Bin day - Now once a fortnight

[RibenaMonsoon]

Anyone else have their general waste taken once every 2 weeks?

It used to be once a week, they've changed it to once every 2 weeks and Im really struggling. I've got 3 (yes 3) recycling bins, which for the most part get used to capacity. There's always a little room left. (Myself and DH aren't driving yet so we order a lot from Amazon)

I recycle everything that can possibly be recycled and I've scoured the website to make sure I know what can and can't be recycled.

My issue is that I have 2 young children in nappies. I've tried reusable nappies and I can't find anything that doesn't give them nappy rash. Also excema runs in the family and DS is riddled with it, the reusable nappy irritates it. So those are out of the equation.

I emailed the council to request a bigger waste bin and explain the situation. They have fobbed me off. Offering another recycling bin. Which would leave me with 4 bloody recycling bins!!
The nappies alone fill the general waste bin in a 2 week period.

Is anyone else in a similar boat? What did you do?
AIBU to be really cheesed off that the council have just sent a pointless, unhelpful, generic email back and haven't listened to the problem?

We still have ours waste collected twice a week, no recycling service.

its been that way in this council area for as long as i can remember(never moved buroughs)

i have a larger bin than my neighbors and it really pisses them off as ive had a few comments about it before but the old tenants had 8 kids(only a three bedroom house)in 7 years so the council gave her a larger bin and it was left here as they did a runner overnight

ive been here 6 years now and they havent taken it away

We have general waste collection every FOUR weeks! I thought it'd be a nightmare but its actually been fine. However, our council supply nappy bins that are collected weekly so that is a big help!

Ours is about to go to three weekly with no change to the size of bin and no additional nappy collection/provision. We have an indoor cat and about to have a newborn baby- I'm most worried about the unbearable smell!

Been like that for years here. In my area you qualify for an extra bin if you are a family of 6 or family of 5 with 2 under 3s.

We have had one fortnightly for years. Is fine but was challenging when we had two in nappies - that said round here you can pay an extra £10 for another one and many families have this

I think most councils offer a clause for families with children wearing nappies. You get extra bin space. Check it out.

YABU.

You're producing far too much waste for a family of your size. Many people here have made sensible suggestions for how you can reduce the waste you're creating but you've rejected them.

I can't stand when people use 'oh well I'm a busy mum!' as their excuse for selfishly ignoring the impact they are having on the environment. You choose to have children. You're leaving the world behind for those children. If anything mums and dads should be more motivated and responsible to do their part for the environment.

Creating recycling waste is also bad for the environment. It still has to be manufactured, transported to you, transported away, turned into something else. It still has a footprint. Reduce your recycling pile as well as your landfill.

You shouldn't be creating a bin full of nappies with one newborn and one toddler. That's ridiculous - how are you even managing to do that? How many nappies could your toddler go through, especially as you say they are partially toilet trained?

If you can't handle cloth nappies, I suggest you at least look into cloth wipes. It will save you a lot of ordering and packaging. They are easier to clean than the nappies which have elastic and require more thought- just put them on a short eco cycle and then do a long very hot wash cycle. Done, it's completely sanitary and it takes all of 30 seconds to press the buttons and then you never run out of wipes. You realise just a couple of generations ago families managed babies in cloth nappies without even having a machine? And back then two children was a very small family.

Your older child is almost 3, unless they have SN they should be toilet trained any day now- so why would you feel entitled to a new bin to accomodate two lots of nappies when surely you'll be down to only one child in nappies soon?

Take some responsibility for this planet we all share.

@Elphame

We have a house elf who deals with it all. She manages to put the recycling straight into the correct container so no need for further sorting. She's just an average house elf too.

Ours is every Thursday but it's a pain as we have a green bin, a black bin, a black box, a green bag, and a blue bag. It's a lot to carry down the path (my house is set back from the road).

MMC. You need to get her out training all the other ones! The council chap who took away our domestic bins said an awful lot of people are struggling to get it right

Oh wow, I didn't realise there were still places that did weekly collections! One place I lived wouldn't even collect unless the bin lid was completely closed.
You need to reduce your waste... Cloth shouldn't give rashes, what fibres were you using and what was your wash routine?

Do you have a garden? If so compost!
Most people have fortnightly bin collections, in some places I think you get 3&4 week ones. YABU and need to get your shit together to reduce your waste. Post in chat asking for tips to reduce your waste.

Ours is every 3 weeks!
I sometimes take a small bag of rubbish to the supermarket bin when I go out if my bin is full

The cloth nappies

Sorry, DS went a bit mental and tried to pinch my phone while i was typing.

The cloth nappies give DD nappy rash and DS they don't but they irritate his excema which is right on his bum/top of his legs, which he's had constantly though most of his life. It runs in DHs family and he has sorasis as an adult. That's why I don't use them. I did still have some to try on DD but she seems to get nappy rash on them. I've only ever found pampers to be any good at keeping nappy rash at bay. Did use kit and kin for a while because they are much more environmentally friendly but I didn't find them to be very good quality for the price. They would leak a lot.

I don't know what type of cloth they are, DH bought them a while ago when DS was little. I'll check with him. Think they are Alva or Alvo brand, something like that.

I’m wondering if your waste bin is smaller than most

OP said the following on page 2

^It's a standard size wheelie bin.
Our recycling bins are double the size.^

Which probably means that the recycling bin is what most people would regard as standard size and the waste bin is half size. Which means that many posters are at cross purposes with OP when advising her. While fortnightly collections are normal in most parts of the country, I can see that OP would find it difficult with 2 in nappies and a half size bin.

Could you contact the council again about a larger bin as obviously the offer of yet another recycling bin was ridiculous.

@CecilyP Yes that's correct.
They haven't responded to my email yet so DH is going to call them tomorrow.

Tomorrow would usually be bin collection day but this is the first week that they are not taking general waste and our bin (although not full to bursting) will not last us another week.

Been extra vigilant with making sure we are putting everything that can be recycled in the recycling bins and have curbed our amazon purchasing including changing nappies to Tesco. (Not that it matters when it comes to curbing our general waste but it's nice to know we're more environmentally friendly). I always plan meals to reduce food wastage as that's a pet peeve of mine anyway. Not sure what else we can do now but see what they say.

MythicalBiologicalFennel

Contact your local councillor. Enough pushy councillors can get decisions reversed.

No harm in trying but suspect the decision won't be reversed. Your council is aiming to reduce costs saving money and make/encourage residents to recycle more.

We've had ABC (alternate bin collections) for years here. Recycling one week, refuse the next. But we currently have just two bins to deal with so only put one out each week. Food waste collections probably starting in the near future.

A neighbouring council will only provide a large bin for a household of 6 or more and requires proof.
The 240 litre refuse bins are being replaced with 180 litre bins as standard when they need replacing and all new builds have 180s. They do still have weekly collections though.

Are you sure you don't have a smaller bin? The sizes and dimensions are helpfully listed on the Worcester Council Website. If you're filling it in 2 weeks plus doing recycling, I think you might have a smaller general waste bin and 'normal' sized 240L recycling bins. All our wheelie bins are 240L.

Stretchy plastic can often go in your supermarket carrier bag recycling points (so the plastic bags that frozen veg come in etc). This can reduce a decent amount of plastic from your bin.

If you live near one of the 8 M&S trial sites, they're now taking all plastic that cannot be recycled kerbside. The sites are... M&S Tolworth, Cribbs Causeway, Westfield Stratford, Waterside, Loughton, Bluewater, Fosse Park and Peterborough. Of course you need to go there, but I would suggest bundling it up tight into a plastic bag (wipes packets are good) so you condense it down dense enough for easy transport.

I didn't know anyone still got a weekly collection.

Approx 15% of councils still have weekly collections!

Thank you for the link @PurpleCrazyHorse.
It's the 140L we have. Our road seems to be split, some houses have the 140L and some have the 240L. Never seen the medium sized one though. Maybe our council don't do it.
Im in Sussex.

We have 140 litre wheelie bins for residual waste here, with 240 ones for bigger families/certain health needs.

Without nappies it's absolutely fine for two weeks residual but that's probably because there's lots our council recycles!

We have fortnightly too - and have done for years, however our recycling and food is collected weekly, general waste one week and garden waste the next (through the summer and autumn). A single guy up the road from us fills his general waste bin to overflowing every time - we have 3 adults and we 3/4 fill ours, goodness knows what he sticks in it!!

You need to keep on at the council telling them you have 2 kids in nappies and you desperately need a bigger bin or 2 small ones.
You also need to try to learn to drive ASAP so you can drive extra bags to the tip. I do this because I have a puppy and I am sure as hell not having a wheelie bin full of dog shit and kitchen roll used to clean up accidents.