...to think the bin collections are getting 'jobsworth'

[MrsMuddlePluck]

Put my bins out yesterday, including 4 tied black bags that I forgot to put out last week, that wouldn't fit in my wheelie bin. Bin collection has been and the bags have been left for dogs etc to dig into. The sacks had food waste in them so made a bit of a mess. Their reason, when I complained, is that if it doesn't fit in the wheelie bin, they wont take it and I should take it to the local dump [which is hell to get to now due to reduced times and huge queues.]. They only needed to chuck the bags in the back of the van?

AIBU to expect bin men to collect bags of household waste? Its what I pay my council tax for.

Government is trying to change behaviour - making us use and waste less and recycle more - as it's more environmentally friendly.

They charge councils landfill taxes, so the more that goes to landfill the more a council has to pay. On the flip side, the more recycling that's collected, the more money is made from that to offset the cost of landfill.

Different councils have different policies to encourage residents to recycle more and waste less - so mine has invested more at the front end to collect green bins of dry recycling every fortnight plus green bags for garden waste and little bins for food waste every week so that it can go straight to composters. They also collect textiles from our house too.

Lots of bin men aren't allowed to collect extra bags beside bins because the thinking goes, it just encourages people to keep putting them out and recycle less. Also, bin rounds are designed to pick up x number of bins giving an average load. If everyone put out extra bags, the lorries would be full quicker and mean more trips back to the landfill site, making the bin men's days longer and costing more in time, petrol and air pollution.

Crews won't pick up up bins with open lifs either because the lids need to be closed when they're fitted to the lifts on the back of the truck, otherwise they can flap open and spill rubbish on to the road and street - the binmen then get shouted at for leaving the roads in a mess. I feel sorry for the poor sods, they can't win.

The council gave us a bigger size bin as large family. We recycle as much as possible. .

When the bin is full however they won't empty it as it's too heavy----
for the lorry. . .
So who designs a big bin the lorry can't lift??

It's ridiculous. I recycle everything I possibly can and spend ages faffing about sorting it into many different bags and boxes etc and our wheelie bin is still over full by the time it's collected. Which is never the day it should be collected.

No skips for black bags here. No general waste skips at all. Plastic, wood, cardboard, small electrical, metal, garden waste, food waste etc. Everything is sorted.

Re disposable nappies, here in Vale of Glamorgan you can ask for a yellow bin (it's not huge) to put nappies in and they collect weekly with the recycling.

Re disposable nappies, here in Vale of Glamorgan you can ask for a yellow bin (it's not huge) to put nappies in and they collect weekly with the recycling.

People who use the word "jobsworth" as a way to disparage someone on minimum wage who will not make an exception for their personal sense of entitlement piss me off.

Follow the rules like everyone else. Why should someone risk getting the sack because you couldn't be arsed to rememeber to put your own bins out?

Where I live we have weekly recycling collections and then one week they collect general waste and the next they collect food/garden waste. It works really well. There are four of us in the house and even when we had a child in nappies the black bin was never more than three quarters full. No issues with rats or bad smells either.

BUT I think the reason it works is because almost everything is collected in the recycling - glass, plastic, batteries, tin foil, Tetra Pak, all of it goes in the recycling.

You need to buy less, use less, waste less. Hard, but that's the only way in a crowded country. Our council also won't take black bags. You have to spend your time queuing for the tip if you have too much.

Unless you are in central London where the signs indicate a daily rubbish collection and there's no sign of recycling.

We have fortnightly collections. They came on tuesday and missed my bin which is full of 2 weeks worth of rubbish. Called them up, street was marked as complete and it'll take 48 hours for it to be collected. Come friday, still not been emptied, call them again and they had a cheek to say it wasnt out for collection, when it bloody was.

Meanwhile, I got another small bag to go in but it wont fit.

Hedda how do you know where the op lives?

I'm so grateful our local council don't do this. We have the same size bin as our neighbour's with 2 people in their house. There's 7 of us. We regularly put extra bags by the side of the bin and they are always collected, no problem. We have weekly collections for general waste and fortnightly for recycling. It all works well.

We only got wheelie bins for our general rubbish a few years ago. I was so relieved - we used to have to put bags out which meant having to time it to when the bin men were coming to avoid cats getting to the bags, and of course people who worked would put them out early meaning there was rubbish everywhere by the time the binmen came.

I can never buy them as the only shop that sells them around here is a little corner shop that is only open a couple of hours a day when I'm at work.

A corner shop that's only open for two hours during the day?

It was your fault that you forgot to put the bin out. It happens but there are consequences to this. A trip to the tip, the long queues, the inconvenience are the consequences.

When disposing of waste do not just tie at the top and put into the bin. Release the air and you get a more compact bag. Compress your waste.

I've forgotten my recycling bin and then had to go to the recycling centre (this is worse in my opinion as it takes much more time). However, it was my fault so I have to deal with it.

YABU.

YANBU.

These draconian rules will only encourage fly tipping, it's happening in my street already. Then there will be rats & it will spark a public health crisis. I'm not being over dramatic here, that really will happen 😞

Our council distribute leaflets about their collections - what you can put in which bin, and collection days. It states very clearly that they won't collect anything other than the contents of the bin itself. they won't take extra refuse sacks.

We are a family of three and have bins for garden waste, cardboard and bottles (glass and plastic) and tins. We also have a sack for paper. We also have a compost heap. As a result our bin is never full when it is collected every fortnight.

We have the same problem. I asked to pay for a bigger bin due to nappies/family and was turned down. They said they could come and do a check of my rubbish by emptying it all on the street to make sure it was "acceptable" rubbish and then I could appeal. But I didn't like the idea of my rubbish all being left to blow away down the street and rummaged through in front of everyone. Instead we end up keeping a lot of rubbish in the house and the whole place stinks. I'm slowly coming round to the idea of letting them rummage! I know there's nothing in there that shouldn't be. My recycling bin is also full, and I take clothes and bottles to the big bins round the corner. It just feels a bit invasive and gross!

We've also had problems with bin men refusing to open our gate to collect the bin. So we missed collections. When we put the bin on the pavement so they didn't need to open the gate we got letters from the council complaining we had partially blocked the path!! It's ridiculous.

I would pay extra for them to take my rubbish away. I just can't have bags of smelly nappies in the height of summer hanging around my house. It's disgusting.

Oh and our local tip has been closed for 7 weeks this summer while they carry out some "essential repairs".

How does collecting an extra bin bag once in a while cause an issue. They are there. They have the lorry. Instead, they come out and collect the bin full. Then we're supposed to drive to the dump with any extra. How does that help the carbon footprint?

Because if they do it for one household, another will ask, and another and it will snowball. That would quadruple the amount of time they'd have to be out on a run instead of, say, people taking responsibility for their own rubbish and disposing of it themselves when they've messed up?

I just can't have bags of smelly nappies in the height of summer hanging around my house. It's disgusting

If you flick the contents of the nappy down the loo before bagging they smell way less.

We have fortnightly collections alternating recycling and garden and then general waste. I don't bother paying extra for garden collection as I don't do enough to warrant and happy to go to the tip. You can have as many recycling bins emptied as you want, and one general waste bin

That's a good idea Jacques. I'd never thought of that. Thanks. Anything is worth a try!

I've got those nappy bins with the bags which are supposed to trap the smell but they clearly don't work at all!!

Rubbish should be weighed and people charged for what they dispose of on a per kg basus. If you want all our council tax to go on bins rather that elder care or children's services fine, but I dont. Bet you'd not be volunteering your local area for a new landfill site to put it in either.

Round here people have extra wheelie bins and they get emptied. I think they ring and say their bin is lost to get another because the council don't allow two bins. Bin men just empty all bins that are put out though. Sometimes I put rubbish in the extra bin the neighbours have as they don't fill both up to the brim.

I understand your frustration OP. My general waste bin is now collected every 3 weeks and the only tip in our town has been closed.