AIBU to think councils should do extra waste collections at Xmas, not fewer?

[Pyew]

Because regardless of what people "should" be doing, there's always extra to pick up at this time, and going into denial about it creates problems that last for weeks rather than days.

Eg I live in a block of flats, with a communal bin store for three blocks. It was last emptied 3.5 weeks ago and now it's so disgusting with both overflowing recycling and regular bins that the bin lorry came and went today just leaving it in that state. We are all now going to have to pay the management company an extra fee to clear it, and I'll be storing trash and doing tip runs with my own waste until that happens.

Obviously the immediate problem has been caused by people just dumping stuff in there once the bins got full, but it probably wouldn't have happened if we'd had an extra pickup over Xmas - the rest of the year it's fine, but every Xmas it backs up. It's not even solely caused by my immediate neighbours - I've certainly witnessed people driving into the estate and offloading their trash into our stores, presumably because their own collection schedule isn't adequate at this time of year.

AIBU to think that although yes it would be lovely if we lived in a waste-free world where everyone merrily composted their tiny output, simply pretending there isn't a problem actually creates a much bigger problem that could be easily resolved by just one extra waste collection, once a year?

Yes it’s a bit of a pain but I think they deserve time off. It makes me appreciate them more when they do the first collection after Christmas/New Year.

The crews are already being paid overtime, to work on Saturdays and Sundays to cover collecting the rubbish from the houses who would normally be collected from on the BH Days when the crews are (quite rightly) at home with their families.
When, exactly, do you think they are all fitting in this extra, extra overtime to do a whole week's extra rounds ?

Most of them aren't doing compulsory double hours over the period, though. Which is what the extra collections proposal would entail, given that there's not a chance in hell of recruiting people for the work as temps.

I do sympathise, but it's telling that OP hasn't engaged with any of the posts pointing out that this is a completely unrealistic idea in our labour market.

I’m not even asking for double. I’m asking for any at all! The op is in the same situation as me!

I know the op was though and I think you’re right.

You have a communal bin problem, not a Christmas problem.

When you have to make your rubbish fit in your own bin, you can plan it better, sort recycling etc.

When its communal... it someone else problem.

How often are your bins normally collected? 2 weeks, 3 weeks?

Also... might nit be same everywhere but the bin lorry drivers sometimes drive the gritters!

Yes I agree OP. We pay an awful lot in council tax for reference. Some areas in our district got an extra collection on Xmas Eve or the 23rd but our area didn’t for some reason. This means today is recycling bin day but it’s been a whole month since the last collection. We struggle to make it every other week without having an extra bag or two of recycling - we’re a large household. Because it was also Christmas and has been a month, today we have 12 extra bags and a couple of cardboard boxes.

We tried to take it to the tip over the Xmas period when we had a little bit of spare time but it was so busy, the traffic queue stretched out into the main road and the police turned up and told the tip to close. No joke. We didn’t have any extra time to go so there you go, more work for the bin men today.

YABU. The binnies are entitled to a decent break, the same as the rest of us. Your council may be BU though, by not organising things better to minimise long intervals between collections.

My council manages this brilliantly, our waste collections are never more than 2 or 3 working days late over holiday periods. And our regular collections for general and food waste are on a Monday where I live, so almost every bank holiday fucks up the usual routine.

It sounds like your neighbours are twats too, for leaving the bin store in such a state that the bin men wouldn't touch it. They should have either taken rubbish to the tip themselves or stored the non-perishable stuff until after the rubbish collection.

Maybe next Christmas they might make an effort to avoid generating so much rubbish.

It’s not a standard profit-making business, though - it’s a service paid for via our council tax.

If you want a green waste collection where I live, you have to pay £89 pa for a green waste bin. This enables the council to fund the collection of it, and you can have as many as you want. They will give any household extra recycling bins, for free, to prevent people from putting recyclables into general waste. Maybe your council could take a leaf out of their book.

I wonder how many of the people wanting more waste collections would be happy to pay more council tax to cover the cost, and/or which services would they like cut in order to make money available to cover it?

Over Christmas my council did recycling and waste one week, waste the next, and recycling and waste again the third week (this week).

They start very early to achieve this. And it means that mostly we don't have loads of rubbish hanging about.

I’d have said you are being unreasonable as we need to produce less waste for the planet. But you are in flats with shared bin so of course it’s reasonable to be pissed off with how others have left it. I don’t think the solution should be more bin collection but I do think it’s unfair on the tenants and owners who are more conscientious. That said my neighbours regularly fill my bins so the problem isn’t just limited to flats people are just aresholes sometimes

Ours was the same just a day late for the 2 weeks it wasn’t an issue at all, you could always use the toddy tip they were open.

Even if you generate the same amount of waste, you have a waste problem. Instead of two weeks between collections we’ve had 4 weeks. I could probably go 3 weeks as I don’t fill my bin normally, but it was full by 3 weeks and we did a tip run by week 4. Not with extra Christmas waste as we didn’t really have much, just with normal life waste (and I’m quite conscious of plastic waste in particular so we get milk in glass bottles, use waste free cosmetic products for the most part, wrap presents in reusable cloths or bags - there’s not much more we could feasibly do to reduce waste without wider societal change).

And how much will that cost?

Our council don't just shift the rota by a day or two - they just skip the collections that fall on the bank holidays entirely and make you wait for the next scheduled collection. Some people are in my area are waiting 6 weeks for a general waste collection, 4 weeks for recycling/food waste. Its a shambles in an area that already has a huge litter/fly tipping issue. Its not good enough.

In my area, they have enough problems getting enough staff to maintain regular collections let alone extra! Aren't binmen allowed time off too. As it is they have to cover a Bank Holiday collections by working on Saturdays. I imagine they get paid more for doing it but time off is precious too - they're not machines!

And where do they get all the workers? It all sounds a bit 'more work for peasants so that I can have a jolly Xmas'.
If your council makes you wait a long time between collections at this time of year, get onto your councillor - I think you will find that it's cost related + staff shortages as well. If this has been going on for some time, it's worth considering planning beforehand.

No collections for 3.5 weeks is poor. A good council, which most are, will reschedule. My normal day is Wednesday, collections happened the day before (advertised by leaflet) and Friday the following week then back to normal. Having extra collections means hiring extra lorries and people and no council is going to do that, and you won't want to pay extra council tax.

There is also an extra cost in disposing of waste, though that's not really relevant to this. Hopefully we can develop better energy from waste systems and your waste will be a revenue generator rather than a cost item.

Nope - my waste level remains the same - anything extra I might have I would take to the tip especially recyclables.

My council just shifts the date of collection if it happens to fall on a bank holiday. They don’t miss you entirely.

The only additional waste I generated was boxes and wrapping paper and that goes in the paper recycling not the general waste anyway.

They also generously do a free Xmas tree collection service if you book it and trees are chipped and used for play park surfaces.

Councils don’t have the money to give every household additional collections without either increasing Council Tax or cutting funding for something else thanks to years of underfunding.

No they don’t. That’s a ridiculous statement. We ensure that we keeps our waste to a minimum. If we end up with a little more dry recycling then I keep it in a bin bag in my house and eak it out over the next few collections. We generate very little non recyclable as we are very careful.
Don’t make sweeping statements!

I agree op. I also live in a flat and the situation is always dire over Christmas and new year. I'm disabled and don't drive due to my disability so tip runs are not an option. I think people who dont live in flats can't really understand how difficult it is to share a communal bin. I think the rubbish should be collected weekly over the Christmas period to prevent the absolute chaos after the holidays. At least the rats and flies aren't around, as we often get them in summer.