Monthly bin collections is a FAB idea

[jdoe8]

There is outrage over this on LBC. But I think its a really good idea, I remember the same outrage when they went to fortnightly.

We're a family of 4, we recycle, compost and avoid buying over packaged stuff and anything in plastic (especially veg and fruit!). As a result the bin only goes out once a month and often isn't full. If you don't have a garden then a weekly food collection pickup is available.

I see other people with only one or two people in their house and every other week their green wheelie is bursting. I know from times they have used ours that they put alot of food waste and packaging in the bin. We are rather wasteful in this country compared to just about every other European county.

Reuseables- fine for babies. No good for older children or adults.

All the posters saying "it wouldn't work for me because ..." - you'd have to find solutions i.e. use reusable nappies, use composting cat litter, demand less packaging, get grocery deliveries without the bags or take your own to the shops, crush your recycling so it takes up less room etc etc.

And ultimately, if you didn't want to do all that, you'll have to pay extra for more collections (council or private) or take waste to the recycling centers

Ultimately, as a nation we produce far too much waste and that can't go on. Things need to change and clearly people aren't doing enough voluntarily, so it has to become a pressure point for anything to happen.

In an ideal world yes and if you have the means to do these things but the less conscientious/people who don't have cars/money for extra collections etc would just continue to fly-tip leading to more problems for the council, who ultimately are left clearing up the mess. Thus causing more money to be spent and taxes rising when they could just leave it as it is and not make the problem worse. I think we would end up with a plague on our hands in more deprived areas.

Before reducing collections further there should be a crackdown on junk mail/packaging overuse etc.

I quite like the European idea of central waste disposal but I can imagine the big bins used would quickly get filled up with old mattresses etc. And, of course, there are people who wouldn't easily be able to get to one of these bins.

DMum is very infirm and certainly couldn't start taking rubbish for a walk around town. She would also be adversely affected by monthly collections as her bin is often full of medical dressings and incontinence pads.

Perhaps a better idea would be to collect recycling monthly (provide bigger bins) and other waste to be collected fortnightly. We live in the wilds of Scotland - I would hate to think what our bins would smell like after a month in a warmer southerly climate. The food recycling bags start to disintegrate after 4 or 5 days and are so foul to deal with we stopped food waste recycling (we don't waste much).

Any attempt to charge people for the amount of waste they dispose of would probably lead to much increased fly tipping.

I'm not concerned with whether it would work for me personally. The issue is more that if it doesn't work for others there will be more rats, fly tipping and other serious public health implications. There is a lot of sanctimonious crap on this thread, particularly with regard to packaging. Apart from the fact that good packaging reduces food waste, not everybody can walk to their local supermarket and dispose of packaging while there. Even if you can and do I'm not sure how that helps the environment considering that the packaging no longer serves any useful purpose and still is "rubbish" that needs to be disposed of.

Thanks thisrabbithatrabbit! I'll have a look next time in in Sainsburys.

Agree with PPs that our blue bin is the one that's full (cartons and cereal boxes mainly, sigh) whereas the green isn't by collection day. And we recycle religiously (feels like we're the only ones in the street who do though!) - even my inhalers I take back to the pharmacist to be recycled.

Also, some European countries (Switzerland that I know of) and Australia have bulky item collections a couple of times a year, so if you need to get rid of mattresses, sofas and so on, you can leave then on the kerb on a certain day and they will be disposed of. This also has the added bonus of people ratching through the piles of rubbish to see if there's anything of use and taking it away thereby stopping it going into landfill. DBIL found an excellent pair of skis one year.

reusable nappies aren't for everyone.

Where in Scotland does nappy collections? I know someone that has to take hers to the tip because her fortnightly rubbish collection isn't enough, and she can't get a bigger bin because she doesn't have two in nappies.

We've just moved from a flat where we used on-street bins - it was meant to be collected twice a week but often got missed. I found it hard to use because it is the same height as I am. And on quite a few occasions at the weekends drunk people would go around bin-tipping and it would lie in the street. We now have our own bins, fortnightly waste and recycling alternating, and weekly food waste - works reasonably well but we'd struggle to have collections less frequently. And random passing people sneak stuff in the bins as well (we're in a flat with no garden so the bins have to be on the path, we can't hide them away until collection).

It is so much better than when we had bags though. I used to live in a lovely picturesque area of Edinburgh. Bin bags would go out on the street the night before (thus allowing foxes/rodents a good go at them) then the bin men would turn up and drag the bags along the cobbles (increasing the likelihood that any not ripped at that stage would be).

The sort of people who cannot be bothered to do all they can to reduce their waste are probably the type of people who would fly tip. There are people who really cannot be bothered and don't care, sadly.
If you have food waste you are doing something wrong.
Until everyone is more responsible ( probably never) we will probably never be in a position to accept monthly collections.

I am dreading this coming in!!
Our council provide no bins or boxes
We can put out 3x black bags a fortnight
Cardboard,tins and glass are put in green bags collected every other week.
Plastic is collected the same week as black In Pink bags.
Food waste is weekly and a box is provided for this but does not stop the wildlife or cats getting in it.
The next council over provide plastic boxes with lids for all recycling that is collected weekly.
A wheelie bin is provided for non recyclable waste.
And food waste bins have locks.
They also provide clear bags for Nappies,cat litter,dog fowling,ect and a blue bin to store this in that is collected weekly.

If you have food waste you are doing something wrong

Clearly peeling potatoes, chopping the ends off carrots, draining the fat off meat, taking the bones out of fish/meat, coring an apple, unpeeling a satsuma is doing something wrong then?

'If you have food waste you are doing something wrong.'

Huh? I cook from scratch and try to use local, unprocessed ingredients. I suppose I could reduce my food waste by buying chicken breasts instead of legs so there are never any bones, or fish fillets instead of whole fish, but it kind of misses the point.
Even after a stock making session you are left with stuff you can't compost.

Clearly peeling potatoes, chopping the ends off carrots, draining the fat off meat, taking the bones out of fish/meat, coring an apple, unpeeling a satsuma is doing something wrong then?

Exactly. I think some people on this thread are living in a fantasy world...

Not to mention pineapples

reusables, great if you have room to dry them all, I use them occasionally alongside disposable nappies as I just haven't got the room to dry them in my flat. If I have too much washing hanging out to dry in my home it increases the condensation and the mould around the windows which in turn gives us bad chests. We have a dehumidifier but it is still an issue.

reusables, great if you have room to dry them all, I use them occasionally alongside disposable nappies as I just haven't got the room to dry them in my flat. If I have too much washing hanging out to dry in my home it increases the condensation and the mould around the windows which in turn gives us bad chests. We have a dehumidifier but it is still an issue.

Family of 7. It would not work for us at all.

We struggle with space in our bin as it is.

Clearly peeling potatoes, chopping the ends off carrots, draining the fat off meat, taking the bones out of fish/meat, coring an apple, unpeeling a satsuma is doing something wrong then?

Quite. I agree that many people, maybe most people, could reduce food waste - meal planning, making sure you eat perishable food before it goes off, eating leftovers etc etc - but eliminating food waste entirely is going to be unachievable for the majority of people eating a balanced diet, as demonstrated in the examples a pp gives above.

Do eggshells count as food waste?

Reuseables- fine for babies. No for older children or adults

Exactly. And not just incontinence pads but other consumable medical supplies which can be very bulky to dispose of.

Actually I wonder if the poster who said food waste was confusing it with wasted food?

I use odds and ends like turning potato peelings into oven baked crisps, making stock/soup from chicken carcass and extraneous bits, but I'm not going to start eating satsuma peel or crunching on a bone...

And reusable nappies are a big investment. When DD grew out of the biggest size we had but was nearly ready to start potty training I wasn't about to buy a whole load to last a month or so...

And if you can't afford the cash upfront at all, of course they aren't going to be within your budget.

And lol walk to your local co-op? Sure, I'll just go miles along a roads with a baby in a buggy to buy food I can't afford to throw away packaging in their bin because it's somehow better than mine o.O

OP well done for being so much better than anyone else.

I think it would be a terrible idea. We've all of us on the street noticed more rats around since we moved to fortnightly collections and most of us have taken to dumping chicken/fish carcasses in public bins as our waste disposal service is so inadequate - no bins, just bags, no separate food waste collection and we can't compost as we don't have gardens. Two weeks is far too long to have chicken bones etc sat next to our doors in bags in our tiny yards and a month would be ridiculous.

Large communal bins are not practical in lots of areas of the UK. Our Cities have not been built to accommodate these. The only place they could go anywhere near me, is actually on the road. Other cities who do this plan in a space for them to go.

t wouldn't work for me because ..." - you'd have to find solutions i.e. use reusable nappies

But I don't WANT to, is the point, and I don't see why I should. Especially since there is no evidence that reusables are more eco friendly when you factor in the water and power for washing and drying them. Also I simply couldn't manage reusables.
And again, have no desire to anyway!