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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

Putting rubbish in a public bin

233 replies

HippyPippy · 20/08/2023 22:18

Someone I know regularly puts a carrier bag or two in a public bin. It’s because her bun is always full and she doesn’t want to put the dog waste in her own bin.

She has said that sometimes people driving by will give her dirty looks and beep their horn as if she’s doing something wrong?

I personally wouldn’t bat an eyelid if I saw someone putting rubbish in a bin, but it got me thinking whether others think this is wrong and if so why?

OP posts:
CruCru · 21/08/2023 09:40

At the weekend there was a load of rubbish around a public bin and a friend was horrified when I picked it up and put it in the bin. I think people think there are loads of other people employed to do that stuff - in most places it’s just sorted by the people who live there.

Corgiowner · 21/08/2023 09:41

User15387500 · 20/08/2023 22:41

We have weekly food waste collections which helps stop the other rubbish smelling and getting maggots. I thought most people had food waste collections now

I live in a remote area food waste is not collected here.

Theunamedcat · 21/08/2023 09:41

fyn · 21/08/2023 08:09

You take it to the household waste centre like everybody else does… not just fly tip it because you can’t be bothered to go.

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Our household waste center is in the next town it is not accessible by foot

benfoldsfivefan · 21/08/2023 09:42

It’s no biggie, I do it all the time as my bin gets full quickly. Of all the things in the world to be concerned about, anyone fretting or judging others about this non-issue needs to get a grip.

Anonymouslyposting · 21/08/2023 09:45

As others have said, I’m shocked by the differences between rubbish collection in different areas! I always knew my parents in the suburbs have two massive wheelie bins (one compost and one general waste) and a recycling box and we in the city have recycling bags and a small bin. It I’ve never really thought how much difference it makes.

Our outside bin takes 1-2 bin bags, only one if it’s really full. There is no extra outside space for additional bins. We have no separate food waste collection. Those apparently horrified that some people can fill their bins in a week/fortnightly should recognise that not everyone has the same space/provision as they do.

PinkFootstool · 21/08/2023 09:45

Peony654 · 21/08/2023 09:40

I think it's fine, why is it different to having a picnic in a park and then putting rubbish in the park bin. I'm pretty shocked people are saying they are filling their bins in a fortnight. We barely fill ours in 2 months, do people not recycle and separate food waste

Lots of us do not have separate food waste bins or collections though. Your experience only demonstrates what happens in your area, it doesn't translate everywhere.

CruCru · 21/08/2023 09:46

Peony654 · 21/08/2023 09:40

I think it's fine, why is it different to having a picnic in a park and then putting rubbish in the park bin. I'm pretty shocked people are saying they are filling their bins in a fortnight. We barely fill ours in 2 months, do people not recycle and separate food waste

In fairness, some councils give really small bins for household refuse. If we had lots of people staying, ours will fill up in a fortnight.

It got stolen and the council only had big ones left - so we no longer fill it up. We’ve also painted our house name all over the new one.

MariaVT65 · 21/08/2023 09:52

Anonymouslyposting · 21/08/2023 09:28

Oh dear - we do this with nappies too! If we put nappies in the outside bins the foxes go in after them and scatter them across the street. We live in an area where there’s no room for big wheelie bins with proper lids so everyone has small trash can type things which are full well before collection. We can’t drive so can’t get to the tip so not sure what else to do really.

We do double bag the nappies though.

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The only way we have survived the dirty nappy issue with no outside bin is to have a nappy bin with the protective film in it. But yes even that does start to smell if you leave it over a week.

mewkins · 21/08/2023 09:52

needtonamechangeforthis1 · 20/08/2023 23:11

This thread is Mumsnet at its most batshit I've ever seen!
😂😂😂😂

God do people seriously care what other people put in the bins 🙄😳🤣🤣🤣

I'm very much enjoying it 😄😄😄

MariaVT65 · 21/08/2023 09:54

Peony654 · 21/08/2023 09:40

I think it's fine, why is it different to having a picnic in a park and then putting rubbish in the park bin. I'm pretty shocked people are saying they are filling their bins in a fortnight. We barely fill ours in 2 months, do people not recycle and separate food waste

It’s different in every area. We have a separate collection for household, food and recycling, but no outside bins and we have to pay extra for garden waste to be collected.

My mum in a different area has 3 outside bins for household/food, recycling and garden waste. Food goes into household and isn’t collected separately.

pizzaHeart · 21/08/2023 09:55

liveforsummer · 21/08/2023 06:39

Shows how things vary dependant on area. Our supermarket car parks tend to have mini recycling centres full of bins for the public to use

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ours have recycling bins as well and also a charity bin. The problem was with small bins near the entrance - before the sign they were often overflow with people putting household rubbish and those who were out of the shop couldn’t get rid of their rubbish e.g sandwich or sweets packagings.

Snugglemonkey · 21/08/2023 09:58

BananaSlug · 20/08/2023 22:25

Gosh everyone does that round here! Our bin collections have recently this year gone on to fortnightly so now all the public bins are full of huge bags of rubbish and rubbish by the side of them too because people are resorting to dumping it in public bins, I do it too as I’m not putting things in my bin that will be left rotting in the summer for 2 weeks I had maggots the other day so now I’m putting no food in my bins and taking it to public ones

Do you not have food recycling caddies for composting? We do not put food in bins here.

backtogrey · 21/08/2023 09:58

TheBitterBoy · 20/08/2023 22:30

This is fly tipping. People have been fined for doing this.

Eh? What a bizarre comment.

Theroom · 21/08/2023 09:59

I think it's immoral as that is not their purpose. I would judge if I knew that's what they were doing.

However, I wouldn't beep if I saw someone doing it as I know a few people who are civic minded and litter pick in their spare time. To and outsider it might be misconstrued that they are dumping their own waste, but they aren't.

DRS1970 · 21/08/2023 10:01

We had someone doing this exact same thing to the bins on the site where I worked-putting their households dog waste into our bins. We reported it to the council and the perpetrators was prosecuted for fly tipping. So I can say with certainty it isn't acceptable behaviour.

WhenLifeGivesYouLimes · 21/08/2023 10:05

backtogrey · 21/08/2023 09:58

Eh? What a bizarre comment.

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What's bizarre about that comment?

It's not fly tipping by the usual definition, no, but some councils do class it under fly tipping, and fines are not unknown if you're identified putting a bag of household waste in a public litter bin.

There was a case I read about a while ago where some poor sod picked up his post on his way out of the door to go to work, opened it as he walked to the station, and binned a piece of junk mail with his address on it in the nearest litter bin after he'd opened it. The council found it and fined him for putting household waste in a public bin. Mind you of course that's just his story - the bit where his post was actually delivered before he left for work seems implausible to me.

HeatherMoores · 21/08/2023 10:10

Are so many councils going to fortnightly collections? Surely that can’t be good for public sanitation and health? Won’t the streets and alleys just start smelling and it encourages rats? Some countries like Spain empty the bins most days.
It’s like we’re going backwards.

Snugglemonkey · 21/08/2023 10:12

Valerie23 · 20/08/2023 22:43

I regularly put a bag of rubbish in motorway services bin.

In the summer the services are used by a lot of caravan stop offs and they all leave bags of unsorted rubbish in the bins or next to the bins.

It keeps at least two people in a job emptying them.

I also take a carrier bag of rubbish when I go supermarket shopping to put in their bin as it's all food wrappers from their shop.

Why can you not use the tip like you are supposed to if you have excess waste? Or get another bin?

BlueBlubbaWhale · 21/08/2023 10:14

If people don't want to put their own dog waste in their own bin maybe they shouldn't have a dog,

I'd be mighty peeved at someone dumping their household waste near our local public bin as it attracts rats as it is (one of which decided to come in our open door one day!).

Snugglemonkey · 21/08/2023 10:19

liveforsummer · 20/08/2023 23:31

Lol at the fly tipping/ human and household waste comments. So you go the park with a picnic and change your baby, pick up your dogs shit then bin it alongside the picnic litter and it's fine but a carrier bag with the same items without the trip will get you a fine? Unlikely! As for food waste bins. If anyone can come up with a fox proof design then maybe people locally will go back to using them but most got tired of scraping the contents up off the pavement

We have foxes around here and have never had any issue with our food waste bin. So it is certainly possible.

TheHateIsNotGood · 21/08/2023 10:20

Just in case it hasn't been said yet but not all public waste bins are provided by the same Council as the one that collects household waste. Many public waste and some dog waste bins are provided and emptied by local Parish and Town Councils and the household waste collected by the District Council.

Coolblur · 21/08/2023 10:22

Seems fine to me, if a little unusual. If the council don't want people to do this then they should arrange more frequent bin collections. As for it causing an issue with overflowing public bins, report any you see to the council, they have a duty to empty them for public health reasons. So I guess it does have a knock on effect, but that is because of my first point; inadequate frequency of household waste collection. Ultimately we pay for waste collection be it household bins or public bins, via our council tax, what does it matter which we use?

40andlovelife · 21/08/2023 10:25

I have 2 dogs and collect their poos in the little poo bags in a carrier bag next to my bins. Every 2 days I take the carrier bag which is usually full by then to the local public bin by the park. No way am I keeping all my dog poos for a fortnight, it would cause bad smells and flies which would be horrible for the locals. The bin by the park gets emptied daily .

WhenLifeGivesYouLimes · 21/08/2023 10:28

Snugglemonkey · 21/08/2023 10:12

Why can you not use the tip like you are supposed to if you have excess waste? Or get another bin?

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"Just use the tip" isn't that simple tbf. Mine's an hour each way. I don't think I'd be wildly popular on the bus with a bin bag full of food waste/nappies/cat litter.

AnneAnon · 21/08/2023 10:30

Oh wow wheelie bin privilege is a thing.