Council not giving extra allowance for those whose bin dates not changed

[Cozc]

Depending on your bin day and when Christmas falls, your bin day can change. Those who have theirs changed, council allows residents put up to 3 bags of black bags by their rubbish wheelie bin.

Then what happens in areas of the town where the bin days are unchanged, people are putting excess rubbish in street litter bins or fly tip bags. Litter bins are not designed for rubbish.

If you do host Christmas gatherings at your home, you produce the same amount of rubbish regardless of the day of the week Christmas Day falls on. Then tip has reduced hours for the Xmas/NY period.

My parents were able to their late neighbours’ wheelie bin. As both died this year. Probably won’t have the opportunity again as the property has gone onto the market.

If councils allow all households an extra allowance for rubbish, there would be less rubbish about

I had no idea about wrapping paper not being recycled. I don't think it is widely known here either . NI
If no food / composting what do people do with grass clippings.?
I have a waste disposal in my kitchen which reduces food waste . Between returnable cans , glass recycling centres , my 3 bins seem to always be enough .

You’d think wouldn’t you?
But no.
Local FB page is full of people complaining about it… bin day dependant obvs.

All the people saying they still have loads of room in their bin after 8 weeks probably have at least two full size wheelies, one for reclycling and one for general waste and possibly one for garden waste (looking at you Leeds) whereas my council not far away has one. Plus a small food waste bin, a stupid bag for plastics and another stupid bag for paper and a small box for glass. Nothing for cardboard, you just hope for the best.

Hence inadequate size storage containers and rubbish blown all over the street. Why cant all councils be equal?

Those same virtuous people also probably have log burners and got rid of their Christmas wrapping paper and cardboard the same day.

Anyway I went to the local tip this morning and they were fucking closed until Wednesday so ended up doing a fifteen mile round trip to the next one that I’m allowed to visit in this council area.

The Staff were super helpful though so all is forgiven and my single wheelie bin and empty useless storage bags will be good until the 8th January now.

I check online, we used to get a sticker in the bin but that stopped a few years ago.

So the bin collectors get no Christmas holiday? Honestly people can cope without ruining other people's celebrations.

Our tip is only open weekdays in the middle of the day, you have to book a slot ages in advance and it charges.

You pay for garden waste collection (council but added charge) or go to the tip to get rid of grass clippings.

Then make less waste of you can’t get rid of it

I never have a problem, but it’s not so simple for everyone.

We don't get any extra allowance. That said we can buy specific bags for additional waste at any time of year if we need too.

As another PP said, you could try checking online?

We had a hanger put on our bin lid, I had an email plus I went online to check and printed out a revised bin calendar for January! But I wanted to be sure I didn’t miss my collection, knowing I’d have a full bin.

Or the council could offer the service we pay for...

How are you throwing so much food away? Are you scraping a lot of uneaten food from plates etc? Is it worth considering different portion sizes or buying less if you are scraping away loads of food?
We only have things like veg peelings, a few tea bags. We'd never get close to this filling the black bin every fortnight.
Like others I don't know how people are filling the bin we are a family of 4 + pets and just never get close!

If you use paper tapes that are available they are recyclable.

I live in a rural area with regular (not urban) rats, mice, squirrels, foxes and deer roaming around. Food waste is kept bins with closely fitted lids. It has never attracted animals, unlike the bird table (for things other than birds!) and the compost heap (which I no longer have due to rats).

I've been doing this in a light hearted Christmassy spirit (OBVIOUSLY I don't want to force council workers to work Christmas, that was plainly silly).

But I'm getting a bit narked now by the couple of posters who just keep saying "Make less waste then". I appreciated the person who said she thinks she makes not too much but isn't all martyrish about it.

It's not that some of us just don't care, or are profligate, and are just whinging.

It's possible to flatten your cardboard, make sensible choices for yourself where possible (the famous buying one big pot of yoghurt not smaller ones), reduce food waste AND STILL NOT HAVE ENOUGH ROOM IN YOUR SODDING BIN!?!?!

We have heard all the dimensions now..

At Christmas there are numerous food and gift products which are part of the feast and which come with packaging, much of which you can't control.

Some families are bigger than others and eating a range of foods causing potentially more food waste which you can't control (Try telling my autistic nephew to just clear his plate and eat exactly the same as everyone else).

People stay in your house and you can't police how many q-tips they throw in the bathroom bin, and I don't believe anyone is rifling through separating recyclable cardboard toilet tubes from other people's old tampons.

Some places provide small bins and expect you to go to the tip/ compost things. People don't always have a car or garden.

Most places expect you to absorb a time of year where there is more waste, while simultaneously reducing the capacity for you to get rid of waste. Recycling is completely included in that.

Right I will stop ranting now but I really do think that considering yourself morally better and less wasteful because you are luckier with your council setup/family's needs is pretty weird!

I didn't put my bin out this year (today). I won't put it out next week, or likely the week after either, I just don't have anything to go in it - hoover was emptied a couple of times, but that's about it, hardly a bin full. I'll put it out when it is full.. Recycling went out, that I put out most weeks. Do have a fair bit of soft plastic that's going next time I go to the supermarket, which won't be this week.

Our black bin was due to be collected Christmas Day. They collected Saturday instead. No idea if they took extra as ours wasn’t full. On recycling week they will always take extra bags as long as they are clear. Both bins are fortnightly.

Yes a sort it centre is a recycling centre/tip. For our council our recycling and bin days have just been loved by 1 day, so it's still the same number of collections as we usually have. Cardboard/plastic etc we can put extra out, but if we couldn't I would just bag it up and put it out next week instead. Food waste is harder as will start to smell, but it's not like it's a suprise that bin collections change over christmas

Food waste you can put in sealed bags and keep in the freezer until you have enough room to tip it into the food bin, to prevent smells.

I don't sort loo roll tubes out from used tampons because they don't go in the same bin in the first place - anything recyclable from the bathroom just gets taken straight to the recycling, it doesn't go in the bin. I don't actually have a recycling bin in my house - I just take stuff straight out to the wheelie bin, or sometimes leave it by the door until someone goes out, or collect it in a box or paper bag and take it all out when that is full.

I don't take soft plastics to the supermarket because I shop at Lidl and I don't think they collect it, they do collect batteries but our council does that anyway.

Yes, if you've got room in the freezer, and yes, if people staying with you adhere to these rules...

They're not "rules", it's just where the recycling goes. I don't know why anyone would put recycling in a waste bin, that's a bit odd.

And obviously you can only put things in your freezer if you've got room. That doesn't really need saying.

Ours was moved from every 2nd Thursdays to Monday. So 4 extra days.

We had 4 extra people for 3 days and 2 extra for 7 (adult children home for Christmas)

We were overfull on the food bin. Managed ok with the recycling and non recycling. I have never had extra allocation for Christmas. Pay a charity to go collect the Christmas tree in early january.

Our general waste was collected on Saturday rather than Thursday. They still won't take extra 'side' waste.

To be honest, I would much prefer skipping one fortnightly collection and let the refuse collectors enjoy the festive period with their families rather than them having to work Saturday and Sunday to catch up. It's a grotty, dangerous and physically demanding job and I'm sure their families and children would prefer to have them at home.

I'm surprised that more people from Birmingham haven't joined this thread, although there was a brief mention earlier.
I'm in Birmingham, and the situation is not great. We are now having weekly collections for the most part, but no recycling has been collected for almost a year. The tip is by appointment only and as soon as there's any hint of further disruption, it gets booked up. We had bin bags stored in the shed for around 6 weeks in the summer as it was impossible to get a tip slot. Yes, there were rats. I believe that the strike is still ongoing and the collections we are getting are by agency staff, but there is talk of the agency staff joining the strike also. (This may be a couple of weeks out of date, you get fed up of following it!)
We've never had a food waste collection and garden waste is charged for, and also currently suspended.
No idea whether this will improve in the new year.
So yeah... check your bin privilege!