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.

I think the consensus is on this idea being totally rubbish.

We still have weekly but only have a half sized wheels bin. I compost and recycle and we avoid packaging but our bin is still full most weeks.

The borough we last lived in had food recycling and it was utterly repugnant - I don't think I could be persuaded to have one of those minging food caddys again. Eurgh.

Our bin collections are every three weeks. One week it's paper, the next it's plastic and glass and the third is general waste. There is a food and garden waste bin that is emptied every week. It's been going about six months, and I have to say, isn't too bad. We are 3.5 adults, so not too many of us, but we do have three dogs, two cats, hens and horses at home, who generate a fair bit of rubbish too (feed sacks, tins, bedding wrappers..) Each bin is definitely ready for emptying when it's it's turn. If you have more than five in your household you are allowed a bigger bin. Most people do seem to be coping, as in this thread, it's those with nappies that struggle. A few local firms do extra bin rounds if you pay them.

I massively agree that junk mail and supermarket packaging must be reduced too.

My MIL has a colostomy & lives in a flat. The communal bins cant accommodate the waste she produces & she had complaints. So every single day she takes a walk with her very personal rubbish to find a bin. Fortnightly collection hasnt worked for her.

It's not the fault of the people that you can't even buy fruit and vegetables without a ridiculous amount of plastic packaging.

The packaging is designed to make the fruit veg last longer, reducing food waste and methane emissions.

Robin surely your MIL's borough must have a medical waste removal service?

Not that theyve ever told her about. Shes had it for 15 years now. Any idea how Id find it for her?

The place I read was doing this still offered weekly nappy and food waste collections. So with recycling and assuming no other medical waste - what is filling up all these bins?

Plenty of fruit and veg is sold loose, even in aldi - and the packaging for it still isn't that much.

As for food waste - if it is more than peelings, tea bags and eggshells, that is serious waste. Serve less.

robin your poor MIL. Contact your council. We have a couple of people on our road who have been given a yellow bin which gets collected weekly, separately from the normal collection.

No nappy or medical waste collections where I am special, hence why the council allocated us an extra bin. We do recycle and our recycling bins are full to bursting every fortnight but the medical waste means the half sized general waste bin which is emptied once a
Fortnight wasn't big enough.

The fact posters are responding to being gently corrected on their casual ableism and lack of awareness with such hostility is disturbing

The fact that you didn't notice I was agreeing with you is quite disturbing

Those with cats, you do know you can get flushable cat little right? Just scoop any mess and flush.

Flushable litter isn't always as flushable as it ought to be and has been known to cUse blockages. Plus you have to get it through the house to the toilet (if there's no downstairs toilet or no space to put the tray in the toilet).

A good idea in theory...

Shocked about flushabout cat litter. Where i used to live had a massive problem in drains (made news) due to items other than toilet paper going down.

Flushable cat little is just paper. I tried it in water and is dissolved very quickly. Same as toilet paper. Nothing like wet wipes etc.
My parents use, cat litter tray is kept in bathroom and so toilet right there

I thought that nothing except toilet paper and human waste should go down the toilet. Lots of things are advertised as flushable but doesn't mean it is a good idea to flush them - moist toilet wipes, disposable flushable toilet brushes etc.

But that's because wipes etc don't dissolve and can wrap around plumbing and clog. Something in 1000s tiny pieces that goes slushy like shreddies when in water won't. You only scoop the poo part in and whatever little stuck not pouring whole box down at once

Stupid idea. What if you ever decide to have a party or have people to stay?

I had twins who did not sleep and was exhausted (two babies can mean you get nearly no sleep at all). If someone else had washed nappies for me I would have recycled, but I was exhausted. I couldn't fit all the nappies in our black bin with a two weekly collection. A friend used to drive shitty nappies in a bag to her house to put in her bin for me. Horrible.

Irregular bin collections don't work for everyone.

Its easy now my kids are older btw. Really easy.

I'm sure plenty of other people have it hard too, but I was really so tired that a good day meant I didn't slur my words or trip over my own feet. The nappies were the final indignation. The council refused to provide a bigger bin, naturally. They had their targets to think of.

It's naive to think if bins are collected less frequently then we will all be living in a naiice organic world dancing around our compost heap.

Councils who have reduced frequency of bin collections have found other problems- a big increase in fly tipping, and increased rat populations as people leave plastic bags outside near already full bins.
People will also use sinks and toilets to dispose of stuff if they can't bin it- sanitary towels, cooking oil etc. This is also damaging to the environment.

Just to add most people in Germany have a weekly grey bin collection- yet they recycle more than we do in the UK.

we have a reasonable-ish recycling collection (fortnightly) in they take most things other than glass and tetras. but we do have a recycling centre down the road so that's not a biggie for us

our garden bin though is just for garden waste (not food) i did try keeping peelings in a compost bin - not for us our garden is like a stamp - but for my FIL. but at one point we were infested with fruit flies, and then he gave up his allotment so that became a no-go

so if anyone lives in North Leeds and wants compostables and is willing to come and get it once a week, i'll start it up again

we may just cope with a monthly collection but we only have one child, no nappies and we'd need a bigger bin. are we getting them or are we suppose to shoe horn it all in the regular ones?

Newcastle council have started the communal bins in some areas and removed the wheelie bins. From what i read on facebook people were saying they wont be emptied as quickly as they are in Europe and were worried about them being used by takeaways or by people dumping large household items in them instead of paying for a bulky collection. Not sure how it's going as it was the back end of last year they started the pilot scheme

Mindtrope - exactly