New home & recycling bins

[Trickedia]

Ok, this is bloody boring but I do need to know if I’m BU. We’ve just moved into our new home, there are 2 communal recycling bins for our block (6 flats.) no where near enough in my opinion, where we lived previously each house hold had their own bin.

We’ve had loads of boxes as we’ve just moved, the bins were full already so I flattened them all & put them behind the bins neatly (so they wouldn't blow away, we’re on the coast) with the intention of going out when (recycling collectors?) came & explaining hoping they’d let me re-fill the bin once emptied, to empty again (as they won’t take recycling not in a bin.) I’ve also gone online to order us our a recycling bin which I’m waiting for.

Before this could happen someone has moved the boxes in front of the bins (why, now they might blow away?) & I’ve got a rudely written letter through the door complaining about it from ‘anonymous neighbour.’

AIBU to think give us a bloody chance? We’ve literally been in a week! Taking them to the tip would be me doing it alone with a 2 year old & 11 week old. Not impossible but I thought this was less hassle.

So AIBU?! I really don’t want to create bad blood with my neighbours already, so if I’m BU I’d like to know.

Maybe you should have kept the flattened boxes indoors until bin day

You are definitely not BU.
I have lovely neighbours, and if one person has a bit of extra recycling they just say, and it goes in someone else's bin.
As it's so hot I wouldn't even like to think of a poor little baby being in a car

You should have kept any rubbish inside your own property if it didn't fit in the bin.

YANBU. It’s recycling, not waste, and our collection DOES take boxes left next to the bins. We also get special bags for excess recycling. It encourages people to recycle, helps people who can’t get to the tip, and recycles stuff you can’t fit in the car etc that might otherwise end up in landfill.

IMVHO your council is being unreasonable for not taking it! And your new neighbours are being unhelpful.

@dementedpixie
@WindsweptEgret

Fair point.

But if its left outside and it rains then they wont take it either. Better to keep inside until bin day

@NormHonal

‘IMVHO your council is being unreasonable for not taking it!’

Yeah I agree. I just can’t see how the other people living here have managed with only 2 bins between 6 couples/families for however long they have... they must have over flow every 2 weeks. Do they do a tip run every time!?

Two bins between six flats sounds reasonable, some may only have couples living in them. I've had four people living at mine recently (usually just the two of us), two adults, a teenager and a baby. We haven't one third filled the recycling bin, even adding the cardboard and paper too (separate box here) and we recycle everything we can.

I would have kept the boxes indoors until pickup day. If it rains, they create an awful mess sitting out.

As a household we have 2 recycling bins and any extra is taken if it is left neatly and is obvious it is recycling and not household rubbish

I have to disagree and say YABU. We used to live in a set of houses/flats with the same set up. It's frustrating but the council binmen would be very funny about extra items left around the bins and would refuse to take them or even get the council involved and threaten to stop the bin collection altogether because it was making their working environment unsafe. If we had large pieces of cardboard from furniture etc. then we kept them folded up in the house until we could take them to the recycling centre. It's annoying but the only way to be fair to all the residents.

Well thanks for all your responses, I went out to chat to the chaps doing the recycling collection today & they did take the boxes for me. The bins are already half full again though where people have obviously been stock piling recycling in their houses.

Till the next boring trivial thread I post