to think reducing general waste collections to every 3 weeks is unrealistic?

[HazelMember]

The council has reduced general waste collections to once every 3 weeks instead of twice a month. The general waste wheelie bin is already half the size of a normal bin.

I already recycle as much as possible. Cardboard plastics food waste glass tins everything. I am genuinely trying to do the right thing environmentally. But even with all that the general waste still builds up especially with a family.

Three weeks feels like a long time to store rubbish. I keep seeing just recycle more as the answer but I am already doing that. There is not much left to recycle.

How are people actually managing this? Are you just producing less waste somehow or are your bins overflowing too?

AIBU to think this change does not reflect how households actually live?

Recycling centre. I go there most weeks now( you can also get rid of non recyclable waste although youre best to take some recyclable waste too or they don't like it).

Its always busy
What people without cars do, Ive no idea.

What 'general waste' are you referring to specifically? We have been black bags every 3 weeks for a while and, in addition, we are limited to only three black bags per household per collection. I think there are allowances that can be applied for regarding things like larger families, nappies, etc but that may not be the case in your area.

Depends on the household. Our general waste is only collected every 3 weeks but we don't always put the bin out because its only got 1 bag in the wheelie bin. So its sometimes 6 weeks between it being collected.

Wow, ours is weekly. I can’t imagine going three weeks!!

Our general waste is only emptied once every three weeks. I live alone so mine only ever contains 1 30 litre kitchen bin bag, it's virtually empty when I put it out. The recycling is emptied every week. I gave no idea how people create so much rubbish. I've never filled a general waste bin even when I lived in a family household with every other week collection.

our general waste is collected every three weeks and my bin is never overflowing. Recycling and food waste is collected weekly and our bag and box are normally full. My waste bin will be collected next week and is currently half full because I had a post Christmas clear out of kitchen cupboards.
However, for six months of the year it’s only me and Dh at home.

Ours has been 3 weeks for around 10 years and it’s generally been fine apart from when DC1 was in a nappies. A big motivator for reusable for DC2.

Glasgow has been three weekly for general waste for a few years now.

If your bin was due to be lifted on Xmas Day, Boxing Day, 1st or 2nd Jan (Bank Hol here) it will be 6 weeks between collection with no catch up.

Brutal and we've seen a huge uptick of rats and flytipping. Glasgow was always a bit grimy compared to other cities, we've always had a littering problem, pavement full of cigarette doubts/chewing gum when I was growing up, but its an absolute midden now.

It’s also going to be very unsanitary in summer because there are many things that go in general waste (such as nappies, dog poo, used sanitary products etc) which should not be sitting in waste bins for three weeks, given the life cycle of flies is 2 weeks. Some Councils are doing additional collections for such things but most are not. Disgusting. In most comparable countries waste is collected daily.

our landfill bin is three weekly.
our food/garden waste is fortnightly.
our plastics and tins are four weekly.
our glass is quarterly.

it’s too long. the bins are regular sizes but families struggle in that size of bin. And the bins smell now and we have rats. wonder why. Also the cleansing depot has no walk yp wirh your rubbish facility. cars only.

I'd struggle with this due to nappies, cat litter, etc. I agree that 3 weeks is a long time, even with recycling! Which is always full too!

We have an Insinkerator (food waste disposal) in the sink and a compost bin. So all
our food waste goes in them.

Plastics, metals and cardboard recycled.

Pill blister packs go to Boots recycling.

There’s not loads left. Non recyclable plastics mostly.

Ours switched to every three weeks a few months ago, it’s been ok so far. I do wish recycling was every week though, we do struggle either way it fortnightly.

We are every three weeks rotating general waste, glass and plastic, and then cardboard. Family of 2 adults, 2 teens and 2 pets. It moved to three weekly a couple of years ago from fortnightly and I really thought I wouldn’t cope but 99% of the time it’s fine !

This. What exactly are people throwing out? Ours is fortnightly, but there’s only ever one half-full ish black bin bag per week. It wouldn’t be a disaster if it weren’t collected. We could go to monthly. It’s our recycling bin (also fortnightly) that is frequently crammed.

Ours has been every 4 weeks for years, there are 4 of us in the house (plus nappies for a few of those years).

It does come down to thinking about what you're throwing out. What's really going into your bin? Food waste goes in the food bin, soft plastics in with carrier bags at supermarkets, batteries to supermarkets, plastic/metal/glass/paper/cardboard to your other recycling bins. Then figure out what's actually still going in your general waste, because it shouldn't be much after all that.

And yet the tories / reform are promising to cut taxes. How does that work i wonder?

We’d be fine with this but we don’t have a baby in nappies or a dog. Our general waste is mostly thin plastic which doesn’t take a lot of space. We struggle more with the packaging recycling to squash it down enough.

We have 3 weekly general waste, but weekly recycling. It has made a big difference now that we can recycle soft plastics as well. Family of 4, and we manage usually with the 3 weekly collection.

Ours is 2 weeks at the moment. 3 weeks could be problematic if bank holidays/weather/strikes extends it beyond 3 weeks.
normally we don’t create much general waste however if we have friends over this increases and of course Christmas creates more waste.
those who manage to only create a bag or two perhaps have different social lives to me- and of course so many factors can influence the amount of rubbish a household creates.

The only time our slimline wheelie bin has ever been remotely full was Christmas. Collected 2 weekly. What are you putting in? Family of 5 here.

We’re a family of four (our children are out of nappies though which obviously helps a lot) and I don’t think we’re particularly attentive to recycling compared to average and we manage 3 weekly rubbish collections with room to spare. It’s not a problem for us.

We don’t have any additional needs that create more rubbish though

We’ve had three-weekly general waste collections for well over 10 years. Other than at Christmas when there was more rubbish than usual when the dc were younger, we’ve never had issues. We recycle everything we can and compost too. It requires a change in routine but it’s more than doable (family of 4 with two pets).

We have been 3 weekly for a few years and find it fine for us. I've just put mine out tonight and it's not full. We get recycling weekly. Cardboard/glass/cardboard/plastic/paper/food waste etc. Everything except soft plastic. I can see why nappies and animal waste might make it smelly. In that event I'd have to make a tip visit i think. But without those, there is nothing in my bin to smell as it goes weekly in the recycling.

My area has been once every 3 weeks for God knows how long, I don't drive so it's difficult. Fortunately there's a few bin company's that will empty your bin from.anywhere from £10 to £15 depending on the company