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?

What is in your general waste bin that takes up so much space? All the supermarkets near me take soft plastics, so bags and film etc when we switched to putting those in a bag to take the when we shop our black bin went down to about a binbag a month.
Complaint to your council about them only collecting recycling once a month. I'm very surprised by that as most collect recycling more frequently than general waste.

We eat loads but hardly any rubbish goes into general waste. Most food packaging can be recycled. From last nights tea there were two tins and four soft plastic packets and a few veggie peelings. The only thing I put in the bin was a little bit of string from a chorizo ring.

We’ve had 3 weekly collections for years, it’s fine and definitely makes you recycle as much as possible.

What are you throwing away?

It was a joke about the infamous mumsnet everlasting roast chicken 😂

Are you in a flat? Flats get picked up more often, although will have the kerbside bins soon enough instead of wheely bins, which are already a magnet for fly tipping and no consideration for elderly residents

Definitely not enough and I recycle everything I can.

I wouldn’t have any trouble with every 3 weeks.

All our rubbish is currently collected fortnightly except for food, which is collected weekly.

The garden waste bin (which is optional and paid for) is usually full.

The recyling bin (contains all recyclables) is usually full.

The food bin is usually empty because most goes into the compost or out for the birds.

The normal bin very rarely has more than one half-empty bin bag in it - a lot less since I started disposing of all the soft plastic at the supermarket.

There are now only two of us, but there is not much more when the (adult) children come home.

Yes I am! In a tenement building. That makes sense

Any food waste goes in our compost heap or council food waste bin, plastic bottles and pots, tins, paper, cardboard, drinks cartons, glass gets collected by the council. Food wrapping, bread bags etc go to the supermarket soft plastics.
Unwanted but usable stuff goes to charity or out on our garden wall or on the local free things group.

All that really goes in our black bin is what comes out of the hoover and cardboard that's food contaminated, and bathroom bin contents.

But my recycling is also always over flowing. I cannot hoard the recycling anymore than general waste as it just instantly refills the bins.

Our recycling bins are much fuller than our general waste bins. We could easily go to three weekly collections, or even monthly.

The conversation seems to be concentrating on quantity of rubbish and how soon your bin gets full. But surely even if it's half a third full, it's unsanitary to have it hanging around for two or three weeks? We have a weekly collection here. Used to be twice a week many years ago, but they changed it to once a week and gave us bigger bins.

It's in the garden in a wheelie bin, I don't stash it under my bed until bin day. There's things far dirtier outside on the ground than my bin contents waiting to be taken away.

It would be bloody marvellous for the planet if there were a lot less humans on it, using up resources at an exponential rate.

Off you pop then.

Having one child means husband and I are not reproducing more. Us 2 will go, leaving one behind. Maths innit.

But in the meantime, you are still excess.

Ours is currently weekly for general waste, fortnightly for recycling. We recycle far more than we have general waste (our recycling bin is larger too), so often we're putting out a wheelie bin with just one small kitchen waste bag, whilst the recycling bin is verging on overflowing. Sometimes we don't bother putting the general bin out till the following week. Many of our neighbours do similarly but they're mostly older, retired or single.

In April our collections are changing - I'd hoped that in addition to the new weekly food waste collection (which was standard where we lived previously), they would introduce weekly recycling collections. Instead, they're bringing in fortnightly general waste collection (makes sense), whilst leaving the recycling as is 🙄

I agree ... I wondered how long this chestnut would take to come up ... 🙄

@TheRuffleandthePearl

It would be bloody marvellous for the planet if there were a lot less humans on it, using up resources at an exponential rate.

In other words........

Oh the bad nasty humans, all evil, the world would be better off without them yada yada yada........ 🙄

Speak for yourself @TheRuffleandthePearl !

.

In all seriousness, I find it reprehensible that such nihilistic misanthropic attitudes find easy expression in the Green movement. I know my comment was flippantly phrased but it's honestly felt : a person who states that there is an excess of people on the planet has no business being alive themselves. Because the alternative solution is that other people need to die.

Ours has been every 3 weeks for a number of years. I wasn’t sure how I’d cope when it was first announced, but we were given huge recycling wheelie bins and that made a massive difference. I rarely fill the general bin now.