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 monthly might be going a bit far. We manage fine with fortnightly wheelie collections (family of four) whereas some other bins belonging to families of the same size in our street are always overflowing on bin day.

We could probably just about manage with a four-weekly collection but it would be difficult at Christmas time, for example. I think people would want plus-size wheelie bins if there were monthly collections, and it would be smelly in the summer. In our area, people have the option of having a smaller wheelie bin if they don't produce much rubbish.

Why is it a FAB idea? I get the fact that it may not inconvenience you as much as it would at least 90% of the rest of us, but what exactly makes it Fab?
Don't be ridiculous.

So what would happen to all the bin men up and down the country?? That would be a lot of jobs not needed if it only went to monthly collection.

Not every family is the same as yours. That would be heaven for rats!

What is LBC?

I am still outraged by the fortnightly bin collection.

Your post is very 'let them eat cake' OP.

Again, I presume you don't live in a flat with a convenience store as your only (cheap) access to food?

We live on a private road and since the fortnightly collections were introduced we have had fly tipping increase out of of the stratosphere. At least weekly. The council does not give a shit because it is a private road. (So they say).

The residents have had to club together to get a private firm to deal with it. I am talking general household rubbish.

Yes! Just what I want with 2 children under 1 in nappies and 2 cats using cat litter

I agree with Running too. Communal on-street facilities are the way forward.

If you don't have a garden then a weekly food collection pickup is available
Not where I live, it isn't. We have no car, we live rurally so public transport is not that fabulous. The local tip is not accessible by public transport so we cannot easily recycle electrical items, furniture etc, & the council charge to collect them. There are few (& recently badly reduced) recycling facilities in town. Not everyone can afford / has the option to buy only fresh groceries without plastic packaging, some of us are stuck with the local supermarket.

I would worry about an increase in fly tipping and I would definitely want a separate collection for food waste. I don't like the idea of month old food waste festering in the bin.

LBC is a talk back radio station. I love it because it doesn't have a single 'view' each individual presenter has their own worked view & style & is allowed to present that.

OP. How 'fab' it works for you. It wouldn't for the vast majority of the people in this country.

I do find people posting self congratulatory crap somewhat tedious.

It's a ridiculous idea unless adequate recycling facilities are available.

Family of four + dog. We recycle pretty much everything but have 4 boxes for two weeks - we need double that to recycle everything. We don't even get a wheelie bin here just a small back bin.

At the minute we send recycling over to mil as she lives by herself and it gets collected from there, same with rubbish if we are struggling for space. Neighbours just lob it in commercial bins behind some nearby apps which as a result is overflowing all of the time.

The queues for the tip at the weekend are ridiculous, an hour on a bad day.

Mine are out of nappies now but with twins I needed a bin just for nappies every two weeks.

Here's a FAB idea

Instead of placing the onus on the householder to cart their rubbish to communal on-street facilities (where, exactly, would these go in our over-populated little island?) how about we require the supermarkets and food producers to reduce their packaging? Or provide the same kind of recycling facilities at their stores as they have in other countries?

Silly idea. Just encourages dumping!

We did used to walk to the recycling points in town with a lot of our extras - cartons, any paper that wouldn't fit into the one measly bag we're given. Etc. But now the carton bank is gone & there is no paper recycling point in town at all. Nearest one is several miles away. Kerb collection is fortnightly... Lucky for those who have a polluting car & can drive their rubbish elsewhere. We don't.

I take it you don't have an 11 year old still in nappies because if you did you wouldn't monthly bin collections are a good idea.
I think pads make up at least 75% of our refuse and even with scraping in the toilet, the bin stinks after a week.

Why can't you choose and pay accordingly? I think you can here (Sweden). You choose weekly or fortnightly collections (or whatever the system is, I don't need to know because I live in a rented flat) and pay an adjusted fee.

OP you are coming across quite smug.

What about the elderly/disabled/infirm, how can they 'walk a bit further with their rubbish'?

Fortnightly here. We would struggle with monthly due to nappies, dog and rabbits. The bin is nearly always full by bin day. Interestingly the neighbours whose bins overflow now do not put recycling out.

Wouldn't work well for us at all.

We have a black wheelie bin for general waste, including food waste, no separate food waste collection here. A blue wheelie bin for all recyclable waste except glass. A green box for glass. A green wheelie bin for garden waste that we have to pay extra for. Fortnightly collection at the minute.

We've 5 people in our house, including a baby in nappies. Everything we can recycle goes in the recycle bin. We were managing with fortnightly collections before the baby arrived, but the extra nappies have pushed us to the point where we're usually ending up with at least one extra bin bags that won't fit in the general waste bin at the end of the fortnight. Our recycling gets collected tomorrow, and we've got 3 extra bags of recycling to put out next to the bin (fortunately, they will take extra recycling).

Even if we did manage to increase the amount we recycle and cut down the black bin waste, we'd still have all the nappies stinking the bin out - that's smelly enough after 2 weeks in the winter, never mind 4 weeks in the summer.

Our area still do weekly collections, but will only collect a maximum of 3 bin bags per house - fine for our family of 5 but larger households might struggle. We have extra rubbish bags waiting to be taken to the tip because of Christmas/ decluttering but not allowed to put out more than 3 bags otherwise they'll leave them behind... regardless of size One of our bin bags each week is nappies (use a separate, outdoor bin for them) I'd struggle with fortnightly, never mind monthly.

Bully for you op.

Do you know what would be FAB for me - weekly bin collections

I so wish we had weekly food waste collection.

Ours is monthly in the winter [vom].