To be so upset and surprised someone swapped their full bin with our empty one!!

[Sailormooncloudylemonade]

I’ve lived in flats all my life until I moved to our house less than 2 months ago.

The bin collection situation was all new to us and we spent 90£ on new bins as previous owners didn’t leave their bins behind.

To prevent my brand new bins from smelling I put a liner on them and sprinkled with a nice smelling powder I bought online.

We leave the bins at the front usually as we are not used to open the 2 side gates that give access to the garden and find very tricky to use them.

The collection was yesterday and just minutes ago I headed to my food bin to put my compostable bag with food waste on it to find that bin completely FULL UP without a liner or compostable bags or anything. Just food waste directly on the bin 🤢

I am so upset…

Is this a thing or I’m just unlucky?
I see so many neighbours leaving their bins outside I thought it was ok?

What should I do to the loose food waste? Do I have to put it in compostable bags myself or will they collect it like that?

I am reading the council’s website but it’s not clear and there is no number to call. The only email I found about bins is to order new ones so not sure who to contact and what to do to someone else’s rubbish!

It might sound silly but I’m so sad my clean new bin has been swapped by an old stinky one that I now have to sort out and deep clean. I don’t even have space to put my own food waste for the rest of the week 😭

Any advice will be very helpful

I'm guessing you didn't put your house number on your nice, new, clean-smelling, lined bin...

Go and get it back from wherever it is, and do it quick before they paint their own number on it!

When you say out do you mean on the street or in your garden? We are not allowed to leave them on the street where I live, also people put their house numbers on their bins , I wrote mine in paint

I did not! Does everyone do this? How can I be sure that other bin without a number are mine? Also don’t want to be caught in someone else cctv/ ring door bells stealing their bin! 😬

The stinky one doesn’t have a number either

Everyone’s bins are numbered where I live 🤷‍♀️

@RedCandyApple

When you say out do you mean on the street or in your garden? We are not allowed to leave them on the street where I live, also people put their house numbers on their bins , I wrote mine in paint

I mean front garden/ drive rather than Locked on the back garden.

Yes, I am seeing now the importance of putting the house number on my bins.

Will lock them away from now on too!!

We are just new to this own bins situation so getting used to it and learning the hard way I guess 🤷🏻‍♀️

Yeah numbers. Someone robbed off with my big grey refuse bin altogether one day. After that, I got numbers.

The first thing we did when we got our new bin was to paint our number on each side. People are CFs and think any new bin is up for grabs if it's not numbered.

If it's hard to get back now, you'll have to hope they don't put their own number in it and then you can get in first and take it back next bin day.

Numbers and bring your bin in straight away.

I did smile at the liner and powder though. Give it a year and just pay the bin cleaners to wash it out.

If you don't put a number on how would you know which is yours? Apart from the liner which would have gone into the bin truck?

@gamerchick

Numbers and bring your bin in straight away.

I did smile at the liner and powder though. Give it a year and just pay the bin cleaners to wash it out.

Eh? Bin cleaners? Do these exist? Where do you live that you have bin cleaners?

@Didioverstep

If you don't put a number on how would you know which is yours? Apart from the liner which would have gone into the bin truck?

I live in a terraced house. Our bins are put in our front garden near the road, but still in front of our house. They neighbours’ bins are in front of their houses

When the bins are next emptied, go straight out and grab the clean one.

We only leave our recycling bin in the communal bin store. General waste and food waste we keep indoors until the night before collection. People are shameless fecks so I take no chances. All bins MUST be numbered.

Bin cleaners are definitely a thing. I've never used them but have seen them in action.

@Haffiana bin cleansers do indeed exist, around here they follow the bin men and clean the bins if you’re subscribed (we’re not sadly), they do a great job from what I’ve witnessed. One day, on my bucket list, I’ll be subscribed to bin cleaning 😆

*when I say indoors, I actually mean in our side alley.

Food waste bin? Can you call the council and tell them what has happened its a fail to collect isn't it?

@SpacePotato

When the bins are next emptied, go straight out and grab the clean one.

People say this but I genuinely don’t understand. You guys mean search my entire road and roads nearby for a clean not numbered bin and actually take it with me? I couldn’t do that 😳

There is not even guarantees that it’s mine!

[quote Phoenix76]@Haffiana bin cleansers do indeed exist, around here they follow the bin men and clean the bins if you’re subscribed (we’re not sadly), they do a great job from what I’ve witnessed. One day, on my bucket list, I’ll be subscribed to bin cleaning 😆[/quote]
We have them here too.
I’m not a subscriber either.
One day.

I have someone else’s bin too. It’s not as clean as mine. Next night. Day I’ll be looking to swap it back.
Must put numbers on.

The bin cleaners round here charge £4 per clean. But unfortunately I don’t have that anymore.

@Haffiana yes it’s a real thing (in U.K.). You pay a tiny amount (think it’s something like £18 every 6 months) & once a month they clean your bin out after it’s been collected. It is amazing.

@Theunamedcat

Food waste bin? Can you call the council and tell them what has happened its a fail to collect isn't it?

I am struggling to find the correct number/email to contact.

I don’t want to report as failure to collect as it’s not my bin and the food waste is not in compostable bags so not sure if that’s the reason it wasn’t collected in the first place?

Also I did repost my general waste bin only being collected half way a couple of weeks ago so by reporting again it might look suspicious to them?

[quote TreeLawney]@Haffiana yes it’s a real thing (in U.K.). You pay a tiny amount (think it’s something like £18 every 6 months) & once a month they clean your bin out after it’s been collected. It is amazing.[/quote]
I am in London and it doesn't exist here. Well, not in my part of London at any rate!

Bin cleaners?! Never heard of this, having lived in 5 different UK towns plus London.

I am in awe of a town so clean it has bin cleaners.

Bin cleaners are a thing here too. I seem to be in the minority here who manages to clean their own bin.

OP, number your bin but do it with paint and not stickers. One of my neighbours took our bin once and removed the stickers! I knew it was ours as it had a piece of tinsel tangled around one of the wheels

"I don’t want to report as failure to collect as it’s not my bin and the food waste is not in compostable bags so not sure if that’s the reason it wasn’t collected in the first place?"

You'd have to check the rules in your area. We are not allowed to put the compostable bags (except paper ones) in our food waste bin, because the process used at our local plant does not break them down quickly enough.

If yours got emptied, it sounds like they're allowed in your area, though.