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.

Yes, but not everyone can afford to buy in bulk. Not everyone has a car so they can drive to the supermarket to dispose of excess packaging.,,,

*In some larger cities (mainly abroad) they have shops you can buy in bulk straight into reuse-able containers. I really wish this would catch on a bit more, you take your cotton bags to the shop, fill it with as much or little flour/oats/pasta etc that you need and no need for any other packaging. People use mason jars for liquids too.

I think it's a two way street, manufacturers and shops have to start being accountable and providing low packaging ideas and consumers have to show they are willing to buy them and recycle what they do need.

It will work for some people but not for others, cloth nappies do save landfill but not everyone can manage to do that which is fine. But if for example nurseries started using them (as some do) it would have a big impact.*

I totally agree, it needs change from both sides. I use re-usuable jars and have a local food co-op and it works really well :)

The sacks for the nappy disposal scheme work well here. They're not like the thinner recycling bags that we have here as they're very thick and strong. It's not a scheme that's advertised, I found out about it on the council website. You only use them every other week - on black bin week they just go in the black bin. They had to offer something with the fortnightly collections and new smaller capacity bins.

Everyone complained about the reduced collections and smaller bins before they came in, but I've heard no complaints since the changes. We do have weekly recycling collections though because they're trying to reduce landfill and increase recycling, and most people wouldn't have room to store all the recycling bags.

Well I'm busy and use ocado. They just bring it round packaged however. They need to be forced to reduce their packaging, not me

I agree that there's far too much packaging in the first place though.

Yes, but not everyone can afford to buy in bulk. Not everyone has a car so they can drive to the supermarket to dispose of excess packaging.,,,

I walk to my local shop, its for that very reason that I do dispose of the excess packaging before I walk home!

'There used to be shops in Britain where you could buy stuff directly using containers you could bring from home, or clear plastic bags. They sold themselves in terms of cheapness. As people got richer, they no longer had enough trade.'

We have a shop like that near me. It's terrific and very good value. Only problem is it takes forever to do the shopping - far quicker to whizz round the supermarket grabbing pre-filled packs.

You pay here for bulky waste collection, and I have noticed more fly tipping.

We have recycling weekly and non-recycling every fortnight. To be honest I'd be fine if they changed the non-recycling to every three weeks as ours is rarely more than half full. We are lucky though as our council take lots of recycling for us- batteries, clothing, old shoes, small electrical items etc are collected as well as paper, glass, tins, food waste, plastic. I empty the recycling section of our bins much more frequently than the non-recyclables.

It's milk cartons that fill our blue bin the quickest. What are we meant to do instead? Oh and I'm not going to have the local milkman deliver in glass bottles as my neighbours empties regularly end up being smashed on the pavement/my car by some lovely individuals during the night utter gits who I hope catch something itchy

You can hate whatever you want. And I can be disgusted by your attitude,AND tell you. And make no apology for it

I agree,..and I also agree with your post about the shitty attitude

It's milk cartons that fill our blue bin the quickest. What are we meant to do instead?

If you crush down milk cartons you can fit hundreds in a blue bin. If you thrown them in uncrushed, they take up lots of room.

YABU. You can't compost all your food waste. We had maggots in our bin over summer, with fortnightly collections. What you propose would have serious public health implications.

Gottagetmoving I do that already

Tbh I think it would be easier/cheaper to just cut out the middle man and get a dairy cow of my own

We are severely struggling with a 3 weekly collection! We recycle what we can, recycle food waste but there's not much of that, and have a dog and a child in nappies. Our bin is bursting and if they added on an extra week I think a lot of people would struggle and there would be a massive increase in fly tipping!

We dont have a food waste collection. Only fortnightly recycling bin and waste bin. My incontinence stuff fills up the waste bin.

we have no food waste collection here.
I recycle and compost, and feed lots to the chickens, but when I cook a chicken, the carcass goes in a bag in the bin.
Last summer our bin was crawling with maggots as a chicken carcass didn't get collected for 10 days.
Apart from that our bin is often nearly empty, rarely more than half full. But it is pretty smelly already after 2 weeks in summer, can't imagine what it would be like after 4 weeks. We have to walk past it to go in and out yuck.

We have bags of plastic and recycling in our garage waiting for the 2 week collection. If we didn't have a garage, as many houses don't, where would I put it? In my kitchen? 4 weeks worth????
Can't put it out as cats and foxes rip the bags open, even though they just have plastic in.

Those of you who struggle with milk cartons, look up Jug-it. I think they sell them in Sainsbury's.

Our food bins are great. I was sure the foxes would get into them but they don't. We have fortnightly collection but I don't always put my bins out. Monthly would be fine for me. When my children were younger I would have struggled.

OP not everyone is like you, you are aware of that aren't you? It all seems ill thought out, no sense of other people's realities.

Utterly unreasonable. But gave me a laugh, so thanks!

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.

Those with loads of nappies, this is what reusable nappies are for. We live in a flat, frankly nappies would stink in here. So washable amazing, just washed extra 2 lids a week and Hung on rack overnight. That was two in nappies at once. Saves a fortune also

Also I do agree most people could do more. We personally couldn't compost as in flat but a huge % in the uk could. We chose to use reusable nappies instead to reduce our waste.
Lots of people also buy stuff enormously overpackaged ie cheese pre chopped into individual wrapped pieces instead of just one block. Or mini cakes all pre wrapped instead of one.