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 think they’re just nose blind

Do you use toilet paper?

A few weeks ago, I'd have totally had your view, but we've had tighter restrictions placed on our bins - we're not allowed to use bags at all in the recycling (fair enough, I never did anyway) and now even if the bin lid on the general waste bin is up even a fraction, it won't be emptied - a lot of local neighbours were saying that they had stopped using binbags because of the air they trap and also if you push them down too much, they compact and get stuck.
*Should point out here that we all recycle but our general rubbish is collected once a month and there are people who have more general rubbish than others for personal reasons such as medical hygiene/nappies etc.

I tried the no binbag approach and I've found to my surprise that I much prefer it and it is a space saver - however I am very strict about the indoor GW bin being emptied daily into the outdoor bin and the indoor bin is cleaned with Zoflora every time and the outdoor bin gets a clean once a month.

So far, no flies and no grim smells and I'm saving money on not buying as many binbags and not sending them to landfill. I've only trialled this for a month so far though, so there's still time yet for me to decide this isn't right for me.
We're about to hit another heatwave, so let's see if the flies stay away then.

Totally agree. Utterly gross and would require cleaning and disinfecting everytime it is emptied into main outside/council bin (where the council require you to use bin liners anyway?).

Fine to not use a bin liner for recycling if you’re cleaning and drying it all. But you’re saying you’ve just started doing that with your general waste? Why do they only collect it once a month that’s disgusting! How often do they collect food waste, assuming they do that separately to the general collection?

Why are people acting like compatible bags, paper baskets and other items that surround the rubbish aren’t BIN LINERS. They’re all liners!

I just emptied the food caddy and despite having a compostable bag and being lined at the bottom with kitchen paper there was still bin juice at the bottom- not a whole lot but the paper was sopping and the bag had split in multiple places.
They are Tesco compostable bags.
Any better, stronger compostable bags available I wonder ?

🤣🤣🤣 agree!!

How often do you empty it?

Food Caddy is lined with paper. General waste bin is lined with a plastic bag. Recycling bag is not lined. Bathroom bins are lined. Bedroom bins are not lined.

I like the lidl ones. Only really splits if overfilled. I do double bag before putting in the outside bin

I think lots of people have moved away from disposable sanitary products. I use a moon cup with period pants for a back up. My bathroom bin is pretty much dental floss, the odd toothbrush head, cotton buds and tissues. There is a liner but I don’t change it just empty into kitchen bin bag when I’m changing it.

Until wheelie bins came along, the dustbin was outside and it was lined with a black bin liner (hence why they are called bin liners even though we don't line our bins with them anymore) and the kitchen bin was a small pedal bin and emptied daily into the outside bin containing the bin liner. It would then be rinsed before being put back in the kitchen to remove any bin juice. It didn't smell because it was emptied regularly. The bin men then came and too the bin liner full of rubbish from the outside bin. We had nowhere near as much rubbish back in those days and it was emptied every week and there was no recycling.

Now we line the inside bin with a bin liner (a white one) and it is bigger so doesn't need emptying daily, it is then tied up when full and placed in the wheelie bin.

I’m menopausal now but me and my daughters used washable sanpro which went into a lidded bin in the bathroom which had napisan in it and that was washed every couple of days as required. It didn’t stink because it had a clip lid on it (it was an old nappy bucket because I also used reusable nappies with all of mine).

That was a really weird thread....I remember there was one poster who's parents took their food and recycling out to the bins every time they had any waste....even if it was pouring down with rain....not using bin liners just seems like it's creating so much more clean up and effort then just using them.

Yuck. The kitchen bin and outdoor bin must stink, I wish there was a local service that would wash my outside bin.

I haven't had any problems using the Who Gives A Crap caddy bins liners, the green ones. Never had one split on me so far.

Before wheelie bins we just put black bags out once a week. And before that we had metal bins which mainly contained ash from the fireplace (we burnt a lot of our rubbish including sanitary products) is was never lined - plastic was rarely used.

Just the word Bin Juice makes
my teeth itch 🤢

I dont understand why they wouldn't use the compostable food caddy liners and a locking food bin. If we didn't we would have rats, foxes, crows and all sorts ripping through ours.

Recycling bin I dont use a bin liner, general waste doesn't really need one either because there's not much of it and it's never wet stuff - just unrecyclable packaging really, but the food caddy not having a bag is just yuck.

I’m surprised you don’t have that. We have a couple of companies that do that on a regular basis. They come the day of bin day and jet wash everything out. Unfortunately I’m too tight to pay them so I do it myself 😉

Seriously, are you sure your council doesn't collect yoghurt pots and plastic trays? If you're in England they're required under the Separation of Waste (England) Regulations 2024 to collect plastic bottles, pots, tubs, trays and tubes, including those made from PET, HDPE, LDPE or polypropylene.

How much actually gets recycled? Many councils will reject loads at the point of collection or the recycling companies will reject van loads.
Is it possible to find out?

I do the same apart from the bin for recycling. A friend got her bins cleaned yesterday by someone who cleans bins for a fee.
I also put cardboard in the bottom of my outdoor food bin which keeps the bottom a bit cleaner. It usually gets emptied with the food waste bags and this is permitted by the council. You can also use newspaper.

I use the bags from Mark's & Spencer and double bag but appreciate this would be more expensive. Maybe try double bagging the Tesco ones.
We used to get free compostable bags from the council but we were told that they no longer do this.