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!

So during Covid our local tip implemented an appointment system. You go online, book a slot for 15 mins and you put your car registration in the booking form. They then tick you off when you arrive and you are in!

It proved so popular they kept it after COVID! IMHO its a great system unless you are someone who cannot be bothered to book a slot and just want to turn up.

Councils are really struggling for money so I do have a certain amount of sympathy for them, but equally, we struggle to because our nearest tip is now a 34 mile round trip. They've closed the nearest option to the public.

You can cut cardboard up. Use a bread saw down the folds. Or burn it in the garden.

Many councils, mine included, have an online system where you can book a tip visit - you choose a date and time. With ours you are allowed 26 visits a year used as you like as long as you don’t go more than three times in any one week. I can usually get a slot a couple of days in advance. That said I don’t work so can go at any time, but the centre is open 7 days a week 9.30-6. You need to take booking confirmation and proof of address.

@QuestionableMouse non of that booking malarkey round here.

@QuestionableMouse

For your main non-problem you need a Box knife (the que is in the name). When I couldn't make it to the tip with extra rubbish, that knife was used on every single cardboard box to cut them to small pieces.

But I feel for you on the appointments system. It's horrible and definitely designed to inconvenience. I bet that someone in those councils share pockets with private skip companies. Should be investigated.

I'm now in an area where council offers bulky waste collection (they collected a massive piano for £30 vs £350 it would cost privately), we have "put out your rubbish days" when anything and everything would be collected from the kerbside and one can rock up to the rubbish tip freely and any number of times a year.

I love it here, with a big house and garden project on my hands!
However, fly-tipping and littering are still rife and seem mainly related to socio-economic environment and language/cultural barriers.

Sounds like so much unnecessary work.
What wrong with just wanting to turn up?
Last weekend we decided to do a huge clear out on the spur of the moment and it involved two tip runs.
It would have been a right ball ache if we'd had to book in advance.

All these people with easy seamless access to tips😮

Fucking nightmare in my city. Massive massive queues every single day. All the tips are miles away.

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

This is a bloody marvellous idea! Not least, because it then gives everyone a chance to get rid of their bulky stuff every so often and responsibly, without the need for transport.

I am actually quite jealous!

Yes, we have a booking system. It is really good. We have a choice of two recycling centres. DH books the day before and drops off on way to work.
Saying that currently all our recycling, rubbish and food bin is collected weekly.
Not looking forward to alternate weeks for rubbish and recycling. At least the food bin will be weekly.

The reasons it proved popular

1. Only a small tip. When it was full it had to close resulting in people being turned away
2. It takes 1 minute to go online and book
3. It stops queuing outside tips. In our old house cars used to start to block the road if they were queing to get in making it very tricky to drive past
4. It staggers me how many people choose to go at say 1100 on a Saturday. Just like people who choose to drive to my city centre on a Saturday at say 1400 and wondering why the car park is full or that they have to queue for 30 mins to even be allowed into the car park. EVERY SINGLE SATURDAY I LEAVE THE CAR PARK AT ABOUT 1300 AND PASS BY A QUEUE OF FED UP DRIVERS WAITING TO GET IN!.

Our bin men are hood at taking any extras. But if they fall on the floor between the bin and the lorry they are just left there. Does annoy me especially as the bin men can see they've JUST dropped it.
Our tip runs down the side of an alley way and people were just chucking their rubbish over the fence so now they have cctv, extra high fence and shut the tip 3 days a week.

I'd never fly tip!! But any recycling that doesn't fit in the little boxes my council provides, goes in to my general wheelie bin. i am far too busy at weekends to spend the 90mins i would need to get to/from the recycling centre.

Although i did witness the bin men emptying the food waste people had dutifully separated as instructed, straight in to the general waste wheelie bin then in to the truck....

You know that lots of people work during g the week and the weekend is the only time they have to do things like go to the tip or drive into your city?!

For your main non-problem you need a Box knife (the que is in the name)

More usually called a “box cutter”. A Stanley knife will do.

I always slice up cardboard if it won’t fit in the bin. Either that or recycle it up the chimney.

Might be worth putting something on local facebook to see if anyone wants your cardboard and will take it away? It could be useful to someone with a garden/allotment who wants to cover some soil, or to a parent/playgroup who can turn it into a fort or similar?? Round my way smaller boxes are in high demand for house moving, but yours is probably a bit big for that.

@ElaineMBenes
Exactly. I'll sometimes clear a corner of the garden and head to the tip when I have a car-load. Which I wouldn't do, if it was pouring with rain. So do I book, or don't I?
I have needed 3x tip runs a day when clearing loft insulation. Once again, that would not be possible.
There is nothing, nothing good at all about the booking system, other than forcing residents to use expensive private skip companies. (follow the money)

I know, right? I put out old gas fire, broken dining chairs, a roll of used vinyl flooring and some bricks. I was excited like a child for Christmas when it was all gone 😂 With so many services on a down-turn, the little things matter 😁

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!

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

It takes literally two minutes to book a slot on line. And you can usually get one a day or two in advance. How on earth is that a “right ball ache”?

Some people just cannot be arsed to think ahead and want to do something in their own timescales and they also expect it to work smoothly.

Sat and Sun are the very worst time to turn up to a tip mid morning with a car load of stuff. You will either get cars queuing (in our last house once the queue got to a certain point they stopped people queueing). Short of driving around and trying to come back later it was very frustrating.

My gran used to break any cardboard box into small pieces.
She got a really tough one and we watched in equal fascination and horror as she produced a large saw and proceeded to set to.

My guess is on line booking is probably a lot less of a ball ache than waiting in a queue for 2 hours.

Our councils website states that excess cardboard can be left out with the (tiny) cardboard bag we are given. I had an Ikea delivery last year so saved one of the boxes and tore all the excess card and put it into it. Leaving it beside the bag.
They didn't take it.
I complained loudly to the council and they took it the following week. An 'oversight' apparently and training would be given, but I still see boxes on the road left by them now so clearly the message isn't getting through.

Fortunately we don't have restrictions here, but my daughter does in her town and cant get appointments either. She's been known to bring things here when she visits to use our tip instead.

Because in some places you can't do that
Because everyone works and wants to go to the tip on the weekend when they are home
Because all areas arnt like yours

It takes literally two minutes to book a slot on line. And you can usually get one a day or two in advance. How on earth is that a “right ball ache”?

Because some people don't plan in advance when they are going to the tip 🤷🏼‍♀️