To think that fortnightly bin collections...

[jamoncrumpets]

... in hot weather are a bit grim?

I live on a street of terraces, they're right on the street with no front space, and no side entrances either - so our bins have to go on the pavement right outside out front windows.

The issue is that when the weather turns warm, Jun-Aug ish, the bins start to absolutely reek after a week or so, and they only get collected fortnightly.

We're very diligent recyclers; we bag up our food waste into compostable bags, we rinse pots/tins etc prior to recycling, we tie up bin bags before putting them outside - but they still STINK. And we can't open our front windows because of the smell.

AIBU to think that, during hot weather, the council could (in an ideal world where they have the funds/staff) collect bins weekly?

Ours are three weekly 😕

Cripes. 3 weekly. I just don't know how to keep the smell down, it's vile!

I agree with you. They're not great in winter either - the reason being that snow and ice can cause your collection not to happen, so you end up going for a month with no bin collection.

Why do they smell?

Ours is every 2 weeks and they are fine (they sit in full sun most of the day) We have a dog and his waste gets bagged and binned too. All food waste goes bagged into the "food waste bin", food trays etc get rinsed and put into recycling. The only other stuff in our "bin" is loose packaging.

What is it that is smelling?

We have a small bin that gets picked up weekly and a large recycling every 2 - works well for us

I don't know?! I already said we're v careful with bagging, sorting, rinsing etc.

Our front is south-facing so gets full sun all day.

I'm not sure what would go in the book that would smell? I mean, mine stink but I have a baby in nappies and there's no getting away from that. But before he nappies, there wasn't a smell from the bins. We do have a kitchen waste caddy and I suppose that could smell if there was a lot put in it. I compost everything I can so it's just really the kids leftovers that go in the caddy. And bones .

We're also 3 weekly with 3 of our bins ; general waste, paper/ cardboard and other mixed recycling. Our food/garden waste is collected every 2 weeks. Glad our general waste one got done this week as it was very full (had a clear out)

Bin not book. Do you clean the bins out regularly? You can get him freshener too.

You can get powders that you sprinkle in the bin to cut down smells.

Be grateful it's fortnightly - we've been 4 weekly for the last 18 months

Do you have an actual bin (or just bags?)? is it that that smells. I sloosh our bin out with the hosepipe once a month - my mum's bin smells , she can't clean it out at all, so any stuff that has "sweated" in there doesn't get washed out.

Is your food waste collected separately? I know some councils still don't do food waste collections, fortunately our food waste is collected weekly otherwise yes, it would stink.
Do you double bag anything smelly?
You have my sympathy. Other than going to the tip, I don't know what the answer is.

We do have bin cleaners that come and power hose the bins on a regular basis so that helps too

We get weekly collections still but food waste goes in the black bag. It does smell bad if left for 2 weeks in summer. I definitely wouldn’t want it by front window. So YANBU.

Ours are every 4 weeks!

Timeissliplingaway . What size wheelie bin do you have, or do you get two?

Try getting some bin freshener - there are some like a powder you just sprinkle in the bin and it keeps the flies etc away. I agree with you that fortnightly bin collections are not ideal.

Weekly for food, paper/cardboard, glass, plastic and cans, although the boxes are tiny. Three weekly for general waste which means bags of cat litter or nappies can be out there for weeks. Grim.

Our bin in is direct sunlight most of the day and had no issues, have very little food waste, cooked chicken carcasses I squash and freeze till bin collection day. We have collection every 2 weeks and sometimes only have packaging waste so might not put out, recycling bin is at least 3/4 full every 2 weeks, vegetable peelings go on compost heap. We're doing what we have been doing for years, as can't stand waste.

Just the one wheelie bin. I'm not sure what size in litres but not big enough. I am a childminder and some days can have around 8 dirty nappies going in there. Imagine that smell after 4 weeks 😂

We have 4 big wheelie bins! (Food/garden waste, mixed recycling, paper/cardboard, general waste). We have more bins than garden space now

Mine are 360L. We got bigger recycling bins for free but I had bought a bigger general waste one years ago which i am glad of now we are on 3 weekly collections

We get weekly but no wheelie bins, so keeping cats and foxes out of the bags is a challenge, but I'm assuming the alternative would be bins and fortnightly collection which would be awful in this weather

We are every 3 weeks. I have to pay for a private bin collection service inbetween collections