To think it's no wonder people fly tip?

[QuestionableMouse]

Recycling day today - I put my bin out, along with a big cardboard box from a delivery that I'd flattened. It was too big to go in the bin, and thick cardboard which I couldn't break down. It's been left by the road, along with a bag of recycling from a neighbour who is waiting for a new bin. There's more cardboard been left across the street - looks like a microwave box that's filled with cans, judging by the few around it.

It's so frustrating - all of it could have been taken and recycled but now there's plastic bottles, cans and cardboard scattered all over the street! Can't get a skip appointment for love nor money so what are people meant to do?

My cardboard is going to work with me tomorrow - the house has an open fire so it'll be burned which I hate but there's nowhere to store it and it won't fit in the bin, especially not with another two weeks' recycling!

No wonder people resort to fly tipping when it feels so impossible to get rid of stuff through the waste collection!

Yep! And there's a limit to how many you can book as well.

Where we are, the nearest tip is 4 miles away but it's in a neighbouring county so since the booking system came in we can't use it anymore.

"Our" tip is 15 miles away and only open 4 days a week. Absolute ballache.

Where we live they don’t recycle glass at the kerbside. There are two entirely inadequate recycling bins in the next village, which is a 50 minute walk. We don’t have a car and no bus goes nearby. So we are keeping them in our garage until they introduce doorstep collection in 2026…

And some smug posters are willfully ignoring just how difficult this is for others in different areas and circumstances.

This thread is like the GP appointments thread - all the posts that an OP should "just" do it the way it works in their area, completely ignoring the fact that some local authorities provide piss poor services and seem determined to make good waste management as difficult as possible. They especially make it difficult for people without cars, garden/garage storage or autonomy to know their working hours eight weeks ahead.

My LA is a model in this space - seven days a week tip, turn up and use it (with warnings about peak times), a freecycle system and comprehensive recycling options. Weekly collections of "black bag" waste, recycling, garden waste and food waste all on the same day included in the rates. Bin men don't leave rubbish on the street with any old excuse. Consequently people use it well.

Contrast with another family member's LA - Rubbish, food waste, recycling and garden waste all collected on different days of the week on different frequencies. Three weekly for rubbish (limited quantity), three weekly on a different week and different day for recycling (also limited), two weekly for food waste on a different day and cycle (also limited). Garden waste yet another cycle and charged by quantity. Nearest tip is a 40 minute round trip, appts only, appts a month in advance disappear as quickly as GP appts.
The recycling has to be divided between four different boxes, cannot be overfilled and the boxes have no lids - so rubbish blows all over the place.

Both councils in their audited reports show similar cost per head of adult population to deliver.

Some councils are just poor and provide lousy services, particularly to people not advantaged with cars, good health, work autonomy and storage.

I work during the week bar a couple of mornings. Its precisely because its buisier at weekends that the booking system works so well. If you just have the weekend to go to the tip why wouldnt you spend a minute of so booking a slot so that it wasnt a wasted journey!

But I might not know I need to go to the tip until I do...... then what? What if there are no slots available that weekend? What if I want to call in on my way somewhere else?

With regard to shopping. I just think some people choose not to get up too early, faff around at home and then drive to the shops and then get frustrated they have to queue at popular shopping centres. It happens every single time I go. I am not going at the crack of dawn. As long as I am there by 1000 its fine to get in

And some people have other commitments. Saturday and Sunday mornings are taken up with sports and hobbies in our house. We don't dictate those times.

Can you go to another tip?

But I might not know I need to go to the tip until I do...... then what? What if there are no slots available that weekend? What if I want to call in on my way somewhere else?

I don’t understand this. Why do you need to go to the tip at such short notice?

I don’t understand this. Why do you need to go to the tip at such short notice?

Because (like last week) we decided on Saturday morning that we'd spend the afternoon having a clear out.
We did multiple tip runs.

Our bin collections are every 3 weeks so every now and then we need to do a tip run. This isn't something we necessarily plan as we're both busy so it's as and when one of us would be driving that way.

Buy a Stanley knife to cut up the cardboard.
It's a faffy job but just one wee effort to help our planet.

Do you mean there’s a waiting list for appointments or something?

In principle no, in practice yes, @KimberleyClark
Between the IT systems which don't work and the ever-decreasing opening hours/slots available, it takes ages to get a booking at all, and as PPs have said it's no earthly use to those who don't drive

What really frustrates me is that they spout constantly about "green issues/sustainability" and do practically nothing to enable it - but then that's the mulish attitude of too many councils for you, where the real mindset is to find ways to say something can't be done

No, or I don't think so because they ask where you live and you have to pay council tax under that council!

Because there's actually not many green or sustainable ways to get rid of stuff once its gone to the bin/tip. It all costs money too. Councils are between a rock and a hard place with this.

The best way is not to have so much stuff in the first place and to reuse the stuff we do have.

Our recycling is meant to be dry, but luckily our bin men don't stick to that, as we have no bins just bags and live in Wales, so it usually gets rained on before they pick it up. They do take large unfolded boxes next to the bags as well.

HOW did you do multiple runs?

The queues at ours are hideous. You can be waiting 40 minutes

I am with you OP. Councils take a lot of money in council tax and then whine about having to remove rubbish, which is the key thing most people see for the large amounts of council tax they pay.

Our local county council wants to reduce opening times and days for the local tips but it doesn't have to deal with fly tipping, the district councils do. So it doesn't care. Clearly if you make it more difficult to get rid of rubbish legally, people will do illegally.

We need a national strategy for waste disposal, sensible opening hours for tips (I accept they will be shorter in the winter due to daylight hours) and for councils to work together instead of saying that someone can't use their tip because it is just over the border, despite being nearer than their own county's tip.

Our council WILL take cardboard if you leave it next to the recycling bin though, so are more sensible than yours!

HOW did you do multiple runs?

The queues at ours are hideous. You can be waiting 40 minutes

We have to book in advance which has got rid of the long queues. It's not difficult to get a slot. But you have to register your car in advance so they know you live in county (not sure what happens if you can cycle with rubbish!)

Looks like we can’t queue anymore. Just drive past on the off chance that you don’t have to queue, It’s so stupid,

@mealideas2024 it's an appointment for the household waste recycling (ha!) site where they have skips where you can dump general waste, cardboard, recycling, garden waste and so on.

Well the box in question has gone. The Gran of the family I work for has an open fire and took it with glee - though I was pretty bemused when she get about cutting it up with an electric carving knife 🙈😂 she's set for kindling for ages now at least!

we have "put out your rubbish days" when anything and everything would be collected from the kerbside

That is something I do wish we have where I live. I don't drive, so if I have big/heavy stuff I have to store it in my garage, and when my exDH visits we take it to the recycling centre/dump.

There is no booking system here for visiting the resource recovery place, and no really long queues either. They have a shop, so anything in good condition goes there to be sold (for very cheap prices), so they will take most stuff.

HOW did you do multiple runs?

Erm we drove their dumped our stuff and drove home again x3

We queued for maybe 10-15 mins on average. Not a huge inconvenience.

OP lives in a flat and doesnt have her own outside space

So a massive fridge sized thick piece of card, bit like a floppy wet carpet, even if she has somewhere to get it wet, she then drags up the stairs and leaves it where to dry out?

Can the people delivering not take it away

That's what I usually do.?

In Oldham you get 52 visits a year. And the Spanish inquisition on each visit. You get turned away if you have prohibited items.

Operatives will check what's in your bags to ensure things get recycled properly.

Trash nothing website will help get rid of things including big bits of cardboard and empty wine bottles.
https://trashnothing.com/beta/

We had this recently, bread knife works like a charm.

I did not spend a fortune on my bread knife to use it on cardboard!