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.

I could get wheelie bin locks but it wouldn't work as then I would only be able to fill to the top so the lid can close when I can normally fit another 2 bags in (but lid doesn't close)

Well only if you aren’t going to bother cutting down your waste!

Family of 3 with 2 house cats, fortnightly collections, small sized bin barely half full by collection day unless something specific has cropped up (Christmas, renovation etc). Could you buy foods with less packaging as well as using your food recycling bin? That could hugely reduce the amount of waste you're producing.

Ok so not even nappies in the bin. What actually goes in your household bin that is not glass bottles/jars, paper/cardboard, plastic, tin/cans or food?

I have a long padlock through bin lid to secure it,keep it locked and no one else can fill it up
I once caught someone skulking and going through the wheelie bin,literally through content

I'm not sure if they are all mine like I said there was one that I know wasn't mine the other day as the bag was blue and mine are black but don't know how often this is done as it's the first time I've seen it. Neighbours aren't very friendly here, no one speaks to anyone.

OP YABVVU

There's no way your bin is filling in less than 4 days just because your DD is fussy and leaves her dinner. The entire contents of my kitchen cupboards the day after a big shop wouldn't fill a wheely bin (packaging and all) so leftovers from a few days' meals is not why you are running out of room, though starting to compost them instead of binning them is never a bad habit to start.

You need to look at what your rubbish is made up of and figure out if there is a better way to dispose of it. Even ripped and stained clothes can be taken to a charity for them to sell to the ragman (make sure it's clearly labelled as rags to help the volunteers!) which is better than just binning it. I keep all damaged/worn out clothes, sheets and bedding - it gets washed, bagged up with labels and I donate it to the local animal shelter - any damaged clothing goes straight into the pile for the ragman and the old sheets/bedding either get used in the shelter or go into the ragman collection, depending on their level of need.

I have a 120 litre general waste bin, a 240litre red general recycling bin and a green box for glass. The council also provides brown bins for garden waste and food waste caddies/compost units that you can apply for but, as we live in a terrace with no garden, we don't qualify for them. In my town general waste gets collected weekly and recycling gets collected fortnightly.

My recycling bin is often full within a week so DD gets the next best thing to a trampoline in our yard, a regular chance to bounce on the recycling to crush it down but our general waste bin is rarely more than half full and that's mostly from changing the cats' litter trays the night before bin collections... if it wasn't for the fact I don't want rubbish hanging around for any longer than necessary and that used cat litter would stink the place out I could probably get away with only putting my bin out once every 3/4 weeks.

I don't understand how you have so much rubbish.

My next door neighbours (family of 6) until recently had 2 kids in nappies, their bins were overflowing but we only have a fortnightly collection. I cannot fathom how you can fill a bin to overflowing on a weekly basis.

That said, why don't you take the excess bags to the local tip? Most people only live 2-3 miles from their nearest council refuse site. I could never fathom why my neighbours despite having 2 cars never did this and just left their bags to be ripped open by cats or foxes.

There’s no way you are recycling properly if you can’t fit all your rubbish in a wheelie bin with weekly collection. We are a family of 4 (more often than not there are actually 5) with 4 dogs and manage with monthly black bin collection.

Family of 3 + cat here. Fortnightly collections of household waste but weekly recycling and food waste. We forgot it was bins last Friday but didn’t care as there wasn’t much in there. You are obviously not recycling properly.

What the hell do you throw away?!
We produce 1 bag of rubbish per week (if that).

I think you need to look at what is coming into your house and leaving as rubbish.

Our bin goes out 4 weekly and is barely full.

I don't drive so can't tKe the bags. I have a baby in a pram where am i suppose to put a load of rubbish bags. I'm sure people on the bus wouldn't like me getting on with a load of stinky bags of rubbish.

Come on OP you still haven't said what/how you recycle. You can't be filling a bin that quickly if you recycle card, paper, plastics, glass and tins. Our Council will also take fabrics.

I do recycle but the kids toys (the empty boxes) and household items that come in large boxes usually fills the recycle bin quickly.

My local council also don't allow bin bags at the tip. If you take one down you have to open it and sort it with the people that work there. It's recycle or drown in rubbish. Everyone copes with that despite the two bag a fortnight limit (admittedly with a lot of complaining) so I don't really see why you can't manage OP unless you aren't recycling in which case you need to take a long look at yourself really.

So when the recycling bins are full you put the rest in the normal bin? How often do you buy toys/household items?

Kitty What is in the rubbish bags?

You apparently recycle so all paper/cardboard/plastic/tetrapack/aluminium and recyclable metals/glass is accounted for.

You are going to start using a food waste recycling so no food will be in the bins.

You have a garden waste bin for any garden waste.

That leaves black plastics, non-recyclable metals, nappies and plastic films that can't be recycled ... there's no way you can bring enough of that into your house in a week to fill a bin to overflowing every week, so there must be other things you're putting in there so either reduce the stuff coming into your house or ensure the rubbish is appropriately sorted into the correct bin.

I would assume neighbours might be putting bags in your bin.

Buy bin locks.
Separate your food waste properly
Separate your recycled waste properly
Crush all bottles/cans/boxes to minimise space.

We are a family of 6. We've recently lost one of our bins as we didn't wants to pay the extra when they changed the compostable bin to a chargeable, garden only instead of food waste/compostable items such as shredded card and paper. Our garden wasn't big enough to justify the cost.

However we are fortunate enough that our council allow an extra, full size recycling bin for families of 5 or more.

If we don't sort and crush rubbish properly then we can overfill a bin in a fortnight (one week recycling waste, one week tip waste). Even then, we are able to squash the bins down a bit more with the judicious use of a broom so the lids close.

It's not impossible, but it does require a little bit of effort.

It seems like your problem is, aside from any potential bin dumpers, you don't want to make the effort when it's comes to doing your bit.

How many toys are you buying? It sounds like you're buying too much stuff. Christmas and birthdays it's normal to leave extra cardboard. The rest of the time you must be buying too much stuff.

You should be able to leave extra cardboard out.

What is the rest of your rubbish?

Ask for more recycling boxes if they get too full. I am sure that they will provide those.

Surely you don't have large boxes every week to be recycled? And even if you do, just flatten and fold them so they take up less room.

@ThisLittleKitty - are you buying your children new toys every week??

The only time we have extra like that is birthdays and Xmas. And then it's all recyclable card which gets flattened and out into extra council recycling bags. They take 2 extra bags per bin here normally. At Christmas they are generally very good and take however many recyclables are put out.

Broken toys get taken to the tip and stuff they've outgrown but is still in good condition it taken to the charity shop.

Have you got a commercial (?) bin at work? I take about 4 small carrier bags of rubbish to mine every week and casually suspiciously drop them in on my way into work. Or use a street bin to drop a small bag of rubbish into.

Our wheelie bins are very thin and only take 2 bin bags full and collected every 2 weeks. People just dump bin bags in the street

Kitty

You ARE opening the boxes and flattening them out before you put them in the recycling, right?

Flatten everything. Stand on plastic packets. Open and flatten all cardboard.

If you have cardboard left and the recycling bin is full, don’t put it in the normal bin, flatten it and put it in the next week (or give it to the kids or even their school for making stuff). Then your general waste bin won’t overflow.

I think it would be worth you getting a bin lock. It sounds like your neighbours are putting things in - don't give them the chance. Put your bags in and if you need to, remove the lock when it gets full so you can overflow. Without neighbours adding in though it probably won't.

It's amazing how much a food waste bin cuts down your black 'ordinary' waste bags. It amazed me. Small caddy which goes under sink lined with little biodegradable green bag. When that is full out it goes into bigger council provided caddy outside. Probably 2 a day.So nothing smelly sits round. We have 4 kids so council allowed us 2 of the outdoor caddies. (Cheers🙄)

I bought my own wheelie bin to accommodate all the 'green' bin bags of recycling which is how they do it here. Didn't like them sprawled in a big heap outside.

Buy your own 2nd wheelie bin (online and delivered) as an immediate solution. Start using your food waste bin. Think about how you can cut waste generally.