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!

To those with recycling issues - have you tried complaining to your local council about the (lack of proper) service provided?
Because if everyone did, they would have to listen to the difficulties people are having and bring in a better system??

Councils plan their bin runs on the basis of the number of bin-loads that the truck can take so if everyone puts extra waste beside their bin, the truck would be full before it finished its round, so I understand why they won't pick up extra waste, frustrating as it is.
We have 4 full size wheelie bins. The food/garden waste is emptied fortnightly and the others - non-recyclables, glass/plastic/tins, and paper/cardboard are emptied on a 3 weekly rotation. This usually works for us, but we have a garage which we can store any excess cardboard in until the next uplift. Bulk uplifts cost £35 for up to 10 items. We have only once had an uplift because we needed to dispose of two settees and who has a car big enough for that? We probably have a couple of trips a year to the tip; last week we had the flooring in both bathrooms replaced and the old flooring is currently lying in the hall waiting to go to the tip (although a bag of small pieces went in the non-recycling bin when I put it out tonight). Our tip is drive-in (with proof of address) but the council area I work in requires prebooking.

Have you tried going to your tip recently? Ours says you have to book if you look at the website but the last 2 times I’ve been I’ve just driven Straight in and no one said anything. No one there to stop me just men standing by each bin watching what you put in. I assume the website is incorrect
Another idea - try speaking to your bin men and maybe give them a tip ( if not at Christmas then a belated new year one) ?
my 92 yr old dad has always tipped the bin men ( and postie, milkman etc) and never had a problem with them taking anything away for him

If you leave cardboard boxes out in the rain for a few days, the scrunch up nicely for the recycling or you can rip them up for the compost bin.

Whats this fantasy world you you live in where public services listen to complaints by the public and then improve the service?

My local authority changed how they collect recycling/rubbish just before xmas. We now have these weighted bags which you put tins and plastic in. People are still putting plastic out in clear bags, which the council have said they are not collecting... so they end up blown about all over the place. Collection days for everything has changed, and what is says on letter/website is different to the reality. Most people are just copying their neighbours now. I know of some people who have not had their recycling collecting since November.
And the kicker is, the council have been congratulating themselves on how successful the new roll out has been.

But... there is no excuse for fly tipping.

Every week?? I thought the most anyone got these days was fortnightly. Ours is every 4 weeks, for all bins! It rotates, so one week you put out the paper/cardboard bin, the next week the plastic/metal recycling, the next week the glass and garden/food bin and then the general waste. Over Christmas, they skipped some, so it was about 8 weeks between recycling collections and about 6 weeks for general waste (when we had more waste than any other time of year). 🙄

Our bin men will take a box left by the bin, and a black bag full of plastic or cardboard.

The booking system works really well here. You know you can get a slot and no more queues. Before you had no idea how busy it would be or if the bins were filled or being emptied. So much easier now.

What if its raining on bin collection day? Do they not collect anything that day if they don't collect wet recycling?

If you can drive your rubbish to a layby/someone else's land then you can drive it to a tip

Bollocks. Take it to a tip. No excuse

And big cardboard can be cut down easily

Up until last year our wouldn’t take anything cardboard wise that was too big to go in the bin

reason being it would jam the compactor thing in back of recycling lorry
new lorry now they take anything

We can flatten our cardboard and leave it by the bin for collection. Someone posted on the FB group that they did this and have received a fine for fly tipping because it blew away and had their name and address on it. You can't win.

Some years ago driving down a nice little private road there was a van driving slowly in front. On the way back out the lane was blocked with rubbish, including broken glass where the bastards had pushed it all out of the back. Didn't get the car reg. as they had gone by then. Also someone dumped a load in a High St. and blocked the road for ages, when everyone was trying to get to work.

If councils hadn't made workmen have licences and pay to use the dumps they wouldn't have to keep paying to clear the rubbish.

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!

Of course there's places to store it. You might not want to see it or look at it or store it but you obviously do have places you can put it.

I'd never fly tip but I'm genuinely stumped by what I'd do with it if I couldn't dispose of it at work! I live in a small flat with nowhere to store it, at least safely 😬😔

It's a flattened cardboard box, of course it can be stored safely. It's not a live grenade.

There's never an excuse for fly tipping.

No booking nonsense here and if I have loads they will help me sometimes. Big shout out for Ashill in Norfolk!

They open each bin to check if the recycling is wet?
I find that very hard to believe …

I remember going to Belgium and all their cardboard would be tied up and neatly stacked at the side of the bin. Very neat.

We are supposed to, any visible contaminants (that includes wet cardboard) and it gets red tagged and left.

When recycling leaves your house it doesn't automatically head straight for a recycling centre. It can easily sit in a storage bay in a giant shed for a few weeks then it's picked up with a manitou and loaded into the back of an arctic. By which point your wet cardboard has attracted lots of bugs and gone mouldy. Dump it on a conveyor and it can gum up machinery and as it'll of contaminated everyone elses recycling a big chunk of it is now heading to landfill. Honestly if you've got wet cardboard it'd be better to put it in general waste.

This is all disgraceful.

We are lucky when we are in London in that we get weekly bin and recycling collections and can drive to the nearby tip without an appointment. It is very depressing to read about such disparity in different areas. They are not encouraging recycling. And all these arbitrary rules about what they will collect seems so unfair.

I guess it’s down to council budgets. I’m not sure you can do. Local paper?

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

Daily issues caused by thoughtless wankers! FFS.

Did you miss the bit about there being no tip appointments?

It's currently in my car - I live in a small flat and have nowhere else for it to go. It could go in the living room, where I'd probably end up tripping over it, or down the side of the oven, which doesn't seem very safe...