To resent having to go to the tip because our black bins are too small?

[GreenbackBoogy]

We are a family of two - no babies, no nappies. We recycle all paper, plastics, tins, bottles etc. Our black bin is not a full size one and is only collected fortnightly. It holds 1.5 black bags. AIBU to resent having to to go to the tip to drop off black rubbish, given the extortionate amount of council tax we pay?

Some of the catfood I buy online (Carny) is in 200g tins not 400g, which might be another option to save non recyclable sachets, which is something the manufacturers of these really need to get sorted.

I read the other day that Ella's Kitchen were looking into it, but in reality a tiny tiny percentage of these food sachets are recycled. Same problem as the coffee cups, mixed materials that are hard to separate.

We only have a small wheelie bin which is collected once a fortnight. By the time there’s 2 weeks worth of DD’s nappies in there (7 mo) there’s room for 1 black bag and a little more. Luckily our friendly neighbour lets us put a black bin bag in his otherwise we’d be down the tip twice a month.
I recycle everything I can but our council isn’t very good and doesn’t take much more than the basics (no yogurt pots - we take them to the supermarket’s facilities), though to their credit they do take food waste.

We can't recycle yoghurt pots but drinks cartons (and coffee cups from the cafe) can go to a collection point that is closer than the tip.
We also put more smaller bin bags in - we put in the bag from our kitchen bin (swing bin size) and then everything else goes in loose except the bathroom bin (which has one nappy a day from DD who isn't dry at night).

Everyone saying how many nappies they have, have you considered cloth? You don't need to boil wash! Honestly it's v easy

Tbh with twins washing the clothes they go through is a mission enough

@throwcushions DH does use cotton hankies but I think they're disgusting, sorry . If we happen to have a fire going I lob the tissues on there.

@rocketgirl22 2 things strike me from yours - the drinks cartons (tetrapaks etc) can be recycled at a lot of tips, have you checked yours? (Also some supermarkets, eg Asda, used to take them too).

also, re cat poo & cat litter - I use Cats Best Oko Plus (might be called something other than oko plus now), which is flushable - wee goes into solid balls & those & the poo can go down the loo (I know supposedly there is a Worm Thing, but it's a vanishingly small risk).

Then when the litter itself is reducing to dust - which takes weeks, to be fair - it can go in the garden bin, once all the actual waste is removed. (Well ours take "sawdust")

Wow. We recycle everything we can and we use both cloth and disposable nappies. I use a mix of reusable and disposable Sanpro and same for wipes.

We fill a full size and half size bin every fortnight. Our recycling is also overflowing. DP often has to stand on the bins to squash our bags in. How on earth would you cope with a half bin?

We had to have numerous bin audits because apparently, I hadn't squashed tetra packs enough (not recyclable here) and that was the reason we had bin bags piling up in the kitchen (cats get the outside and like others, we have a van so can't take to the tip). They eventually conceded that no amount of squashing the bloody tetra packs was going to make the rubbish fit.

We aren't particularly wasteful with food but I don't understand where all our rubbish and washing comes from

So no, YADNBU

I don't understand how people make so much rubbish week in, week out? And frankly, if they do then I resent subsidising the price of their rubbish being processed.

3 people here. We don't put as much effort into reducing our waste as we should (although we recycle). Our black bin and recycling bins are small ones. 140lt each so probably about 1.5 black bags each (we don't use black bags).

They each get collected fortnightly. We are very rarely even close to filling to black bin.

And we put a bag of cat litter in the bin daily. No garden waste bin as we don't have a garden.

My cat won’t eat anything in tins, he only likes one brand that comes in pouches. Our drains are awful so I wouldn’t risk flushing even flushable cat litter.

To the person who said does anyone still use kitchen roll, I get through loads of it! I also use tissues as I think handkerchiefs are vile.

I also don't understand how some people produce so much rubbish.

Our black bin is about a third full, once a fortnight. The only time it's any more than that is when I have lots of foster kittens in the summer and I'm scooping from two litter trays three times a day and that's improved greatly now I've switched to ultra clumping because the remaining litter stays clean for ages so a full change is rarely needed.

Well the main issue here seems to be that Ops council is rubbish at road side recycling.

If mine took no plastics I'd have a lot more too.

Nappies- our council do a seperate nappy bag collection. You just sign up if you have babies, and put them in yellow bags to be collected weekly.

But OP, you're on to a loser equating council tax with recycling provision. The percentage spent on this is relatively small and most of councils income comes from central government anyway. They could spend nothing on bins and recycling and your council tax bill would only change by a few quid a month.

Second Hotcrossbunfight - I came on to say YABU before I realised what they weren't taking. Our council takes cardboard, paper, all plastics other than plastic film in our recycling bin, glass, metal, including lids and small electrical items in a recycling crate, food waste and paper towels in a food bin and textiles. It means that our small landfill bin ( for two adults and 2 cats) only really has cat food pouches, plastic film and cat litter in it, leaving plenty of room for our neighbour's nappy overflow (with our permission I hasten to add!)

Our council only recycles plastic if it is bottle shaped - no meat trays, yoghurt pots, veg trays. If it isn’t a bottle, they won’t take it.

We fill our tiny black bin, so have to take extra to the tip, and we recycle everything we are able to - it must be the plastic that makes the difference.

Yogurt pots and the plastic trays are taken for recycling where I live! Maybe ask the council why they don't collect them where you are?

Our council website says that yogurt pots, plastic meat and veg trays etc, are not recyclable

This is because the council are either unable to sort the recyclables due to the type of sorting equipment they have or there isn't any requirement for that kind of recyclable waste in your area.

Currently our local council don't collect these items in the dmr bin but there are recycling banks all around our town. My hhw waste decreased by half when they were introduced.
Is there a local school or play group messy church who could use these plastics for junk modeling ?
There are loads of websites regarding zero waste living you can get tips from.

It’s usually down to the different types of plastic, happymum, but requirements vary wildly

Bottles are generally either PET or
HDPE, & that’s all our council takes, BUT they also take eg shampoo bottles which are often PP, which is what lots of yogurt pots are made of. So it’s a mystery really

learn.eartheasy.com/2012/05/plastics-by-the-numbers/

We've got a 'normal' size wheelie bin, collected fortnightly, which is always rammed full. It's a nightmare in the summer.

We recycle everything we can but our council won't recycle yoghurt pots, tetrapacks, meat trays, veg trays, polystyrene trays, empty oil bottles, anything that's had food in it or any washing powder boxes or liquid detergent bottles. There's no food waste recycling here either.

It's ridiculous how much our council won't recycle but the neighbouring council will. There's a lot of fly tipping in the local area and it's horrible to see. If the council would recycle more and give, or let you buy, a second bin then they'd save loads of money not having to clear up all the dumped household rubbish.

I've tried reducing the amount of packaging on food as possible but when you're limited to shops within walking distance there isn't much choice. There's one supermarket I can get to and a couple of tiny corner shops which only stock the basics. There's no butcher or grocers that I can get to and no local market either.

What can you do when the council have ridiculous rules about what can and can't be recycled and there's one choice of shop or online shopping?

Have we not just had this?

I think there should be a standard for recycling across the country. Every council should have to collect anything that is recyclable and deal with the rest. The differences across the country are stark and it does not help England recycle to the best of the country's ability.

As the OP says, council tax is high enough and for many of us it's the only real tangible thing we see for it other than street lights. Mine is nearly £2000 a year and I live in band E. Tip opening hours are ridiculously short and being reduced. But the county council doesn't care because the local council has to deal with fly tipping. So I'd also like to see a unitary authority to stop this sort of passing the buck.

As far as recycling goes, we have a large black bin for landfill (incinerator where I am) and an equal sized bin for recyclable, along with a box for glass. We also have a compost bin. We probably fill about 2/3 of our black bin so are probably similar to the OP. There are 3 of us.

We don't eat a lot of processed food and if we eg eat pizzas the packets are cardboard. The thing that really annoys me is the thin plastic that comes around magazines and the the like. Why can't they come in paper envelopes that you can recycle? We can't recycle tetrapaks in my area which is really annoying. We can't recycle margarine and yogurt pots either. Or plastic food trays. The only plastic that can recycled in my area is bottle shaped. If the council took everything that could be recycled we'd have very little waste except sanitary waste like cotton wool buds and the like and thin plastic, and I think even that is collected in some areas.

We also have a green bin for garden waste but we pay extra for that.

I think the fact that our landfill doesn't go to landfill makes the council lazy when it comes to recyclables because the main rubbish is generating electricity. But they could do both.