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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

Bin day - Now once a fortnight

303 replies

RibenaMonsoon · 11/09/2019 17:16

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?

OP posts:
5foot5 · 11/09/2019 17:28

This is normal. Ours has been fortnightly for years.

Do you have one of those nappy bins that squishes them down so they take up less space?

Seeingadistance · 11/09/2019 17:29

Our general household waste is collected every month!

TyrionsNextWife · 11/09/2019 17:29

My local council will give a second bin to families with children under a certain age because of the nappy issue. I’d get back onto the council and try to speak to someone who understands what you’re asking for.

Cheeringmeup · 11/09/2019 17:29

Ours is 3 weekly now! Except for garden/food waste, which is weekly, so we have:
Week 1: Garden/Food waste & Paper recycling
Week 2: Garden/Food waste & Glass/Plastic recycling
Week 3: Garden/Food waste & General non-recyclable rubbish

The recycling is ok, but it's very tight for the general rubbish - if we have any kind of clear out or purge on clutter it's hopeless.

flumposie · 11/09/2019 17:29

Had this for years. Large bin for general waste, one for garden which I have to pay for. 2 black boxes and 2 blue bags for recycling. You get used to it.

dramaqueen · 11/09/2019 17:30

Gosh ours is three weekly for general waste and we are only half full that. The recycling bin is fortnightly and food weekly. You need a PHD just to remember which bin it is.

Anyway, why don’t you check if there’s a nappy collection? If you already have then I guess you need to get that extra recycling bin.

Kanga83 · 11/09/2019 17:31

Ours has always been once a fortnight, with recycling taken alternately

MamaFlintstone · 11/09/2019 17:31

Ours has been once a fortnight for ages. Do you have a really small bin or inadequate recycling? It’s rare for ours to be much more than half full and we’ve one in disposable nappies.

RavenLG · 11/09/2019 17:31

Current house is every week but we maybe 1/3 fill it. Most of the time it's one bin bag and sometimes that isn't full.

Do you have any capacity to compost food waste? This actually stopped a lot of our general waste.

Nappies, well you can't do much about that but at least there will be a time when they will be out of them so that will reduce. You say this is basically the bulk of the waste, so I'm not sure if you can get around this without switching to reusable which you have said you can't do. Sadly we do create too much waste and I think councils don't give out bigger bins to encourage us to reduce, reuse, recycle. But when you are doing all you can it is a struggle.

What else goes in the waste bin?

Original poster
RibenaMonsoon · 11/09/2019 17:31

Wow it seems as we are a minority for the weekly collection.

Our waste bin is the same size as everyone else's from what I can see.
There's a few houses with a larger one but the council won't give us one as we area family of four, not five.

I'll just have to try and squash it all in, if anybody sees a demented lady with her arse stuck in a wheelie bin, it's probably me trying to squash it all down Grin

OP posts:
MrsElizabethShelby · 11/09/2019 17:32

Goodness how many nappies a day do you go through?

My two never used to use more than 4/5 a day and that when they were very small and pooing alot.

ItsPeanutButterJelly · 11/09/2019 17:32

I hate to say it, but you (we, me) need to produce less waste. 3 recycling bins in insane (assuming you mean wheelie bins?). We are a family of 4 and we filled a general waste wheelie weekly but since our council reduce collections to once a fortnight we have made a concerted effort to reduce how much waste we produce generally. Our recycling went up slightly (my husband was pretty hot on it so we didn't actually have much more to recycle) and we just produce less waste.

Reduce, then reuse, then recycle.

Can you go to washable nappies? What is all the recycling your filling those bins with?! Amazon is horrific for so many reasons but the waste they produce is one big reason to stop using them. What are you buying from them?

MaidenMotherCrone · 11/09/2019 17:33

Our general waste is every four weeks with all types of recycling weekly.

You get used to it.

BrightYellowDaffodil · 11/09/2019 17:33

For almost as long as I can remember we’ve had fortnightly collections - one week is general rubbish, the next is recycling. It’s quite normal.

If you’re having a lot delivered (and that must be a LOT to fill three bins) can you group your deliveries to reduce the amount of packaging? You could reduce it to a weekly order, perhaps? And are you braking down the boxes and packaging so it’s flat before you put it in the bin?

Marmite27 · 11/09/2019 17:34

I had two in nappies and a fortnightly waste collection, it was always full, but not overflowing.

Just one in nappies now and it’s 2/3rds full each week. Are you definitely breaking boxes /packaging down to be flat? That can make a difference

EggysMom · 11/09/2019 17:35

Double whammy here - first they took it to fortnightly collections, then they shrank the size of the general waste bin by half, to try and encourage more recycling. We had to apply to keep a normal sized general bin, as our 10yo disabled son is still in nappies (and they don't offer a separate nappy collection). That said, you can roll used nappies quite tightly/small.

BabyMoonPie · 11/09/2019 17:35

If your children have health issues that mean you need to use extra nappies could you approach your doctor / HV to see if they would support your application for a bigger bin? On my council website it gives the criteria for getting a bigger bin

Troels · 11/09/2019 17:36

Washable nappies when you get the washing routine down are better for eczema. The plastic ones made my kids worse unless I used a ton of cream.
Ours are now 4 weekly for general rubbish. Do-able just as we only have one child left at home, but don't know how next door cope with two adults and three kids at home.
They have a special nappy bin that is emptied weekly along with recycling.

Clangus00 · 11/09/2019 17:36

Ours is 3 weekly for general waste.
Wk1 general
Wk2 Garden waste
Wk3 No collection.

We also have a recycling trolley and a good waste caddy that get collected weekly.

Clangus00 · 11/09/2019 17:36

Food waste

PassMeAnotherCoffee · 11/09/2019 17:36

We've had fortnightly collections for years. Nobody around here seems to have a problem managing it. It depends to a large extent how good your council's recycling scheme is and how much effort you make to separate things.

Most things from Amazon come with minimal packaging and cardboard. Can you not recycle the cardboard? If you can't then that's the first thing to ask your councillor to fight for.

I didn't think nappy rash from modern cloth nappies was very common. Have you asked for any help from people who know about these things? My children are teenagers so I'm way out of date. Obviously if you hate the idea/have a shit washing machine/nowhere to dry them that's a different matter.

Proseccoinamug · 11/09/2019 17:37

Ours are three weekly. Have four dc. We manage fine with the bin collection but the recycling bins could be bigger!

In some areas you can get a nappy bin from the council if you have a child under 3.

PriscillaTheHun · 11/09/2019 17:37

Yes sorry OP. You need to look at the waste you are producing and think about how you can produce less.

We have fortnightly collections and don't even fill one bin in that time.

ivykaty44 · 11/09/2019 17:38

how many nappy changes are you doing per day?

You say that you recycle everything, do you put black rubbish straight in the bin? Effectively if your food waste is separated, then your black bin rubbish can be thrown directly in bin and this makes more room than if it is in bin bags

MythicalBiologicalFennel · 11/09/2019 17:38

I'll just have to try and squash it all in, if anybody sees a demented lady with her arse stuck in a wheelie bin, it's probably me trying to squash it all down

You need to stand on it Grin We get one collection a month. With a family of 4 (no nappies) the bin is 3/4 full these days. But the first few months there was a bit of squishing Grin