To throw half a rice cake into strangers bin?

[Honeybuney]

I was on my way home from the school run with my 18 month old and older child. Baby had a ricecake with he threw onto the floor, out of the pram. I was in an alleyway type of street with no public bins. I picked up the rice cake and threw it into a wheelie bin which was partially full. As I was doing this, the lady whose house it was, was on her way out. She asked me what I was doing and I explained.

She asked me to take the rice cake out of her bin. Which I did not and continued walking. As I walked off, she was shouting and being quite aggressive. I was with my two kids so just ignored. But was I wrong?

Maybe your experience of the bin men and her experience of the bin men is different.

Our bin men are a strange breed. They once took a bin bag out of my bin and left it on my floor because the lid didn't completely close. I asked why and he said it's a health and safety risk. Obviously, handling my bin bag and leaving it on the floor was less of a risk than handling it and putting it in the bin. 🙄

Another, time they refused to take it because the lid was slightly broken so that cost me another £90 to replace the bin and 2 dump trips while I waited for the new bin.

But did you apologise? She might just be fed up to the back teeth with people using the bin that she's responsible for because they can't be bothered to take their rubbish home.

People need to reframe their thinking. Start living as a community. Why the hell are people getting angry at someone putting something small and inconsequential into their bin. It's not harming anyone in any way. Are people seriously so small mealy mouthed and petty that they feel attacked or outraged or violated at someone putting a rice cake in their bin?

Such feeble small little people living small little lives getting upset over nothing.

Better in the bin than in the ground and no normal person would carry a rice cake home with them when there is a perfectly serviceable bin right there.

Grow up. Grow something. Stop being such pernickety sad little people.

On the face of it, it’s no big deal. But in my area, everything has to be bagged to go in the bin. I just don’t need the hassle of not having my bin emptied because some passer by couldn’t be arsed.
See also: tourist fly tipping their end of holiday crap next to my bin.
All comes under dickish behaviour I’m afraid.

I’d be annoyed. In my area all trash in the bin has to be bagged. If it is not, they can refuse to pick it up. We have high winds so it’s necessary to keep down litter.

I bag everything up and seal it carefully to avoid maggots. I wouldn't want someone's sticky germy rice cake thrown loose on top. Your reply was rude and arrogant especially refusing to take it back out when asked.

You should have taken it home to your own bin or put it in a public bin. That said, who could give a fuck, really?

It seems like people have got a lot more territorial about their bins over my lifetime and I think that’s, in part, a consequence of councils getting more persnickety about them - policing what goes in different bins, insisting on particular bins, charging more for more/bigger bins or refusing to take extra rubbish, etc.

I would not care if someone put half a rice cake in my bin. I also don’t care if people put their little bags of dog poo in or the odd stubbed out cigarette, etc. But I care when people put bags of rubbish in and there’s no room for my own stuff, or they put the wrong thing in the wrong bin and I get told off by the bin men. I think some people cope with the pressure they feel about rubbish collection by having a blanket approach - viewing it as an affront that someone would use their bin rather than being glad there isn’t more rubbish on the ground making the place look horrid.

I don’t think it was wrong in the sense of immoral or unethical to put it in a bin that wasn’t yours, but it’s not something you had a right to do, so I would have fished it out when asked and found somewhere else to put it.

Our bins don't get taken if the wrong thing's in it. How would you like your bin not emptied if someone did it to you? Take your rubbish home.

Mostly the bins are not emptied in our area. Someone walks up the road and lifts the bags out of the bins and puts them on the road and then the lorry drives up and the men fling the bags in. So any loose trash that people passing by fling in has to be cleaned out and bagged in order not to sit there for all eternity. Therefore, I think it’s incredibly rude when people use my bins rather than taking their own rubbish home with them.

Given it was an alleyway this is probably the likely scenario for this woman

At the start of lockdown I was working in the front room, saw a car pull up and starting emptying a ton of takeaway stuff into my bin. I opened the door, had the screaming ab dabs at them, made them take it all out, and they drove away shame faced. It was fun.

You are being very unreasonable. Our bin men are strict and will only take rubbish if it in a bag. They refuse to empty it if it has any loose rubbish .

You shouldn't have use her bin, my bin is stored in our residential car park and people cut through, it can be 1/3 full before I even take a bag of rubbish out! One rice cake seems inconsequential but it happens multiple times a day here! When we go to 3 weekly collections in April I'm thinking of locking my bin somehow as there won't be room for my rubbish

I seriously cannot believe the number of people on here who care about a rice cake in their bin! It would be funny if it wasn't so ridiculous! ITS A BIN!!

There are public bins for this reason. I wouldn't have been impressed with you, either.

I've put wrappers etc in peoples bins. It's not such a big deal.

Yes, same here. They just wouldn't empty it.

This thread is clearly split between those who have bin men that make this a big deal and those who don’t (or just don’t give a shit that other people have different restrictions)

It’s annoying as you don’t know what they are putting in. At my old house I often had people dumping stuff in my bin that shouldn’t have been there. There was no need for her reaction though.

Correcting people like this is terribly rude. You can buy books on manners if you need to brush up.

I would rather people pop a bit of litter in my bin on their way past that have it laying in the ground. I don’t see the issue.

I would never use a strangers bin yabu

I hate when ppl use my bin.

Someone threw a vape and a half drunk coffee take away cup in my bin and now my bin is swimming in coffee-everything else is sticking to it.

Don't use other people's bins.

Jesus, chill out everyone, it’s a sodding rice cake in a bin, but suddenly all hell breaks loose. Your biggest mistake here OP was posting this scenario on mumsnet, I’m actually surprised the owner came out of their house, according to everyone on here nobody even answers their front doors usually!