Council is only allowing 1 wheely bin collected every 2 weeks

[curvi8]

Hello,

I am being unreasonable? My local council is only allowing 1 closed wheely bin to be collected every 2 weeks and they do not even provide a reusable nappy service. I have 1 child and another due in the next 4 weeks how am I gonna fit everything into one bin collected once a fortnight? I am looking into reusable nappies but I don't want to spend hundreds of pounds before the birth to find out they do not suit my new arrival.
I do not fancy having to take my newborn down to the tip to get rid of used disposables either. I feel the councils policy discriminates against new mums. I did phone to speak to the manager and his answer was 'tough'.

I would really like opinions on this please?

they cant make special exceptions just because you have a baby in nappies can they?

what would you like as a solution?

Message deleted

We have wheelie bins, a grey one (normal rubbish) and a recycle bin, they are collected every aletrnate 2 weeks and its fine. we had a 2yr old a newborn.

We just emptied napies in the loo where reasonalble nd used a couple of nappy sacks o they didn'rt smell in the bin, but tbh we always did this as i hate the thought of shit sat in your bin for up to two weeks and that's what your toilet is for, really!

YANBU, but it's not as bad as it seems

There are five of us in our house and we have fortnightly collections and have had for years.

I manage just one wheely bin every 2 weeks and i have 4 DC. OK none in nappies but they don't take that much space squished down!

If you recycle all the waste that you can, and compost your food waste, you shouldn't struggle too much - ours is still collected weekly, but is rarely more than 1/3 full unless I have a big clearout.

Cut down on other waste?

We only have one bag of rubbish a week for the garbage people. Could definitely live with a wheely bin every 2 weeks.

Do they do recycling?

I am trying to work up the nerve to do what another poster here does and remove all unnecessary packaging at the shop and give it to them to deal with.

They've been doing it here for years, I guess you have a paper bin as well?
So they will rotate, paper bin one week, general the next?
In an area near me they have paper, food, garden and general bins which are emptied every four weeks so think yourself lucky.
It's rubbish (fantastic pun if I do say so myself) but you don't have any options.

yabu. Not sure what the problem is. Do you recycle too? And compost? We've got 4 kids and only get collected once a fortnight. It's fine.

we have had alternate recycle and household collections fortnightly for years. We manage fine and we are family of 5 with one in nappies.

We recycle everything we possibly can & now only have 1/2 a binbag every week.

Could you recycle more to make more room in your refuse bin?

Our council have had fortnightly collections for years, we have 2 DS, one in nappies and our bin is rarely full. I take it they take away recycling?

I agree it will be fine. We compost and recycle and in a house of 5 (two toddlers and a newborn) we only use 4 black bags per fortnight. Having said that, we dont eat much preprepared food and the little one is in washables.

BUT look into the council scheme for reusables. I think they give you either money toward it or money back or something? IIRC it is about £50?.

Also try freecycle.. There are loads that float around mine.

Where I live you are allowed an extra bin if you have two children in nappies.

But apart from that, I can't understand how you can be creating that much waste that cant be recycled.

when i did work from home, despite my best efforts i had extra waste, I phoned the council and i paid £40 extra a year for a larger wheelie bin, for £60 they offered a second bin - can you cost up petrol to the tip and perhaps do this till the baby is out of nappies?

Family of 5 here and we manage with one bin collection a fortnight, alternated with a recycling collection (glass, paper, plastics and cardboard).
Have done this for years and just started composting; it's surprising how you can cut down on crap destined for the landfill if you really have to.

It wasn't that long ago that disposable nappies weren't available at all, so I don't really understand why you would think that reusables wouldn't "suit" your baby.

Lots of councils only collect rubbish every two weeks. It is supposed to encourage recycling, and it is also a cost saving measure, so don't expect an improvement in the frequency any time soon.

Agree with everyone else, recycle everything.
We are a family of 6 and i'm also a childminder of 3 in nappies and we manage fine.
It just takes a bit of effort!!!

In our area we have a waste officer. If you genuinely can't fit all your rubbish in they come round and give you advice. If they agree you are recycling all you can tey get you another bin. Check to see if this is the case where you are. TBH with 2 small children who for a time were both in nappies I never struggled to fit it in. You maybe need to recycle more?

Provided they offer some sort of recycling collection I don't understand your point at all. We are a family of 2 adults and 4 children and 2 cats and we very rarely get anywhere near filling our wheelie bin and could cope with fortnightly collection easily.

Regarding washable nappies, it is best to buy them 2nd hand - one of the least expensive and most reliable systems I could recommend are bumbles with motherease wraps, they are fuitted nippa fastening, very absorbant and will work well on any baby shape - if you have very small babies you may need to use bimbles first as the bumbles are quite big but I used them from birth but my babies were 9-10lbs. Check out the nappies board for more help/advice - but def buy 2nd hand to try them out! I also used disposable overnight once they slept for several hours at a stretch.

You should also bear in mind that most tips don't take mixed rubbish. You will be asked to take out all recycle stuff at the tip and put it in the correct containers. In which case, you may as well do it at home and use the recycling service.

since our council has brought in recycling I am down to a bin bag a week and that's only full if I have a clear out most people have wheelie bins but I can't manage to get it up the steps as I have a bad back some weeks I put out 3 recycling bags though. You'll manage

We have our bins collected fortnightly and we have a 16 month DS plus another on its way. You live up to your means and will get used to it honest!

When it was just me n the DH we'd fill our bin with all sorts bascically cos we couldn't be arsed to recycle (or the bottle bin would be overflowing wth wine bottles , however since the fortnightly collections we recycle more and if the bin gets abit whiffy I stick an airfresher under the lid.

Good luck!

It might be a tough first month, you'll need to recycle absolutely everything you can, and perhaps hold onto any clean dry rubbish until you're no longer getting through ten nappies a day - saving the bin space for what's really necessary.
But after that as others have said it should be perfectly doable - and once you're past the first shock you could move to real nappies (perhaps try freecycle or other local second hand/rental options to save on up front cost).