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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To use neighbours bin?

86 replies

HeReWeGoAgAiN1112 · 17/08/2021 09:08

It’s bin day. All the bins are out on the front ready for collection any minute. I’ve just emptied the fridge and took my bag out and my outside bin is full, so I opened another bin which is empty bar one bag. I popped mine in, feeling a tad naughty.

Then I went crazy and have just gutted the kitchen, airing cupboard, kids wardrobes, freezer and basically filled up the neighbours bin.

I feel amazing for having such a big and frenzied clear out, but bad I’ve used the neighbours bin!

For info, it’s a culdesac and all the bins are out out together at the end of my drive and are due to be emptied this morning.

So should I be shot or was I just taking advantage of a situation?

OP posts:
BigSandyBalls2015 · 17/08/2021 09:45

Most of that shouldn't be going into landfill OP!! Do you not have separate food waste, cardboard, glass/tins ... then clothes/bric a brac etc could go to charity.

Tinpotspectator · 17/08/2021 09:47

As long as it's bin day, their bins are out already, and you put items in the necessary packaging (ie. don't dirty their bin), then I don't see a problem.

SleepingStandingUp · 17/08/2021 09:50

@BigSandyBalls2015

Most of that shouldn't be going into landfill OP!! Do you not have separate food waste, cardboard, glass/tins ... then clothes/bric a brac etc could go to charity.
Lots of places jist have recycling / non recycling - two bins
RamblesShambles · 17/08/2021 09:58

I personally wouldn't mind due to the fact that it's bin day and there was space in the bin. However, if I'd have done this to my old neighbours they'd probably have rang the police Gin

TwoMountains · 17/08/2021 09:59

I really think you should ask them first.

They may have been planning to put more things in themselves. If they’d put all their rubbish out already then they’d probably agree to let you put a bag or two in their bin.

We’ve had situations in the past where I’ve gone out in the morning to put one last bag in the bin, and found that one of our neighbours has crammed our bin so full of their rubbish that there’s no room left for ours. It’s extremely annoying when that happens.
We also had a warning letter from the council once because one of our neighbours put the wrong sort of rubbish in our recycling bin on collection day, and, understandably, the binmen thought it was our fault that the load of recycling had been contaminated.

HunterHearstHelmsley · 17/08/2021 10:00

It's fine as long as the neighbour doesn't need to use it in the meantime. I usually have a couple of bags to throw in last minute, if my bin was full and I had stuff to add, I'd just pop your stuff on top of your bin or on your garden.

MrsClatterbuck · 17/08/2021 10:01

I always have room in my food bin but am very careful to use the biodegradable bags and actually put three bags into a larger bag to keep my bin fairly clean and not smell. Also line my bin with newspaper to absorb any leakage. As long as anyone putting food into my bin didn't make it manky and as it would be bin day and lifted that day I wouldn't be too annoyed but wouldn't want them to make it a habit.

pinkcircustop · 17/08/2021 10:01

YABU and a cheeky fucker.

Candyapple49 · 17/08/2021 10:02

I have done the same . I found it quite invigorating!!!!

StrangeToSee · 17/08/2021 10:04

What if she wanted to do the same and her bin was full?

You say you cleared out the fridge and freezer, so you’ve put food waste in her bin? Stuff that could potentially drip and leak, making her bin sticky and smelly?

I think it’s a bit rude to fill up someone else’s bin like that. Hopefully nobody saw you.

Don’t you recycle things like clothes, shoes, paper, old toys, containers? Have a food bin or compost heap for food waste? It sounds lazy to just shove everything you can find into bin bags and put it all in someone else’s bin, I don’t understand how you found so much stuff to bin at the last minute?

Sometimes our bin only has one bag in it as we put food in the food bin and recycle anything that can be recycled. It would annoy me if I saw a neighbour filling my bin up with her rubbish just because it was nearly empty. Also I sometimes do a last minute dash around the house to empty bathroom bins and the kitchen bin, so if I had a bag to add and my bin was full I’d have to take out one of her bags and leave it in the street?

I know clearing clutter feels good but you could gather it all and sort it then do a tip run.

POSITIVETHOUGHTSS · 17/08/2021 10:06

Rude

ShingleBeach · 17/08/2021 10:06

Shocked that you send clothes, airing cupboard textiles etc to landfill. Take them to the recycling bank.

Plus why is emptying the fridge filling up the bin? You are contributing to food waste.

YABVU.

User5827372728 · 17/08/2021 10:10

Food from fridge shouldn’t be put in the waste bin.

Also a shame you’re throwing away lots of food when there’s people out there starving.

Doomscrolling · 17/08/2021 10:10

You really should have asked - especially putting multiple bags in. That’s CF behaviour.

It’s great to have a clear out and it feels brilliant, but most fabric can and should be recycled or charity shopped rather than binned. Ditto plastics, metal, glass etc. Very little should have gone to landfill.

Angel2702 · 17/08/2021 10:13

Doesn’t sound like any of that should have been in the general bin to start with. They would leave the entire bin here if we put recycling in general. Especially things like clothes.

Food waste causes lots of issues in landfill so they are very strict about it going in the correct food bin.

Perhaps if you put your rubbish in the correct bins your landfill bin wouldn’t have been full to start with.

Divebar2021 · 17/08/2021 10:13

I can’t believe the items you put in a bin… that’s embarrassing. Those items should be donated or recycled. Charity shops take textiles that are not good enough to use again. Presumably you don’t have a food waste bin?

LaikO · 17/08/2021 10:17

Sounds like a terrible waste, so much could undoubtedly have been reused or recycled.

If it were me and I knew it was you, I would have perhaps had to return your bags to your doorstep, as more than once we've had time to fit an extra bag into our bin, which wouldn't have worked if a cheeky neighbour had decided to use it!

Gothichouse40 · 17/08/2021 10:18

I now put my bin out very late at night for this very reason. This was after my bin didn't get emptied as some 'kind' neighbour decided to fill my bin with the wrong rubbish. I then had to empty their rubbish into my other bin, not a pleasant task. If you really want to hack off your neighbours and ruin any relationship with them, this is one sure-fire way to do it. So now I don't put it out early. Personally, I think you should have asked your neighbour. One word of caution, in my local authority it is actually illegal to put your rubbish in someone else's bin. I know a few of the binmen for our street, thats what they told me.

Gothichouse40 · 17/08/2021 10:19

I also had to wait a fortnight for the next bin collection, thanks to them.

LookItsMeAgain · 17/08/2021 10:19

I know in Ireland some of our councils lift bins and charge based on the weight of what's in the bin. Does that apply in this situation or is there a flat rate for bin collections or do you pay for them to be collected in some other way?

If you pay by weight, you're being very unreasonable.
If not - then you're not.

Polmuggle · 17/08/2021 10:22

Forget the bin red herring, I'm more curious about why you've emptied the contents of your fridge into the bin?!

Henrytheehoover · 17/08/2021 10:26

Hmm at all the people crying over everything going to landfill on here.

My DH is a bin wagon driver. YABU and very naive if you believe that your recycling is actually recycled.

EatSprayGlove · 17/08/2021 10:26

Where do you people live that the council collects food waste and textiles?! Confused glass, tins, tetrapacks and cardboard only where I am!

PercyPiginaWig · 17/08/2021 10:28

I'd be really annoyed if you'd put old clothes, towels or sheets in my bin instead of recycling them. Same goes for other recyclable stuff.

We don't have separate food waste bins in my council but how much food are you throwing away? I have had to chuck some today but am mindful of it and try not to. You just sound gleeful that you've thrown lots of items in other people's bins, with no thought as to reduce, reuse, recycle.

Divebar2021 · 17/08/2021 10:40

@EatSprayGlove

I’m in Surrey and we have a separate food bin that gets collected and have for at least 10 years. We can’t recycle textiles though although there are various bins dotted about for them.