What do you tip your bin men?

[ChocolateTVandbaby]

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?

I don’t. I pay council tax.

No tip. Agree with others, that I earn less than them, work more hours and no tips or bonus etc. Nor do I know who they are.

we used to have a great postie who I gave things to, always went the extra mile. Now seem to have random people. And not much post as too expensive to use RM

What sort of outdated services do you have? Where I live the binperson drives a truck, presses a button, the equipment picks up the bin, empties it into the truck, puts the bin down. Nothing horrible about it, and the weather doesn't matter a bit.

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.

They press a button, the hydraulic arms pick up the bin, empty it into the truck, then replace the bin on the footpath. There is only one person in the truck, he does the driving.

I'm not in the UK btw, but I assumed it would be much the same there. Seems I was wrong.

So your bins are left in a specific place where these hydraulic arms can reach them without human intervention?

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.

They like (in order) cash, beer, chocolates, wine

The bins are all placed on the edge of the footpaths. Same with the recycling bins. There are no extra bin bags, they only take bins.

The Loaders don’t get much more than minimum wage. They are out in all weathers, no matter how hard the rain, in the snow, when it’s burning hit in the sunshine, they walk about 20 miles a day - it’s blummin hard work. I couldn’t do it.

@FuckinghellthatsUnbelievable where I work, in an affluent part of the south east, the Loaders most certainly do not earn that much. They’re barely above minimum wage.

I just can’t visualise how that would work in practice. But fair enough.

In the UK, however, bin men do have a tough, physical job that has them out in all weather. And in my opinion, they deserve a tip at Christmas from those who can afford it.

There was a time they were out in all weathers here and had to do physical work. Still didn't tip them - plenty of others also work in similar conditions but no-one cares about them.

Good for you. You can make your own decisions about what you do with your money. I’m happy to chuck a few quid at people who provide a valuable service for me.

I also work outside in all weather and don’t get tips. I don’t think what other people do for work is relevant.

zero i don't see them
they come around at 7am ish and as im never up i just go out when i do wake(hours later)and take in said empty bin, mostly its 3-4 houses up

also i don't know if it was a new guy or their bosses moaning at them but in the summer for 3 weeks solid 99% of the street was having one of those stickers saying they cant empty it because of wrong items put in even if you did not have wrong items.it was heatwave month as well

on the village Facebook group thing the whole village was having it
so bin man would come to the village and go away with a very empty cart
loads moaned at the council and it just went back to normal

my neighbour had it on ring camera of one diving deep in to the bin looking

Nothing, because they are useless!

Postman £10
Black in £10
Green in £10

I've had the same postman for several years and he is reliable.

I don't. I already do 2/3 of their work by taking my own bins in and out.
They don't tip me for that do they.

I have never heard of tipping the bin men or postie before...

Usually chocolates

😲I hope they don’t get into trouble over the box of Victoria Selection I tied onto my bin!!

What's a Black in/Green in?

I’m in. Scotland and following the strikes of last / this year the loaders all got 10% pay rises taking them up to just over £12 ph. With the announcement of min wage increase they got an extra £1 an hour effective immediately. I work for the LA and have had the same increase.

I do wonder if a bit like the teachers strikes starting off in Scotland whether there will be strikes in England by refuse collectors etc this summer. Piles of hot, smelly waste, wafting away in the sunshine in front of tourists. I know things were pretty brutal in Edinburgh over the festival, imagine how much waste London produces.

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

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?

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.