Page 10 | What do you tip your bin men?

ChocolateTVandbaby · 2023-12-17T16:32:24+00:00

Inspired by a podcast I'm listening to... wondering whether people tip their binmen and if so what with? My mum leaves beer out for them. Some people I know give cash. What do you give and how much?

Maireas · 18/12/2023 06:43

FuckinghellthatsUnbelievable · 18/12/2023 06:09

I suspect it’s bin, one regular, one recycling.

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Right, thanks

FuckinghellthatsUnbelievable · 18/12/2023 06:47

CasperGutman · 18/12/2023 06:15

I've literally never come across the idea of tipping the bin men*. Is this a rural thing, where a special trip is needed to get to your house? Here we're one of hundreds of houses on the street. They have to do the neighbours' bins anyway, and our waste is right there on the pavement. They have to walk right past it.

The idea of tipping them something like a gift card or a tenner makes no sense at all. There might be a crew of three to five people doing the general waste, then another crew doing the recycling and yet another collecting food waste. How will a gift card be divided between 9-15 people who may be working differently timed shifts on different vehicles? A case of beer or similar is easier to share out but no less impractical. How could similar gifts from potentially hundreds of properties be carried in a cab which needs to transport the crew back to the depot?

This seems a bit sexist for MN. Pretty sure there's a woman who sometimes drives the truck round here. Bin emptiers? Waste collectors?

Edited

Well they are mainly men, I’m the only woman in the depot. Unisex terms are loaders and drivers. I know in my small depot each crew works as a 3. There are four full time crews. One person from each crew is holding onto envelopes to be divvied at Christmas. Beer/ bottles / chocs / biscuits are taken home by whichever crew member wants them. I’m pretty sure you could fit a lot of beer in a cab tbh but part of my job would be as an assist so if there were issues so Id probably end up with lots of beer in the back. Never happened as far as I know normally I get called to collect a loader off the beat as was feeling ill or had injured themselves type stuff. Or a lorry has broken and loaders need collecting whilst driver waits for commercial recovery (takes about 4 hours to arrive).

Zingy123 · 18/12/2023 06:54

Nothing. They continually leave the bins in the road meaning someone has to move them all.

My parents tip everyone. They tip the binmen, postman, the doctors, the pharmacy, the garage, the vet, the hairdresser and beautician at Christmas.

DuaneBenzie · 18/12/2023 07:01

Merryoldgoat · 17/12/2023 16:45

@ChocolateTVandbaby are you on email?

I was just about to ask the same thing...

Bagwyllydiart · 18/12/2023 07:12

A case of beer left on each colour of bin.

Maireas · 18/12/2023 08:00

Ostryga · 17/12/2023 22:57

I don’t use supermarkets so no I don’t tip shelf stackers, I buy my daughter’s teachers and her tutors something every Christmas and Easter, I pay for private health insurance.

The conversation was about binmen, why are you making it about other things? If you’re upset about not getting tips you could always wait tables over Xmas. I used to and my word! The tips were crazy big.

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I'm not upset. Don't make this personal.
I'm trying to work out why some people get tips and others don't.
A hierarchy of tipping, if you will.

FrillyGoatFluff · 18/12/2023 08:16

My husband takes the piss every year that I tip the postman and the bin men at christmas.

I do a tenner for each.

We have a HUGE amount of Amazon deliveries (husband's addiction, it's ridiculous) so I always feel guilty that they have to deal with the incoming and outgoing mountain of crap on the daily.

He says it's my most middle class trait 😂 which is going some, frankly

Maireas · 18/12/2023 08:25

@FrillyGoatFluff so how much do you tip the Amazon person?

VoiceOfCommonSense · 18/12/2023 09:05

This goes back to when binmen would come on to your property, pick up the bins and carry them out to empty them. Used to be a much harder job before they started making people take their own bins out and sorting all the recycling themselves etc.

Original poster

ChocolateTVandbaby · 18/12/2023 09:11

QUESTION - How do you tip the postman if you never see him?
Do you just stick an envelop on the front door with ''Postman'' written on it and hope it's not stolen?

I was just going to ask the same

OP posts:

Maddy70 · 18/12/2023 09:54

Why would I tip them? I dont tip anyone. They're doing a job that they're paid for

Goodlard · 18/12/2023 10:51

2chocolateoranges · 17/12/2023 16:42

Nothing, they leave my bins behind my car every bloody bin day when rhere is plenty of space not to block my car in or out!

Two teams £15 each team..... never get bins left behind my car...

ithinkthatmaybeimdreaming · 18/12/2023 20:44

FuckinghellthatsUnbelievable · 18/12/2023 06:24

I don’t think it would work in practice in the UK generally. It’d really only work in areas where bin collection area is relatively flat, free of obstruction and there are no parked cars along the curb. I saw a video with an ai version. Driverless truck. I could see it working in new build housing estates. Normal roads with cars everywhere, not a chance.

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Do you think we don't have cars here? The hydraulic arms can navigate around cars.

Furrydogmum · 18/12/2023 20:51

£150 between three of them. We have a horrendous, probably mentally ill, but nevertheless difficult and threatening neighbour, and the bin men have dealt with him amazingly on my 70+ mums behalf - she insists on the tip.

FuckinghellthatsUnbelievable · 18/12/2023 21:22

ithinkthatmaybeimdreaming · 18/12/2023 20:44

Do you think we don't have cars here? The hydraulic arms can navigate around cars.

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Would they lift the bins over the cars? I appreciate it’s different everywhere but where I am bins often go on the pavement. Then the loaders need to walk them past cars to find a gap wide enough to walk through. I don’t think the British are naturally prone to rioting but I suspect being told they aren’t allowed to park on their street in bin nights might do it.

FourLeggedBuckers · 18/12/2023 21:30

FuckinghellthatsUnbelievable · 18/12/2023 21:22

Would they lift the bins over the cars? I appreciate it’s different everywhere but where I am bins often go on the pavement. Then the loaders need to walk them past cars to find a gap wide enough to walk through. I don’t think the British are naturally prone to rioting but I suspect being told they aren’t allowed to park on their street in bin nights might do it.

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Just look at how heating and well populated street parking threads are on AIBU. We take our parking etiquette very seriously - just imagine the whole new level of carnage this sort of thing could cause 😂

catwithflowers · 18/12/2023 21:55

@ChocolateTVandbaby I see our postman maybe three times a week. We live quite rurally and have a fair few parcels delivered. He's such a nice guy. And I'm retired so look out for his van to give him a Christmas gift

ithinkthatmaybeimdreaming · 18/12/2023 23:44

FuckinghellthatsUnbelievable · 18/12/2023 21:22

Would they lift the bins over the cars? I appreciate it’s different everywhere but where I am bins often go on the pavement. Then the loaders need to walk them past cars to find a gap wide enough to walk through. I don’t think the British are naturally prone to rioting but I suspect being told they aren’t allowed to park on their street in bin nights might do it.

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Yes, they lift the bins over the cars. The bins are on the edge of the footpath, they get lifted up - over any parked cars - emptied into the lorry and returned to the footpath.

AssistantHead · 19/12/2023 01:35

We have 4 refuse teams for the 4 bin types. I don’t usually manage to tip all teams but as I’m fortunate financially and as I’ve known briefly when younger how nice it is to receive a tip when not well off, I try to tip each team member a fiver. Someone put on a separate thread that refuse collectors earn $40 (sic) an hour. Maybe all our refuse collectors own mansions and drive Lamborghinis but I suspect they’re more likely to have been hard hit by the cost of living crisis as have many employees of companies who’ve won outsourcing contracts. It’s a hard and often thankless job despite being essential. An argument against is ‘if they get a tip from everyone they make a mint’. On another post, a gardener said they received very few tips but it was lovely when they did. We all feel under appreciated. As a young teen I survived 3 weeks delivering newspapers before school. It was knackering, and even though it was around Easter it was very cold. I was invisible to my customers (except a dog which terrified me daily). If I’d survived till Christmas I would have more than deserved every penny of my Christmas box. Loads of people can’t afford to tip. For the moment I can. One of the people who taught me to tip said “It warms the heart”.

yourturn · 19/12/2023 18:33

Reminds me I need to go get some haribo for bin day, my binman loves them.

Also cold drinks in the summer go down really well with them

Cel77 · 19/12/2023 19:59

I got them a box of chocolates to share last year. Not a tip as such, more a thank you for their back breaking hard work. They're always lovely as well, so that helps.

Benibidibici · 26/12/2023 08:28

That really isn’t the norm in the UK. Here there are humans running all over the place grabbing wheelie bins to drag to the truck, which then lifts the bin to tip it. Then it’s human power to deposit the bin somewhere near where it started and they’re running off the next place. And yes, often they do seem to be running, not walking. It’s not an easy job. Plus there’s all the lifting and chucking of extra bin bags, which is done manually.

Im in the uk and this isn't the norm.

you are expected to drag your bin kerbside the day of the collection, to facilitate the truck picking up. If its not located where they want it, often they don't empty it.
never seen bin men running around hauling bins in recent years. The bin arms pick up the bins and empty them. they back the truck up right by the bin.
extra bin bags?!! They've not taken extra bags in years. Where i live if your bin is over full such that the lid does not close properly it won't be emptied.
they don't return bins to a sensible position. We live in a cul de sac and bins are left strewn unhelpfully, on the road, blocking driveways etc

CeriB82 · 26/12/2023 10:16

The only tip i give them is put the wheelie bin back where it was left for you. Dont leave it in the middle of the road.

FourLeggedBuckers · 26/12/2023 11:38

Benibidibici · 26/12/2023 08:28

That really isn’t the norm in the UK. Here there are humans running all over the place grabbing wheelie bins to drag to the truck, which then lifts the bin to tip it. Then it’s human power to deposit the bin somewhere near where it started and they’re running off the next place. And yes, often they do seem to be running, not walking. It’s not an easy job. Plus there’s all the lifting and chucking of extra bin bags, which is done manually.

Im in the uk and this isn't the norm.

you are expected to drag your bin kerbside the day of the collection, to facilitate the truck picking up. If its not located where they want it, often they don't empty it.
never seen bin men running around hauling bins in recent years. The bin arms pick up the bins and empty them. they back the truck up right by the bin.
extra bin bags?!! They've not taken extra bags in years. Where i live if your bin is over full such that the lid does not close properly it won't be emptied.
they don't return bins to a sensible position. We live in a cul de sac and bins are left strewn unhelpfully, on the road, blocking driveways etc

Lucky bin men in your area. Everything I said remains true for every area I’ve lived in, in the UK. I see them running around with bins and extra bags every week here.

But, given their workload, I don’t expect them to return bins to their original location. If they leave one blocking my driveway, I move it, and it doesn’t register to me to complain about such a trivial issue.

Msmumm · 26/12/2023 11:57

My tip would be to stop leaving the bins blocking the road when they have emptied them!
We live on a small private road so have to wheel our bins to the top of the road to be emptied. All 4 houses leave the bins neatly to one side so that cars can get in our out. The bin men seem unable to leave them where they found them and leave them in a line blocking entrance to the road. A couple of years ago my neighbour needed an ambulance in an emergency. The crew had to move the bins before they could get the ambulance down the road. They have been asked multiple times not to do it but residents just get abuse in response. They are complete knobs.