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?

Councils have to pay a tax for all non recycled rubbish they dispose of. It doesn't make sense for them to provide a crap recycling service like some of you describe. My LA has saved loads of money from increasing local recycling rates to more than 50%. Other councils are crazy to not want to do the same.

It sounds like a contest... Well I am loosing apparently!
Family of 4 and we easily fill a large bin bag in 3 days. We eat a lot of takeaway / processed food, order things on amazon so lots of cardboard, food waste...

We live in a flat with no outside space, all waste has to stay inside... I don't love the environment enough to have several bin bags on display in the middle of the room so until the council installs recycling bins nearby it all goes in one bin.

The only perk is that we live on a busy high street, where bins left on the pavement are collected every night - even though there is an official domestic bin day. So every 3d or so it goes out.

Oh and no car, again, I don't love the environment enough to take the bus with my bins to the next tip (40min round trip).
I guess me not having a car is my contribution to the environment!

We also have a half size bin, collected fortnightly, and plastic recycling is bottles only.

I think you need to look at all three of the bits of the loop: reduce, reuse, recycle.

Can you use cloths that you wash instead of so much kitchen roll? Can you buy meat with less packaging, maybe in bags instead of trays or go to the butcher one in a while? Would bigger tubs of yoghurt that you decant help? Can you buy anything else in glass bottles or use a milkman?

Drives me mad too. I go to the tip once or twice a week

Blimey. I'm surprised by how little rubbish all pp make. I fill both our large recycling bin and large rubbish bin, fortnightly alternating. Oh dear!

There is an awful lot of Eco-virtue-signalling on this thread!

I don't think YABU.

I tried squashing everything down once and the outcome was that the bags didn't empty into the lorry, they jammed
I think that's your problem. Instead of putting closed black bags in the bin just empty the rubbish from them into the big and them squash it down. You can fit a lot more in that way.

Do you know how big your wheelie bin is in litres? There's a lot of variation. For example Birmingham uses 180 or 240 l bins collected weekly. Two of us will rarely fill it more than halfway. But if your council uses something like a 120 or even 80 l bin collected only fortnightly then that's obviously a huge difference and no wonder you're having problems.

YANBU, my house is slowly filling up from waste that won't fit or is not allowed to go in the wheely bin (think polystyrene) but must be taken to the tip. The tip won't take it because they don't accept pedestrians. I don't drive because of my disability, and I don't know anyone who does.

Taxis obviously don't want bits of crap all over their cars.

The council won't take anything extra away other than "bulky items", even if I pay them.

So I'm saving up my trash till I have enough to justify hiring someone to take it away at vast cost, and now my landlord is kicking up a fuss because I'm "hoarding". I can't win.

If you are looking for ways to cut down on stuff that has to go in the rubbish, GreenbackBoogy (and it must be infuriating for you that your council doesn't recycle plastic), have you tried getting a weekly veg box delivery? I get one, and it means I have no plastic bags or trays at all to either recycle or bin. The carboard box the veg comes in is left out for the box scheme to reuse, and even if veg (like salad) comes in a plastic bag, it's sent back with the empty veg box for recycling there. Potatoes are in a paper bag, and most of the rest of it is loose or in compostable recycled cardboard trays.

(Mine's from Riverford - i didn't get on with what Abel and Cole had to offer - but you might have a local one, too.)

We are also just two adults and the landfill bin never has more than two kitchen bin bags a fortnight. Our council does take yogurt pots. Reduce that by buying the big tubs and decanting, much cheaper too.

Remember recycling is still waste - another reason not to buy from amazon - and everyone really needs to buy as little as possible.

What else are you binning?

This again! What size to you mean by small OP? Ours is 180 litres and is emptied every three weeks. There are four of us. It's due to be emptied next Monday and there are currently two 30L bags in there.

Honestly I'm not a recycling nut but it's really easy to manage. Where do you think extra rubbish would go?

Ignore the playground taunts. Grown up people share ideas without jealous blubbering of 'virtue signalling'. Although it is half term in some places..

@keepitgoing A combination of refluxy baby, no tumble dryer and very small house put me off cloth nappies tbh. I get biodegradable disposables.

I checked with the council and used kitchen roll has to go in the black bin, not in with the paper. Along with yoghurt pots and food trays!

So I think it's basically the case that my council are poor at what they are willing to recycle, so more stuff has to go into the black bin compared to a lot of posters. That said, I will definitely cut up the meat packs so that they're not 3D any more, hopefully that should save some 'empty' space.

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

Same here, Slippery, are you in Sussex, by any chance? We also gave up recycling food waste, because I couldn't open the food caddy thing. That doesn't make much difference though, between DP, the dog and the compost heap, very little food gets thrown away.

Most weeks our non-recyclable rubbish is 2 small bin liners (carrier bag size) but we are only 2 adults and the dog.

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

The council get "recycling credits" from central government. They can use to offset the cost of stuff going to landfill, so there is a financial benefit to maximising recycling.

The revenue support grant paid by central government to councils is being phased out. It's being reduced year by year, which is why council tax increases are so high this year but councils are still cutting services to the bone.

I have the dubious privilege of living where the council tax is one of the top 10 highest in the country. It was the highest for a few years, but has slipped to about no. 7 now.

Use smaller bags and empty to the dustbin more often. When you put them in the dustbin, they make better use of the space, even with the same amount of rubbish in them as usual. The bigger bags will leave some space in the dustbin even when squashed down. Smaller bags jigsaw into that space better.

YANBU, my house is slowly filling up from waste that won't fit or is not allowed to go in the wheely bin (think polystyrene) but must be taken to the tip. The tip won't take it because they don't accept pedestrians

I've never heard of a tip not allowing pedestrian access. We often see people walking to the tip with stuff.

I'd email your local councillor and ask wtf you're supposed to do with your polystyrene, given that you can't throw it away, keep it or take it to the tip!

If you have friendly neighbours and they go to the tip, I'd ask if they'd mind taking it. We often take stuff for neighbours. Or ask the landlord if he'd mind!

Lakie I asked my council more or less this question as part of my fight to get a larger bin.

They suggested I ask neighbours (when is only lived in the house for 1 month) to tale sack fills of dirty nappies to the tip for me.

I said I wasn't comfortable doing this and they said well you'll just have to manage by yourself then. Utterly useless here!

I didn't manage to get a.larger bin afyer constant hounding though!

Sussex here too, but our local council recycles almost everything - exceptions being plastic film and wrappers, plant pots, bottle caps, spray bottles, paper towels and pet food pouches.

We found the volume we bin decreased massively when we switched from a 40 litre kitchen bin to a 20 litre one. Not sure why, it must compact better. As a result our council black bin is generally less than half full every fortnight.

All the Birmingham tips say no pedestrian access, though it's possible the staff might ignore the rules. In any case they'll collect excess waste for a charge if you ask.

If a council refuses to collect certain waste and offers no alternative to a vehicle-only access tip, surely they're leaving themselves open to a disability lawsuit? Then again some councils don't really care about equality law.

YANBU, my house is slowly filling up from waste that won't fit or is not allowed to go in the wheely bin (think polystyrene) but must be taken to the tip. The tip won't take it because they don't accept pedestrians

I've never heard of a tip not allowing pedestrian access. We often see people walking to the tip with stuff

This is the rule in our city too, it is probably quite common and said to be due to 'health and safety', although I suspect these days vehicle recognition also plays a part. Our city uses this to count the number of times anyone goes to the tip - you have to have a pass for your car and you are limited to 20? times a year.

It was in our local papers that a man who lived a few streets away from the tip was banned from taking stuff there in his wheelbarrow.

Chouetted That's a difficult situation, but you will have to be careful about hiring someone as that will fall into the realms of trade waste and waste transfer permits, although I have seen signed vans that say they have all this, so it might be an option.

Can you ask a friend/family member/neighbour to take your stuff to the tip? Are there any voluntary groups locally? I would certainly help out with something like and that would be a really useful volunteering role - taking things to the tip for disabled people or people without transport so unable to do it themselves. I wonder if such a service exists.

Our council won't recycle food trays either. I've found it easy to fit one inside another so several trays only take up the space of one iyswim.

Nope I am entirely with you, OP. There are four of us. Our purple bin (general waste) takes about 1.5 bags too and it’s simply not enough. It drives me bonkers.