To have put my rubbish in the neighbours bin

[Cantheowneroftheredcorsapleasemovetheircar]

The people opposite me, who were tenants, moved out just a couple of days before Christmas.
The house doesn't have a "to let" sign or anything up yet, and there's definitely noone living there. However, today was bin day and someone, presumably the owner, had been round and put the wheelie bin out ready last night.
The binmen come at 7am.
At 6:45am, I had the idea of maybe adding a bag of my rubbish to their black bin, if it wasn't full, as I am still trying to catch up from Christmas and have extra.
I nipped over the road, had a peek and there was nothing but one single Tesco carrier bag of rubbish in there.
I went back inside, tied up my own full bin bag of rubbish from my kitchen bin and carried it over the road. By this time, I could hear the bin lorries already coming so I know noone was going to be using that space in that bin.
I then took the bin back up their drive for them.
I went back inside, very pleased with myself for now having completely empty bins.
DH was horrified and said it was very cheeky behaviour and very embarrassing. He really hopes noone saw.

Was it cheeky and embarrassing?

its not just cheeky its flytipping and you can get fined if someone complains, your husband is correct.

nope its flytipping, same as putting stuff in somone elses skip

https://britishbins.co.uk/post/how-to-stop-your-neighbours-putting-rubbish-in-your-wheelie-bin#:~:text=Putting%20waste%20in%20someone%20else's,have%20been%20fined%20for%20it.

Rubbish is now gone no one was hurt move on.

Do you not pay by weight?If not, fair enough, if you do , you're essentially robbing whoever owns the bin.

If the bins are weighed and people charged according to weight then you are being unreasonable.
If you dumped something in the bin that shouldn't be in that particular bin (eg. recyclables etc) then YABU because the bin owner could be fined for not sorting rubbish correctly.
If neither of those, it's fine because you did it at the last minute before the bin lorry came.

Thanks everyone for replies.

I'm curious - who are these people that are charged by weight? Are you all in the UK?
Generally, bin collections are covered by our council tax, which everyone pays and the binmen just turn up and collect the bins, regardless of how full or not full they are.

I wouldn't care if one of my neighbours put rubbish in our bin. It's often not full and especially if it's already out ready for the bin men, meaning I've probably used all i need.

I also don't care if people put bagged dog poo in it as well if they're stuck.

I have also never heard of bins being weighed ?

One morning (a while ago, maybe 10 years or so) I was in the street when a bin man (who came across as a a-little-power-is-a-dangerous-thing twat, but may have been a delight in his spare time) informed me that they could not empty my bin as it had been “overfilled” as the lid was more than an inch open. It was about two inches open.

I removed the bag, gave them my now-closed bin, and put it in the offending bag in the bin of my next door neighbour (and friend), a widow of 75 whose bin was always 20% full at most, and whose bin they were due to empty after mine.

The man then informed me he had just witnessed me fly-tipping, and that I could now be prosecuted. I replied that I was friends with my neighbour, and knew she wouldn’t mind. He said that made no difference. I said something breezy but conciliatory like oh well, I won’t do it again then, and went back inside.

These mentions of paying by weight is a bit of a concern. What's to stop a less than pleasant neighbour dumping their rubbish in your bin under cover of darkness.

Totally fine. We have a house on our street that has sat empty for over a year, and will likely sit for a lot longer as the owner is still alive but in long term care. We went to put some rubbish in their bin the other day and the other neighbour had got there before us it will stop as soon as the house is moved into so I don’t see the issue. One tiny bin for a whole family and collections now only every two weeks have been absolutely painful.

My other neighbour also lets us use his bin if it’s not full on bin day. He leaves for work early in the morning and bin men don’t come til late afternoon so he tells us to just dump whatever in his bin on that day if there’s space 🤷‍♀️

I hate the idea of paying by weight. It incentivises fly tipping and littering.

In Ireland, pay by weight in place for a good few years for your three bins ie general bin , food and light garden waste and paper and plastics.

Asking the neighbour (in this case whoever put the bin out for collection) just seems like a neighbourly thing to do

I have no problem with our neighbours using our bins but absolutely appreciated that they asked us first to check that it didn’t inconvenience us. Decades have now passed and I have no idea how often they might have used our bins.

Our relationship with them remains cordial. It’s good to be able to help each other out on occasion.

Why wouldn’t you just ask before presuming ?

I don't like randoms doing it because once someone put some non-recyclable takeaway rubbish in my recycling bin and the binmen refused to take it. But when my neighbours ask I have no problem as they aren't idiots.

I’m in Ireland and don’t pay be weight so it must depend where you are.

By!

This is an absolute non-issue. You have not done any harm because the house is empty. In fact, quite the opposite, you have been a good neighbour by bringing their bin back in.

I know. I thought my last paragraph acknowledged that.

I was responding to someone saying they didn't think putting stuff in other people's bins [in general] was cheeky.

It's her husband's reaction that is causing her stress. The OP was feeling quite pleased with herself until he voiced his opinion!

He needs to get a grip and worry about things that really matter 🫤

It's fine IMO

I mean, I think it's fine. But when I moved out of a rental once the landlord was very insistent that I had to leave the bins empty. So I hope the departed tenants don't get into trouble for this!

It’s fine, your partner is overreacting! There was plenty space and you literally could see the bin lorry coming. Generally speaking I don’t think there is anything wrong with using someone else’s bin! I’d probably ask though. But in the circumstances you describe, there is no issue.

I always do this! There’s 3 of us in a row and we all use each others if we have more to get rid of! YANBU DH is mad!