Neighbours keep using our bins!!

[Youngatheart00]

Now, I know this is definitely a first world problem, but it’s a problem nonetheless.

A few months ago the council changed bin collections to alternate weeks (general rubbish one week, recycling the next).

Our next door neighbour (we don’t know them well, but will say a polite hello - it’s London, to give some context!) are a family of 5. There is just the 2 of us (plus 2 cats) but we are still finding, with the alternate collections, we fill the bins to capacit.

The past couple of weeks I’ve noticed recycling waste that’s definitely NOT ours in our bin. I can see the neighbours one is full and our bins are kept in a passageway next to eachother (no others, and numbers are painted on them).

This has annoyed me a lot - we tend to keep our recycling in a box and take it out in stages - and given we are both at home 24/7 during this lockdown we do fill to capacity.

I’ve moved our bins down the passageway to behind our garden gate in the hope that sends the message. However, they also have a garden gate so I’m not entirely sure this will end the matter!

AIBU to be pissed off about this? I know from the council leaflets that as a large family they can apply for larger bins but clearly haven’t bothered. They just think they can use ours instead!

Get a gravity lock for your bins. Problem solved.

But you've had a word with them and asked them to stop, yes?

What’s a gravity lock?

@worraliberty no, as yet, we haven’t spoken to them. It’s that great british awkwardness. Plus we haven’t caught them ‘red handed’ so have no categoric proof but it would be difficult for it to be anyone else as they’d have to really go out of their way to use our bins.

A large family definitely doesn’t have three children, more like five or six at least. I know our council don’t give large bins out unless you have eight household members.

That aside, you fill yours to capacity so they shouldn’t use it. If you had a half full bin each time I wouldn’t see an issue and would think it was a rather neighbourly thing to do.

Just install a gravity lock. Problem solved for £30.

www.britishbins.co.uk/gravity-lock.html

Honestly, just knock and say something like "Have you noticed anyone using our bins? There's rubbish in them that don't belong to us and we can't fit ours in".

They'll either cough or deny it but at least they'll be aware you're onto them.

*Doesn't

Could you convert the bin into a jack in the box? With a mechanical boxing glove that pops up and smacks them in the face when they open it?

@ViciousJackdaw - thanks for the chuckle!! I’m not (yet) at the stage where I want to resort to physical violence but if I see ANY MORE OAT MILK CARTONS I may be tempted!

@WorraLiberty that’ll be the plan, if this continues. I am so confrontation-averse though, but that’s a good way to diffuse it

Great idea from @ViciousJackdaw, I'm going to start work on mine right away (must remember to deactivate before the bin men visit or it may never get emptied again!)

Ha I have a different issue: I have gained a food waste bin! I live on a main street and occasionally bins are blown from one side to the other. No number on it so I put it out on the pavement assuming whomever was missing theirs would claim it. Someone keeps putting it back on the drive next to my bins.
Our collections are also every other week. We are allowed to put out as much recycling as we want. Rubbish is supposedly limited but I bought an extra bin and as most other houses near me are divided into flats I think the bin men think we are two households so it's always collected.

Get a lock for your bin.

Are your neighbours approachable? I would suggest to them that they ask the council for a 2nd recycling bin. I don't know how it works with your local authority but I got a 2nd bin from the council and there's only 3 of us.

Just get a lock. I wouldn't even discuss it with them.

Mentioned this on another bin thread but mine does this too. I don't mind on bin day but she started getting cheekier and it peaked on xmas day. They has obviously got up before us so when I went to put all the boxes,wrapping paper etc in my recycling she had filled her own bin and then filled mine too.
I took hers out and bagged it, put it on top of her bin and then she put it back in mine 😩 I took it out again and then she left it but put it back on what she thought was bin day but it wasnt as it had been moved.
Such a cheeky slag. I couldn't do that to someone, especially not after they'd took it out.

A slag you say?

Having the same issue. I live in a gf mainsonette and upstairs there are two flats but they are expected to share 1 bin between two flats. I’m not even sure how many people live in the flats, but it’s atleast 5/6 people. Because of this there bin is always over flowing, then they have the cheek to start using mine. I’ve had to move them. The worst part was they’ve now started leaving black bags beside their bin when it’s full and the other day foxes ripped them all open and their rubbish was everywhere, even all over my garden, they didn’t even clean it . I had to do it myself and dump it back on their door step.

Get a lock and only undo on bin morning.

As an aside how the hell can two people fill a bin on wheels when there is recycling?!

Family of four and we manage a bin bag every two weeks.

Casually mention that they might want to move their bins to a more secure location, because some cheeky fucker has been filling up your bin with their rubbish, and you wouldn't want it to happen to them too.

This is infuriating especially when they fill it with the wrong stuff and it doesn't get emptied. Our troublesome neighbour filled our recycling with polystyrene this week so the bin men rightfully didn't empty it. I have spoken to him before and he just says I shouldn't have a problem, as bin collections don't cost me anything!
Luckily it was the paper bin so won't stink if it's not emptied for another two weeks. I just bagged all his rubbish up and left it hanging off his door handle, he has since dumped it in someone's skip!

As a complete aside why do people refer to 'being British' to describe being unable to stand up for themselves? Historically the British colonised half the World, hardly adverse to conflict!

No advice, but I get why you're annoyed.

I once booked a one-off wheelie bin clean after some hot weather, my bin was emptied, I had a full bin bag but held off putting it in for the bin cleaners to come. While my bin was still on the road, I'm assuming it was an accident, but my neighbour goes out and chucks some nappies, loose, no bag, into MY bin. The bloody bin cleaner cleans the bin with the nappies in, probably assuming I'd put them in like an idiot.

I was livid.

Ours did similar and the last straw was a tissue covered in blood. I literally and metaphorically saw red. The next time they were out I said to use your own bins you set of tramps. They havent used them since so I think it worked.
I've hosed the other fuckers to the right before too. Our cul-de-sac now think I'm psychotic but we get well left alone and have no bothers. I appreciate I might sound of the chavvy sort but I'm not, it's more the other way round. My advice is use shock tactics to stop this sort of thing happening.

I would just get a lock and not say anything unless they bring it up... which they wont likely do.