…to think everyone has wheelie bins?

[MasterBeth]

My mum was telling me about her refuse collection and what she described didn’t make sense to me until I found out she doesn’t have a wheelie bin, just an old-style metal dustbin.

Doesn’t everyone have wheelie bins in the UK? What kind of primitive council doesn’t have wheelie bins? It’s 2021!

No wheely bins in our London Borough. We have weekly collections and as a house of 4 generate 1 black bag per week. We also have recycling and a food waste caddie which is great to deter foxes.

The next Borough along has massive wheely bins. They look awful.

We have the same system as RustyBear - I think we must live in the same area. Blue bin bags for general waste, limited number given out each year and you pay if you need extra. Weighted bags for kerbside recycling. Black food waste caddy supplied with a roll of bags to put the waste in. All collected every week. You can have a garden waste wheelie bin which is emptied every fortnight (you pay extra for this) or you can buy strong paper sacks for garden waste from the local library (collected at the same time as the garden waste bins are emptied).

Blue bags are kept in an ordinary dustbin outside until bin day when we tie them up and leave them by the roadside. They don’t smell really as there’s no food waste. Food waste bins stink but they have locking handles so don’t get raided by foxes/other animals. This is in the south east.

We don't get wheelie bins as for some reason our council thinks leaving tons of binbags out on the roadside is more sightly!!
Bought our own to keep the binbags in until collection day, so the bags don't get molested by the lovely local wildlife 😡

S Wales. No wheelies, just bin bags on the kerb.

I live right on the coast and never had an issue with seagulls. If you put them out overnight sometimes one will get ripped, I assume by foxes.

It’s BYO dustbin in our borough but wheelie bins are explicitly banned. We have the old fashioned metal ones and I think they look quite smart, or at least as smart as they can for a bin that’s in your front garden. Bins go weekly for refuse and recycling, they lift the bin bags out of your bins, no limit on the amount you can put out, but refuse must be in black bin bag and recycling in a clear sack. Then they come by the next day to clean up.

That is weird. We have had them (and fortnightly collections,) since around 2000/2001.

Yeah it's £2 a black bag. They come round in a little truck thing on a day you nominate for collection. I know some of the larger households by me use them. They all have professional waste licences.

My London borough discourages wheelie bins because they say they encourage people to create more rubbish. You have to buy your own bin too.

I live on my own and just have a small normal bin, and don't even fill that in two weeks. A wheelie bin would add nothing to my life. We have plastic boxes for paper and card, and tins, plastics and glass, and a food waste caddy for food.

Cornwall...no wheelie bins in our area unless you buy your own.

@Finzi - hi, neighbour!

We don’t, in a London borough. In fact, all of the surrounding boroughs on this side of London (east) don’t. Relatives in one borough don't, but border an Essex county council area (so their street is London, but the next one over is Essex). Their Essex neighbours all have them, but relatives don’t. Weird. Agree it would make more sense to have them.

@RustyBear hi to you too 😃

My borough in south London has wheelie bins thank god,
Would hate to have bags as foxes would rip them open around here, when I forgot to put one in the bin once it was ripped to shreds by the morning and the rubbish was all around my garden.

No wheelie bins here. Too many farms and narrow rural roads to get round with a big bin lorry so they just send a truck with a cage in in and chuck the bags in.

We get 104 bags brightly coloured bags for the whole year on 4 rolls of 26. You can buy extra bags if you run out for £2 per bag (not roll, bag).

The bags have the collection days printed on them including any changes for bank holidays.

If you want to put them out in a metal bin to stop wildlife from getting into them you can but you have to apply/get permission from the council first.

@dementedpixie

Not everyone has a house where its easy to have a wheelie bin e.g. there are huge rows of terraced houses where I used to live and they would have to wheel bins through their house to get them to the street. They still have bin bags

Rows of terraces round here with no gardens and doors that open straight onto the pavements. We have wheelie bins but they live on the street (where else would they go). With the parked cars and the bins this means that you have to walk on the road. It's not ideal at all but I don't know what the answer is.

We just leave purple sacks on the road every week and they collect them. No wheelie bins.

We have 4 wheelie bins. You wouldn't be able to use the pavement at all if they had to all sit out there

I live in a terraced house and don't. The bin men come down the entry and collect the bin bags once a week.

@Tangledtresses

We also have fortnight collections So the bin bag peoples houses must stink!! I mean where the hell do they keep them ?

In a metal bin in the back garden. Just because the council don’t provide a bin doesn’t mean you have to keep the rubbish indoors.

London borough here. Black bags (which we have to supply) at edge of boundary every week. We are given a supply of recycling bags which are basically for paper and card. We can pay an annual fee for a wheelie bin to use for garden refuse.

We don't have wheelie bins, there's not enough space at the front of the house to store them, and we'd have to wheel them along the back alley to get them in and out of the garden. The council tried last year to give us bins but all the streets round here kicked up a huge fuss and they agreed not to change.

I prefer bin bags, I can put out as many as I want, you aren't restricted to what fits in a bin. And we have big recycling bags for anything that can go in there.

@Looubylou

When I was a kid, we had big metal bins with a handle on each side, and the bin man came in your garden, swung it over his back, and carried it across the square and up the steps to the lorrie. They were big stocky types. Every where in the North East has wheelie bins as far as I know - I thought this was for health and safety at work reasons.

I agree I work across 4 council areas in the NE and everyone has wheelie bins. Terraces keep them at the front or there is a back alley ginnel where the bins go out from the back yards

I don’t as no front garden of any sort - flat terrace. Bags out and daily collection. Recycling bags hang from railings collected weekly.

In my bit of SE London it depends on the type of house. My street is terraced with no front gardens so no wheelie bins and everyone hangs their various coloured bags on their railings. The foxes LOVE it when the council miss a collection.

My parents don't... they have steps from their house to the street. Its a mixture around their area (in SE London), depending on the house access

PILs in Yorkshire, Victorian terrace... no space for wheelie bins. The lorry somehow navigates the back access lanes between the yards... they must have a small one!