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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

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

167 replies

Sailormooncloudylemonade · 03/02/2022 22:27

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

OP posts:
TrashyPanda · 03/02/2022 23:38

[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]
It’s £3.50 forthrightly here. So not really that cheap.
£36 a year is a lot better than £91.

Lou98 · 03/02/2022 23:46

[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]

Where I am in Scotland you can just pay them as and when you need them rather than a subscription. They're £4 a bin and they'll come deep clean it, they do a good job and get a lot of business

Smileatthesmallthings · 03/02/2022 23:49

Bin cleaners here too. You can subscribe and they follow the bin lorry round and do the subscribers, or you can sign up for a one off clean (which we did when a CF swapped our bin with their hideously smelly one)

TopsieGreenwood · 03/02/2022 23:53

I didn't realise there were areas where you had to buy all your own bins rather than get wheelies/food waste bin from the council. Ours introduced wheelies as it was better for the bin men not having to lift them.

LusciousLondoner · 04/02/2022 00:09

My sister in Bracknell has the bin cleaners round once a month! We only got wheelie bins a few years ago and almost everyone has got a big sticker with the house number and street name on the bin. From Amazon I think!

SE13Mummy · 04/02/2022 00:12

That's really disappointing, and infuriating. Report the left behind bin as a missed collection and then either look in the bins closest to your home for your fragrant one with the powder residue, or resign yourself to deep cleaning the one you've been left with. In the mean time, order some bin stickers like these (they are less likely to be removed than the generic flowery number ones), so you can stake a claim to your bin as soon as you've located it. On the inside of your lid and/or on the back of your bin, paint your door number.

If a neighbour spots you looking through unlabelled bins to find yours, just explain yours is new and doesn't have numbers yet but has powder inside so you don't want it getting mixed up Wink.

To be so upset and surprised someone swapped their full bin with our empty one!!
Whatamesssss · 04/02/2022 00:15

Once you get a new bin/find your old one, put your house number on it and also score the plastic with the number as some people will take the stickers off. Also you can buy lock for the actual bin.

OnTheBoardwalk · 04/02/2022 00:29

I soldered my number on my bins after I moved in and had to pay £30 for general waste bin but got 3 recycling bins free as a one off as all the bins had been taken by previous owner.

After I'd paid for and received my new bins I found a couple them one morning in next doors garden next to their own. They claimed they thought the old neighbours had left them behind for them to take

Bin cleaners around here at £2 a bin so £6 a month for 3 out of the four bins excluding paper one

SolasAnla · 04/02/2022 00:36

Check any delivery documentation for your new bin
it is possible that your bin is microchiped and/or has a unique identifier number on it?
Some companies use these to know which bins are theirs and collection fees are paid uptodate.

TheSpottedZebra · 04/02/2022 00:44

@Whatamesssss

Once you get a new bin/find your old one, put your house number on it and also score the plastic with the number as some people will take the stickers off. Also you can buy lock for the actual bin.
Yes this! Also domit somewhere obvious and somewhere sneaky like near the base.

Bins are serious business. Our across the street neighbours, who I've known since primary when they were parents to my classmate, nicked my clean bin and left their broken grubby one. My ring doorbell saw it all. They are also very VERY churchy. I swapped it back and I wasn't even subtle

It was all I talked about for months weeks.

safariboot · 04/02/2022 00:48

The binmen scatter them with abandon after they're emptied and a lot of people don't care which one they get. After our last collection our neighbour had two recycling bins (one being mine) and no rubbish bin on their driveway. And don't get me started on the pods.

Rachie1973 · 04/02/2022 00:55

Mine and my neighbours regularly get swapped by the binmen. They do them in pairs and often get flipped. Switches back week or two later.

We have bin cleaners here as well. I don’t use them though.

betwixtlives · 04/02/2022 01:00

How did you expect to be able to identify your bin once emptied?

GreenFingersWouldBeHandy · 04/02/2022 01:05

Bins are bins!

You put rubbish in them, so yes sometimes they smell.

Do you mean the food recycling bins or the big black ones? Or the green ones?

AuntTwacky · 04/02/2022 01:09

Replacement bins should be free from the council and you should put your house number on it. Also doesn't need a liner

MrsClatterbuck · 04/02/2022 01:12

Someone took my new recycling bin and left me with theirs. All houses are new builds so their bin should have been as clean and dry as mine but it wasn't. All recycling before going into the bin is to be both clean and dry. Whoever had the bin I was now left with obviously hadn't read the leaflet from the council. I eventually swapped it with my dm's bin as she no longer needs it and hers was also fairly new.
We now have numbers on all bins.
After one bin day I opened the general waste bin and was horrified with what I saw. It was ndn bin and their cleaner took it back and gave us the correct one.
Numbers are very important. If I could I would have them on every side of the bin but DH would have a fit

HaveringWavering · 04/02/2022 01:24

@Haffiana I am in London and it doesn't exist here. Well, not in my part of London at any rate!

We have them in Haringey.

Hydrate · 04/02/2022 05:36

After a windy day those big numbers come in handy.

AlDanvers · 04/02/2022 05:44

We have a bin cleaner. We are in Yorkshire. They clean it out and put a liner in.

I also live in a terrace houses. Do yiu have a front garden or is it straight onto the road. We have front gardens and most people have a bin store at tbe front so they look a bit better. The family who lived here negate us was a large family so the council provided larger bins. Very coveted Grin

Our bin store locks at the front. Then opens at the top so we can put our rubbish in, then unlock the front to get the bin out. Again it was here when we moved in so we stuck with it.

Only time I have ever had my bin stolen was when I lived on a new build and a group of young lads stole a few of our bins, threw the rubbish out and then took them up to where they were still building, broke in and loaded the bins up with materials.

Someone spotted them and a few neighbours went out and the police came, was all very strange.

Mrbob · 04/02/2022 05:46

How on Earth would you know which bin is yours without a number?! Maybe the neighbours thiugut it was theirs.
Or thought given there were no numbers on them it really didn’t matter where they put the bag

KickAssAngel · 04/02/2022 05:59

Many councils well give you new bins if you've just moved in and there are none. Did you ask them? If not, do.

And yes, bin cleaners have been a thing for ages, unfortunately so has stealing them.

I once ran down the road in pyjamas, barefoot, yelling at some CF "oi, bring back my bin you thieving bastards". About 2 streets on they realized I wasn't giving up and abandoned my bin in the middle of the road.

Spikeyball · 04/02/2022 06:10

Someone stole my large bin about 6 months ago. They can't use it as a waste bin themselves because all large bins are registered to an address as you only get them for exceptional need. The council still haven't replaced it - no spare bins apparently - so I have had to buy my own storage and then empty the bin bags out of it onto the street on every collection day.

Nidan2Sandan · 04/02/2022 06:19

Am I the only one who has to go hunting for their bin after the refuse collectors have been? More than once they have been half way down the street.

Numbers are vital!

yorkshireteaspoonie · 04/02/2022 06:23

Yes you definitely can and should go an find your bin in the street, door knock of you have to. Trust me I work in local authority and this sort of shit is ten a penny.

Cheeky fuckers everywhere trying to avoid spending the £90 that you did. You also should nail it down when buying a house as to wether the bins will be left.

Find your bin in the street, get it behind a gate and label it boldly. Never mind faffing with bin freshener! It's a commodity worth money. Label it/ sticker it or you will consistently be shelling out for new ones

applesandoranges221 · 04/02/2022 06:31

I mean this in the nicest way possible - but you will have some experience of this kind virtually every bin day. My bins have painted numbers on and I've STILL had to go and demand them back.

Invest less emotional energy in your bin and get used to going out to look for it etc. Also, don't leave it out the front.

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