AIBU to think not using bin liners is borderline insane?

[baconger]

DH grew up in a house where they simply didn’t use bin liners. Anywhere. Ever. Not even the kitchen bin. Not even the one they use for food waste.

If I don’t specifically remind DH, he’ll quite happily take the bins out and then call it a day without putting a new liner in.

To this day, my ILs still don’t use bin liners. They genuinely just put rubbish straight into the bin. After they dump the rubbish into their wheelie bin/compost heap they don’t wash the bins out.

I find this… unconventional, completely bizarre, bordering on insane. Maybe I’m being ridiculous but surely bin liners are a pretty standard thing? Especially for food waste? Whenever I mention that it’s really unhygienic I’m told it’s fine they’ve been doing this forever and nothing bad has come of it. Please tell me I’m not being completely unreasonable here?

I use compostable bags for the kitchen food caddy, empty it onto the compost heap and then wash the caddy. I don't use the council food waste system.

I don't buy bin liners because it seems a waste of plastic. I've got an old plastic bag to line the kitchen bin but I save bread bags (from sliced loaves) and use those as mini bin liners so the rubbish gets squished into a bread bag which is in the kitchen bin. When it's getting full, I tie a knot in the bread bag, chuck it in the outdoor black bin and open up the next bread bag but don't change the actual carrier bag/fake bin liner. Now that dd has left home, there's only 2 of us so I can generally squish a week's worth of rubbish into 1 bread bag (tetra packs aren't recycled here so get rinsed out and then go straight in the black bin).

I have never had the black outside bin washed and it has never got dirty or smelly - rubbish is either bagged or cleaned before going in or something dry and clean that doesn't cause problems.

I've never washed the green recycling bin either - paper/cardboard is dry and clean. Tins and plastic are washed before going in. Nothing goes in there that would make it dirty or smelly.

I don't think it is crazy not to use a bin liner. Saves on a lot of single-use plastic.
Our council has just started the separate food waste collections and their leaflet specifically advised that although they had provided caddy liners, we could choose not to bother with them.

But I would definitely be washing and disinfecting the bins after emptying.

I found these great black bin liners in my local hardware shop that are biodegradable 'plastic'. I line my big Brabantia kitchen bin with them and then put them in the non recyclable rubbish bin. Our bin guys won't take any general waste that isn't black bagged. Food waste goes in compostable bags and recycling rinsed loose in the green bin.

Quite a lot don't, for environmental reasons. For the "dirty" bins (as in not paper etc which doesn't need it) they rinse it out with grey water after.

I have black bin liners in my outside grey general rubbish bin. Folk on here were outraged when I mentioned it previously.

This, although we don't yet have an official local authority indoor bin caddy. We use a small camping saucepan that can go in the dishwasher. We don't get our outdoor foodwaste bin until September, so it still goes in green bin.

Cardboard, paper glass go in a plastic trug before going in blue bin, no liners involved.

Kitchen bin has liners and I also double bag for black bin because it's a fortnightly collection

We use compostable liners for the lidded inside food waste caddy. The council supplies them. We also use liners for the main kitchen bin. Clean, dry recyclable packaging goes straight into an unlined separate bin. Bathroom bins get lined with plastic bread bags or similar. Wastepaper baskets in bedrooms aren't lined. Outside bins aren't lined.

The only bins that need regular cleaning are the food waste ones, especially in hot weather when the compostable liners sometimes start to break down before collection day. Oh, and the recycling bin occasionally needs a quick once over.

We don’t use bin liners apart from the special ones that go in the kitchen food caddy. The kitchen bin has an insert that comes out so I kind of class that as the liner. However, no wet stuff goes in those bins. I empty them every night before bed and wash them on a weekend with something scented. No flies and no smell.

YANBU grim. Absolutely grim

Compostable bag for food caddy. Otherwise can’t reason more disposed of plastic as in liners.

Growing up we didn’t use bin liners, not actually sure when they became a thing

Btw our council suggests you don’t use the compostable liners for food waste because apparently they don’t all compost as well as they claim, they prefer it loose - we can’t use it though because the intelligent seagulls and crows can break in even in locked position

I wrap my food waste in newspaper and put it in the green bin which is also garden waste and emptied weekly.

No bin liners here.

Recycling needs to be clean to be recycled so the recycling bin is just full of clean jars / cans / cardboard. Normal bin is stuff that can't be recycled but no wet stuff or food waste.

We aren't allowed liners in the food waste outside bin. Also, when I used to use them in a different house the liquid would seep through them and you'd have to wash it the caddy anyway. Pointless waste of money. I prefer to use a bowl and empty it and clean it every evening.

YANBU. Gross.

Kitchen bin + bathroom bins have liners and go into black wheelie bin bagged which is also cleaned every four weeks. Recycling is dry/clean in the main (odd drip from drinks can or washed out containers) and so no liner but bin wiped out with kitchen spray every few empties and wheelie bins also cleaned every four weeks. Inside food caddy has compostible liner which is then moved to outside bin which also has a compostable liner, and both are cleaned frequently. Still gross in this hot weather.

Their house must STINK.

I have a bin bag in general kitchen bin but not the recycling (plastic/paper) bin.

Both get a good clean with Zoflora on bin day.

I don’t line inside food waste bin (we aren’t allowed to use those compostable liners where we are) I do empty it everyday after dinner when heading out on a dog walk. Nor do I bother lining recycling bins. I do have a bin bag in general waste bin though. I don’t think it’d be madness not to though.

Think it’s minging not to line bathroom and bedroom bins and ILs never did, so I would always line those bins when visiting and deposit them in outside bin when leaving. Noticed last visit there wasn’t a single bin in any bedroom or bathroom, meaning any ladies needing to bin anything would have to transport items downstairs to the kitchen bin…WTF?! Thankfully I only had to stay 1 night 😅 They also have a foul unlined food waste bin with the original mouldy carbon filter in the lid and disgusting main (lined) kitchen bin which never gets cleaned inside or out. If I was staying longer I would normally take the opportunity to sanitise those 😬

I used to work in this area. It’s because the testing is does this bag break down in x days under specific composting conditions. Then of course back in the real world most people knot the bags turning two layers of material with a large surface area into a dense ball with dozens of layers folded over themselves.

It’ll still break down but takes much longer than s standard composting cycle.

Oh yes another reason to line bathroom bins: I used to live in a house at the bottom of a hill where every time it was very windy on bin day, the contents of someone’s bathroom bin would end up all over the road and people’s gardens downhill…absolutely disgusting and they clearly weren’t using a liner bag 🤮

what do you do with things like yogurt pots & plastic trays? They're the main things that take up space in my general waste?

there is nowhere to recycle that kind of plastic around here.

The council recycling only takes heavier plastic like bottles (drinks shampoo cleaning that kind of thing) & and we take the soft plastics to the local Tesco. But we don't have anywhere for the yoghurt pot type plastic.

My husband is very eco conscious and hates plastic so we don’t use bin liners. Recycling gets washed and dried and put directly into recycling tubs. Veg waste goes on our garden compost and food waste goes directly into the small food caddy (he decants to the bigger one for bin day and we wash the smaller one out) , we have a tiny amount of actual rubbish which is always dry so can go directly in the black bin. To me now, there is something really gross about putting all sloppy rubbish together in a bin bag and just sending it off to landfill.

So how do they put it in the bin for the dustmen? You can’t just throw waste in the black bin outside ours wouldn’t take it? By black bin I don’t mean food caddy or the recycling bin but other waste.

I use compostable bin liners in my internal small food caddy.
Not only that but if I fill the food caddy before food collection, instead of putting it in the outside food bin where it can fester unpleasantly, I freeze the bag until the night before collection when it’s then put in the outside bin.
Bizarre & neurotic? Yes… but it means there’s no manky food waste sitting outside, gathering maggots, unlike some of my neighbours.

Yeah they just tip it in the truck. Our recycling here is pretty good so after all that there is barely any black bin stuff