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?

They’ve done this in our area, but you can actually recycle more - plastic wrappers etc. so the general waste even over Xmas didn’t even get full. Do review what you can actually recycle as it’s likely improved.

We’re a family of four and would be fine with this. Our general waste is collected every fortnight at the moment and the bin is always less than half full.

Ours has been 3 weekly for years!

We are lucky . At the moment it’s general waste one week , recycling the next . Anything that doesn’t fit in the bin gets burnt .

How big are people's bins? Mine will only fit 2 bin bags in. We're at 2 weekly but it's not enough tbh

Same here! Although we are soon to get food bins and I fear this is the beginning of a slippery slope!

Ours has been three weekly for a long time. It’s fine as do much can be recycled these days and obviously food waste doesn’t go in the general waste bin either. So here’s not much to go in it really?

Every three weeks here for years.

I have 5 living here and 3 weekly would be fine.

However if you’re already recycling well then my biggest tip is that 50% of my black bin volume was crinkly plastic which we now recycle ourselves at the supermarket.
Shortly (this year or next?) all councils will have to offer doorstep collection of this as well.

currently fortnightly here for our bins. We’d struggle with any less as they are often heaving after a fortnight.

we’re a family of 4, 2 adults a baby (so nappies), a child with additional needs still in nappies and cats (so litter trays!). We already get loads of flies in the summer. It would be awful if we went to 3 weeks!

Same here but I only have 2 bins. 1 for refuse and 1 for mixed recycling which includes glass. Refuse collected weekly, recycling every 2. But I can only see the longer time frames working in places that are suuuuuuper strict on separating absolutely everything and every resident having like 20 different containers. I know ours isn’t the most environmentally friendly but I couldn’t imagine doing the other and on top of that having all the bio stuff stinking for 3 weeks.

I am genuinely shocked by those who are saying they manage three weekly and it’s not full. We recycle everything that we can do, and have two weekly collections and our bin is always full. We couldn’t go an extra week.

Our paper recycling bin is also always full before it’s time to collect.

We do have nappies here still, but that doesn’t account for all of our household waste so even without those, I think we’d struggle.

When councils are all compelled to offer the same standard of recycling (coming soon I read) then no one should have any problem with weekly recycling and 3 weekly bins

I agree it is unrealistic.

I'd ask those who have this and are unhappy, if you voted at your last local elections, and/or general elections over the last 20 years or so. If you did not, you are part of the cause.

The only things in our black wheelie bin rubbish for tomorrow are bits like used tissues and the blister packs from medicine. About half a small carrier bag.

We wash and recycle all plastics, tins etc. We use the food caddy (bit of a faff but you get used to it). We take batteries to our local Aldi. That kind of stuff. It becomes a habit, really.

Loads of our neighbours spend more time moaning about it than they do actually recycling. Where do they think the money for waste collections comes from? Out of the sky?

As a household of 5, consisting of 2 adults and 3 young children (and with all the crap that comes along with young kids), there’s no way we’d manage 3 weekly. Ours bins are full every 2 weeks.

Absolute joke. If our taxes don’t pay for the basics of waste, what do they pay for?! Surely environmental safety is the key priority.

We pay over £409 a month for council tax. I’d be fuming if our council reduced collections.

Ours is weekly.

i’m very rural though and we don’t even have wheelie bins yet. They’re rolling them out in the spring.

Our paper, tins and plastic bin is emptied every two weeks, tiny glass bin every four weeks and general waste every three weeks but it is never full. Extra recycling can be left by bin, general waste can’t be.

We could go four weeks or more. We do so much recycling and 99.9% of the recycling is picked up at the kerb. Even batteries.

Majority of our waste in the waste bin are snotty tissues and contents of Dyson. Some non recyclable food packaging.

2 adults. 1 teen. 2 cats.

This policy was clearly decided by a man. It’s not sanitary to have soiled nappies and period products sitting around for three week, especially in the summer.

Ours is two weekly, but my bin is never full (except Christmas). 1 adult, 2 teens and a dog.

Our general waste is collected every two weeks, but is usually half full.

We are a family of three adults.

We recycle, as the opening poster suggests, but we also compost things like, eggshells fruit and veg peelings, some cardboard and even some plastic that is labelled as compostable.

We avoid, wherever we can, single use plastic. My asthma inhalers, for example, go back to the pharmacy who return them to the makers to be reused. We use metal containers for our deodorant that can be refilled. Even the perfume I wear offers a refillable service into the same glass bottle, as does my handwash.

It's really quite easy to cut down on waste, we've found.

It’s not just about cost. As a society we have to reduce the waste we produce. It’s to encourage people to recycle more and reduce the waste they produce.

Rubbish has to go somewhere, and wherever it goes as an environmental impact

Has been three week collections for general rubbish here for a year or two now. Thought it would be a nightmare, but has actually been no problem at all.

What is actually taking up so much space in your general waste? We have 2 in nappies and ours has been 3 weekly for a few years and it’s never been an issue.