Won't give me another wheelie bin...

[ThisLittleKitty]

Bins here are collected weekly. EVERY Sunday without fail my wheelie bin is full. (There collected Thursday) several times local cats (I believe) have managed to get the bags out the wheelie bin as they are open with the bags on top because they are over flowing. Anyway these cats will rip out all my rubbish so the garden will be covered. I called the council and asked for another wheelie bin as several neighbours have more than one of the same colour top bins. I was told I wasn't allowed another one and the ones the neighbours had were "obviously stolen!" Aibu to not see why I can't have another one. And before any one suggests I recycle more I do I recycle everything that can be and I have no car to go to a tip.

Not at work today (yay for half term) so I’m wearing the jeans and jumper I wore yesterday with clean underwear and t-shirt. If I was going to work then I would probably be wearing one of the skirts or pairs of trousers I wore last week with a clean top. I take off the skirt/trousers when I get it, hang them up to air and put them in the wardrobe the next day.

I don’t know why I’m bothering though...the OP is not interested in the environment or indeed, saving her own money. She is either too ignorant or too selfish to consider anyone (not even her children) other than herself. She is perfect as she is and will not change her ways..... the worst thing she will be bringing up her children to be just as self important and selfish......

I always wear the same jeans for dog walking, and can't remember the last time I washed them. They don't smell - even if they did the dogs wouldn't care. It would be a waste of electricity and water to wash them every day.
They get muddy but the dried mud brushes off easily.

People do need to remember that everywhere is different wrt what bins and collections the council provides

Ours is:
1 black bin for general unrecyclable waste, food waste, nappies etc (180l or 195l - if needed for extra medical waste)
1 blue lid bin for cardboard and plastic (240l)
1 black box for paper, metal and glass.
1 green garden waste bin (costs £44 a year) - strictly no food waste to be added.

All on fortnightly collections (soon to be 3 weekly I understand)

Tbh I think if everyone took of all the plastic waste at the supermarket and left it behind every shop, the supermarket stores would soon reduce it as it would cost them to dispose of the waste. Help reducing waste would have an impact on council tax

Where I live if you say your bin has been stolen you have to report it to the police for a crime reference. I don't understand how you can fill a bin in a few days. We are a family of 5 on fortnightly collection and the only time they are properly full is Christmas, and I think that's mainly due to the bank holiday delays in collection.

Stupid question but how can you just leave plastic waste behind at the supermarket? Where are you supposed to put it?

Take it to the customer service desk and say politely "I don't need this thanks".

tetra packs can be pushed in at the sides and folded flat

My council won't take tetra packs in the recycling

It's an acquaintance of hers so she pointed it out when we saw her again.

Ooh OP, you and your mum sound like treasures.

It's worth checking regularly on your local council's website as to what they do take, because ours recycles loads more than it did a few years ago.

Tetrapacks are a recent new addition, as are aerosols and there are even a couple of sites in the city that take coffee cups for recycling, so I keep my used ones in a box in the car boot and drop them off when I am passing (I never use Costa so would feel cheeky taking all my Greggs, McDonalds etc coffee cups in there for recycling, even though they say they take everyones).

In one of the areas I live it’s
As many recycle (cardboard and plastic bottles) as you can use
1tiny box for paper and tins
1 standard general waste wheelie bin that will not be collected of the lid is open
Garden waste if you want to pay for it.

If you buy another bin they won’t empty it houses allowed extra bins (only medical needs) are on a list if your not on it they won’t empty.
We have two weekly collections.

The other area it’s one large general waste which you have to track a very long hilly walk to get to.

I have in excess of 20 people resident in both my houses with a combo of family and staff and the more rural area the one bin a treck away serves 3 houses.
I have one extra general waste bin in the none rurel area which is a medical needs bin.

Yes we fill them but no they are never over flowing and if any additional rubbish is generated which is rare we suck it up and go and do a tip run because that’s the punishment for over generating waste.

Lidl has a huge bin at the packing area where you can leave excess packaging - I think aldi does too. It's a common thing in some countries to leave packaging at the shop, especially in places where you are charged for how much rubbish you throw away.

My NY resolution was to reduce my waste, so I bought a reusable coffee cup (I've only bought take away coffee three times this year) and most places are happy to use it.
Even where coffee cups are recycled the problem is the resulting mush they are recycled into is no use for anything. Plus the recycling itself uses a lot of energy. It's the same with tetra packs.
I recommend the reusable cup. Mine is from Amazon and is made of rice bran, so can be composted itself in the end.

Sadly our council don't collect food waste separately and I can't have a compost heap in my small garden (too small plus open onto the village green).

They also don't take glass so I have to keep that in a bag and put it in the car to take to the bottle bank. And I try to buy more stuff in glass than plastic as recycling glass makes a lot more sense than plastic.

I've reduced my supermarket shopping by ordering a veg box fortnightly, no plastic at all. And using the local butcher whenever I can.

Op you worry wayyy too much about what people think of you. Your main concerns here are someone seeing you wearing the same clothes twice in a row and a bit of rubbish in the garden - yet you remain unconcerned about your carbon footprint. Most of us used to do what you do maybe 5-10 years ago but thankfully have made an effort to change in order to protect our beautiful planet for future generations.

Do you think your children will thank you more for daily clothes changes and no 'stinky food bin' in the kitchen - or contributing to protecting the environment?

To be fair I think part of the problem for you is that your council seem to be wayyy behind too which is shocking, but believe me, change will come eventually, They will have no choice. It would be good to start to prepare for that.

Your council are very lax compared to most. We get three large wheelie bins and a small glass bin, all collected fortnightly. One is for non recyclable waste - if they spot anything in there that shouldn't be then they won't empty; do it again and you are fined. Lid must be closed fully and they will not take separate black bags. 2nd bin is for food and garden waste, you can put chip wrappers/pizza boxes and stuff in too. We also have a compost bin so we don't use this wheelie bin that much. Finally our paper, plastic, card etc bin which is the one that fills up first.

Hopefully your council will catch up soon and everyone in your area will have to start recycling responsibly.

We recycle all we can. Lots of good ideas on this thread so thanks all for taking the time and effort to post ideas and solutions.

OP, you really are quite hilarious. But at the same time your attitude and negative impact on the environment is quite alarming. You're somewhere between a dinosaur and a head in the sand ostrich.

The answer to your problem of a large amount of waste is to reduce it, not to obtain ever more receptacles to dispose of it.

But you're not listening.

YABVU OP. And selfish. And ignorant I'm afraid.

This thread is chock full of good advice of how you could reduce the rubbish that you send to landfill. Also entirely sensible suggestions about reducing the amount of washing. But it is like talking to a brick wall. You are continually responding defensively or ignoring the advice given, or coming up with ridiculous anecdotes about snobby comments from your mum to justify your behaviour.

Throughout your posts your lack of any interest in the environmental impact of your lazy and selfish behaviour shines through. You honestly don't care do you? And you are teaching your children the same approach.

Up your game OP. Review the advice on this thread and change your behaviour. Reading your responses to the excellent advice here, your self justification and the fact that you really don't care has made me really angry. Selfish, selfish,selfish.

Poffley - give it to customer services or the cashier

I love it that the OP thought the Council would take her empty cardboard cornflakes box, pop it on a lorry, and drive it back to Kellogs for them to use again.

My goodness! As I don't want to be rude I will just say, on behalf of planet Earth, please OP get a grip and start showing some responsibility for yourself and your children. You have had many excellent suggestions here.

BarbaraofSevillle - that's a brilliant lot of new additions! We've had aerosols and brown envelopes added at least 😊

It may have been mentioned before and I’ve missed it, but have you never had a sticker of shame slapped on your bin op?

We have to put our bins kerbside here and I was mortified when someone had popped some food waste in my bin when it was out on the kerb for collection (it seems common practice where I live to use other people’s bins if they’re out) and I got a bright yellow sticker slapped on my bin.

How I’m earth do you have that many black bags! We are a family of five and put one black bag out every other week!

Your trousers must wear out very quickly (especially the DCs trousers) if washed after every wear.

Seriously?! We're a family of five, with fortnightly refuse collection, and fortnightly recycling collection (food waste is collected every week) and we don't fill a wheelie bin (we did at Christmas admittedly, but that was due to the council not coming to empty the wheelie for 4, yes 4 weeks because of snow and then skipping our collection) Do you just chuck everything in your wheelie bin? I can't get my head round your bin being full with weekly refuse collections.