazed that people think it is acceptable to dump over 5000 dirty nappies in landfill before their child is potty trained

Well as the parent of a child who has a disability which means he will never be toilet trained we will send way over 5000 of his nappies to landfill (probably 10 times that figure already). But would you want to change an adult sized persons reusable nappies? schools certainly wouldn't change them.
I don't have more than a small wheelie bill sent to landfill each fortnight and I recycle everything that I can so I refuse to feel guilty about nappy waste.

I'm amazed that people think it is acceptable to dump over 5000 dirty nappies in landfill before their child is potty trained

I use cloth nappies, but come on. Aye they're easier now than they were but they're still a lot of work, and I say that as someone with an 'easy' baby. After DD's rota virus vaccine we were advised to use disposables for 2 weeks to reduce risk of other DC catching rota. Then I realised how much time I spent washing, drying, sorting.

I have 5 different bins. They are a pain. Plus too much stuff can't actually be recycled by the council. 3 week collections on the big general bin. Cat litter after 3 weeks?

Putting cardboard in the bins outside shops doesn't really help environmentally. Can't you take it home and recycle it?

Actually, I think we should all be returning excess packaging to the stores. It's only when they have to start considering the impact their over the top use of plastic has, preferably they will consider the impact on the environment, but at the very least, on their bottom line, that they will start to make changes.

We have a great system on our street. There are 14 houses, roughly split between young families and older couples. The night before bin day everyone puts their bins out and those with room (almost always the older people) open their bin lids so the families can put their excess black bags in. It makes me love bin day more than I already loved it (because there aren't many better feelings than having empty bins, are there? )

In the Isle of Wight, the black (rubbish) wheels bins can't be lifted by the bin lorry - so the men will only take kitchen bin bags. Some bugger keeps putting dog poo bags in there - so the bin men won't take any of it. Ugh.

Re composting, you know that you can shred cardboard boxes and put them in your compost bin? Same as wood clippings, newspapers, guinea pig bedding, rabbit droppings, nail cuttings, egg cartons, snotty tissues - all this stuff can be composted.

composting is not an option if you do not have a garden though.

nappies here went to make electricity and heat homes. but we did get an extra bag if we needed it. now I rarely fill the bin and put out one or two carrier bags full per week. everything recyclable goes in a sack left with the bins.

Babies using 10-12 nappies a day... Are they less absorbent now? We used real ones as well, but I never got through that amount.