Bin men! Ridiculous

[SassyCrab]

Has anyone else got this problem with there local council! The bin men take the rubbish every 2 weeks, so our rubbish mounts up to the point we have to put it on top of the bin, bare in mind we have baby and a dog so we have quite a lot of rubbish in the two weeks when they bother to collect. They’ve come yesterday and emptied our bin but just left the rubbish on the top!!!!! So now our bin is full again and still got 2 weeks to go. So annoyed with it, I just don’t understand why they can’t come every week.

WTF are you putting in your bin?

I think you need to have a look at why you're generating so much waste on a regular basis.

What would you prefer them to cut? The schools budget, care for the elderly and disabled, libraries, street cleaning?

And a chunk of your council tax funds the police and fire & rescue services.

It's every 3 weeks here and has been for over a year. They never take rubbish thats outside of the bin, regardless of being in bin bags, placed with the bins, on the bins etc.
Those are the rules, the bin van picks up the bins and empties them into the van, theres no manual throwing of bags into the back, they're not allowed to, so if it wont fit in the bin, no point putting it out.
Also nobody elses fault how much rubbish you create, if you recycle everything possible and still have too much general waste to fit in your bin, you can take to tip yourself, or arrange a one off or however frequently needed private rubbish collection from private waste removal companies.

Our council bin collection is brilliant. We can put out as many black bags as we want and also as much recycling as we want in clear bags provided by the council. They also provide a garden waste collection of up to six reusable large canvas bags and a food waste collection (and provide biodegradable bags for that). We also get free food waste collection bins.

It's common, but not everywhere. In some central London boroughs there are multiple rubbish / recycling collections per week. There isn't room for wheely bins.

Here if the lid doesn't close or you leave bags on top they won't empty the bin at all.

Usually we're ok with fortnightly collections (general rubbish and recycling alternate) but if we miss a collection I end up doing a tip run before the end of the next two weeks.

Our council tax is supposed to include refuse collection. Shame it's only refuse they deign to collect and not what needs collecting.

Our household rubbish collection is every 3 weeks. We have a separate bin for paper and cardboard, another for glass and plastic but our local council also makes us separate food waste (goes in the garden waste bin) so we have a compost collection too. The food waste makes the most difference to our household rubbish tbh.

Our black bin is every three weeks and we never fill a bin even with 4 adults at home! We recycle everything we can. Even my DC in their Uni shared houses are big on recycling.

Our bin men take extra black bags too. I’ve seen them take the neighbours extra bags.

I'm London too.
I have communal dumpsters as I am in a flat. They are currently emptied twice a week.
But despite the regular collections there are always random bin bags/general junk just dumped everywhere which don't get collected unless it's reported and an extra pick up is arranged.

Three weeks here but they do always take the ones on the top

@SassyCrab Can you honestly say you are recycling everything you possibly can?
Admittedly I am lazy so don't put bins out often. We have none in nappies (but we did use cloth ones that would save you a LOT of waste), I only bother putting out the main bin out every 6-8 weeks or so, or longer - only 3 of us at the moment. Recycling goes out every other time perhaps. Sometimes longer. You do need to question the 'stuff' you are buying - do you actually NEED it.
And look at packaging - I buy a lot of fresh veg in a local market comes in paper bags for example. I cook a lot from scratch so minimal food packaging.

I was surprised just how many plastic bags we go through, despite trying to avoid so much comes wrapped in plastic - I rinse anything that's going to go smelly and squish them into an empty plastic dog food bag, and when I can physically get no more in I drop it in the bin at the supermarket.
We compost all veg peelings and teabags.
Certain special items I drop to the local garden centre as there's a lady recycles masses in the area for a local school I save up and go a couple of times a year.
Clothing some schools do bag drop days to raise funds.
We have very little food waste as I'm careful to not over-cook what won't be eaten or freeze for future use ( or turn it into something else eg remains of a stew is added to - more veg perhaps? in order to become tomorrow's soup) unless it's bones - I freeze till I have enough to warrant bothering to put the food caddy out (about 4x a year, don't buy much chicken, almost never buy meat on the bone as I get the butcher to debone mostly.

@SassyCrab I wash jars, bottles etc - they go in a glass bin which is not far away.
All plastic containers (milk etc) are rinsed and go in the recycling, as do tins and any paper/card.
For puppy pads, we have an elderly dog who tends to wee on the mat if caught short overnight, so I have one of those large washable changing mats (as you'd use for a baby) and just chuck it in the machine. If it's poo (not often) I pick it up with a doggy poo bag and leave it outside the door to drop in a doggy poo bin when we go for a walk. She's fine by day as there's someone home mostly.
As you have a wonky freezer, I would suggest buy another, it'll likely cost less to run if it's working properly and modern, if you can't afford it, get it on interest free credit as the food you'll save will pay for it over time. You can pay the company you buy from to collect the old one for a small fee.
Then any rubbish you get in the house destined for your general bin, don't forget to squish the air out of the waste as you add it to the bin liner in your bin.
@Needmorelego just ask your council for more recycling bins, they're targeted on the % of recycling so never mind if you want more bins.

so @brainexplorer if you rinse and recycle everything I have NO idea why you think a bin should be 'rancid' after a month or two before it's full enough to bother putting it out unless you have loads of disposable nappies because they stink loads! Even so if you bag them in a bin liner, squishing the air out carefully I still don't think it would be rancid if you tied the top carefully so there was not toom much air in there.

@Ariela oh we have LOADS of recycling/non recycling bins for the different blocks of flats.
There literally isn't room for more. The block next to mine is newer and it was built with a bin storage room with space for 2 dumpsters. They now have those 2 plus 4 more which live next to the curb on the street.
They are just so full all the time despite regular collections so extra bags (or just general junk that people don't want anymore) gets piled up all over the place.
It's just depressing.

And here again we have yet another OP who is getting a different response to what she imagined she would get, and is resorting to insults because of it.

You admit you don't recycle enough, so there is part of your answer, and then keep telling us about your food waste, that's the other part. Surely you can organise your food buying so you aren't throwing so much out. Other people appear to be managing, you aren't special you know.

Part of the Council Tax should go on educating people who are too lazy to recycle.

A tip run. Sorted.

Have you tried cutting down the amount of rubbish you generate? Don't you ever wonder where it all goes after they pick it up?

@Quinlan

what they said.

We're a family of 5 with a dog and 2 cats and don't have a problem with rubbish. On the odd occasion we did have more - a dump run is done. Usually with extra garden waste.

It’s not ok to be regularly throwing food away. If I ever have a ready meal or something past its use by date I open, put food in the food waste and separate packaging for recycling. Including soft plastic that goes to a local Co Op. That means nothing goes in the landfill bin.

If that’s too much effort and you’re just throwing the whole thing in your landfill bin then you need to seriously look at what you’re buying. It is not ok to regularly throw food away. How much are you spending on food that never gets consumed? If you’re that rich why can’t you buy a new freezer instead?

You need to check on the council website to see exactly what can be recycled, some stuff you think can be, can't, and vice versa. Some who are recycling absolutely everything on this thread may be unwittingly contaminating their recycling. Any old clothes put in the large supermarket clothes and shoes bins

Any household items, I put in the charity bags that come through the door, many have a list on them which includes bric a brac and unwanted gifts

Two adults, a baby and a dog shouldn't be producing this much waste. You need to be more mindful about what you're buying and consuming. Recycle more, it isn't hard. Stop buying crap you don't need.

Ok, so you admit that you don't recycle much, have lots of food waste (that goes in the black bin?), don't use reusable nappies, and have a dog that you allow to use one use pee pads in the house. So yes, you are likely to struggle with many councils' rules! Which is why they're there as much as anything, to try to get people like you to think a little more and try harder.

You are getting a hard time here OP. If you have rubbish, you have rubbish. Particular irksome if you have had a special event that has created more waste than usual.

I understand why you can’t have extra bags (sort of), but I think it’s monumentally stupid when they don’t collect your bin because the lid is raised by 2 inches. It’s not helpful at all.

Our recycling won’t take glass for gods sake so we have to collect it all and when there is a decent amount take it to a glass bin which is a massive pain. They have also started charging extra for garden waste bin collection which I am still incredulous about

edit to say @SassyCrab I want to retract some of my sympathy now that I have read you allow your dog to piss inside the house on mats (vile) and don’t use a food bin for your food waste

Youve said yourself you could recycle more. If your recycle bins are full and you're then putting excess into your waste bin, just order more recycling containers. They are usually free from your local council. Recycle more, your bin is less full, landfill is less full - win win. You just need to put a bit of effort in?

Order a green compost bin from the council. (They will deliver it) and use that for vegetable peelings, grass cuttings, suitable tea bags etc

That should free up a lot of space in your other bins.