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

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

This has probably been answered but the bin cleaners follow the bin lorry and power wash your bin for 3 quid here. Once a fortnight. Handy when it's hot and bins can smell a bit.

@ZeroFuchsGiven

No! We put them near the pavement Tuesday night and brought them back to near our door Wednesday morning like I see everyone doing

That’s fine right?

But You said this 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

So You are saying you pulled the bin back to your house yesterday after the collection and didn't notice it was full till this morning?

When I put it back it was empty! The switch must have happened afterwards

@Georgyporky

Buying a bin? What country are you in? Local councils provide them for free in England.

My council neither provides bins for free or even sells them.

Everyone in my London borough has to buy their own bins. Also, no-one has wheelie bins except for the very large communal bins outside blocks of flats.

It's someone who forgot to empty their bin, so they took yours. I don't know why people are finding that so hard to understand.

Go find your bin and take it back!

Someone put their rubbish in my bin once, next to my house, so I couldn't fit my own rubbish in. I went through the rubbish, until I found an envelope with my neighbour's address on it. I went round, knocked on and offered them their rubbish back. Which they took, embarrassed :)

This happened to me. Got a brand new bin from the council at our new house. Didn’t put my house number on it. Put it out on bin day and came home from work to find a grotty old bin full of bin juice and crud at the bottom with no lid on it! Gutted. The number had been burned off it so no idea where it came from either. I then had to pay to get a new bin lid for it!

You live and learn.

@AuntTwacky

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

Not necessarily. My local council only replace them free if the bin men damage it or it ends up in the bin lorry. I had to pay £50:this week for a new one because my old one got broken in the high wind at the weekend

I suppose that's a small advantage to having to buy your own. My bin is the only black wheelie bin in the street.

We have to buy the council approved bins and you don’t get a choice of colour or size!

My general waste doesn't involve anything wet or smelly, and is in a bag. My food waste is in compostable bags, so doesn't touch the inside of the bin. Stuff for recycling that's been in contact with food (tins, meat trays etc) gets rinsed clean under a hot tap and left to dry before it goes in the recycling bins.

I suppose you can understand different councils do things differently. Our council picks up food waste separately but they don’t take raw meat so it goes in the general waste bin. We bag it, but sometimes bags split or the gulls get at it. We’re only picked up every 4 weeks so they need cleaned.

Go find your new bin quick before the rotters who took it put their own house number on it!

Everyone in my London borough has to buy their own bins. Also, no-one has wheelie bins except for the very large communal bins outside blocks of flats.

This will be why you don’t have bin cleaners where you are then @Haffiana. The ones near us have a customised vehicle that is set up to accommodate the standard sized Council wheelie bin, it picks it up and tips it upside down over a brush thing. Too much faff to mess about with different shapes and sizes.
I guess you won’t want to out your particular Borough, but can you say what zone you are in? I’m just curious! I hate the look of Haringey wheelie bins with a passion, they are too big for the average small garden round here and make the Victorian streets look so ugly.

I wash my bins regularly and use liners too. They're labelled with stickers. Last week the binmen just dumped about 7 bins in front of one house. I got someones stinky one..it had mould and dried smears inside, looked like actual shit. Anyway I left it in front of my house and figured I'd go hunt for mine later as baby was cranky....biiiiig mistake. CF neighbour came and took his stinky bin but robbed my sparkling clean pod which I had left to the side. Rookie mistake, it was sadly numberless.
My council replace damaged/missing pods for free. Supposedly. Haven't heard back yet.
Lesson learned. I will now label pod. And paint numbers inside my bins.
I will also search for bin powder as that is a level of extra I am now aspiring to.

@RavenBrooke

I wash my bins regularly and use liners too. They're labelled with stickers. Last week the binmen just dumped about 7 bins in front of one house. I got someones stinky one..it had mould and dried smears inside, looked like actual shit. Anyway I left it in front of my house and figured I'd go hunt for mine later as baby was cranky....biiiiig mistake. CF neighbour came and took his stinky bin but robbed my sparkling clean pod which I had left to the side. Rookie mistake, it was sadly numberless. My council replace damaged/missing pods for free. Supposedly. Haven't heard back yet. Lesson learned. I will now label pod. And paint numbers inside my bins. I will also search for bin powder as that is a level of extra I am now aspiring to.

What’s a pod? Like an inner bin?

@HaveringWavering

Everyone in my London borough has to buy their own bins. Also, no-one has wheelie bins except for the very large communal bins outside blocks of flats.

This will be why you don’t have bin cleaners where you are then @Haffiana. The ones near us have a customised vehicle that is set up to accommodate the standard sized Council wheelie bin, it picks it up and tips it upside down over a brush thing. Too much faff to mess about with different shapes and sizes.
I guess you won’t want to out your particular Borough, but can you say what zone you are in? I’m just curious! I hate the look of Haringey wheelie bins with a passion, they are too big for the average small garden round here and make the Victorian streets look so ugly.

It is Wandsworth @HaveringWavering

Only normal dustbin shaped bins round here!

My mum is the type to wash her bins. Weekly. Despite having her number on the bin the next door neighbour stole it (blocks of flats next to each other). Now my mother will not confront people usually but she told the lady off for stealing her bin and got told it's only a bin. The next bin day mum was out like a shot after they were emptied and took hers back. The next door lady came out to say something and my mum called back it's only a bin. People will steal the nicer not smelly bins.

www.thescottishsun.co.uk/news/8387703/shelled-out-new-wheelie-bin-neighbours-stole/?utm_medium=Social&utm_campaign=scottishsunfacebook&utm_source=Facebook#Echobox=1644061516

Famous now

@HaveringWavering
Yeah the basket kinda thing for card/paper, it goes inside the recycling wheelie bin

@user1471447863

www.thescottishsun.co.uk/news/8387703/shelled-out-new-wheelie-bin-neighbours-stole/?utm_medium=Social&utm_campaign=scottishsunfacebook&utm_source=Facebook#Echobox=1644061516

Famous now

Yup, I found this thread from The Mirror 🤣

Also, totally agree that you should be annoyed af about it! Some folk have no decency! You should be able to spot your clean new bin as, as previously stated by others, the older bins will have scrapes or generally wear and tear on them. If you're able to, watch for the bin men and see if anyone else runs out to collect yours as they'll probably wanna get back to it before you do! Don't be shy about it, you paid for it, it's yours! Chances are yours is the only new one, should be easy to spot if they all get bundled together like ours do. Definitely clearly mark it and with something brought and obvious.