Oh good someone has noticed the correlation between the rise of the rat population and fortnightly rubbish collections

[Caligula]

Dur.

It isn't really that hard to predict, is it?

news story here

It really pisses me off that they allow a single person household the same capacity as a seven member household.

That is simply unintelligent, fuckwitted thinking. How can it possibly be justified?

We have three big wheely bins, one for 'Throw away' rubbish, one for recyling and one for garden waste.

We have also gone over to a 14 day pick up cycle.. At first I thought it would be a probelm, but we seldom fill both bins in a fortnight (family of 4)

I can see that for larger familes it could be an issue. In addition, the rats can't get near the stuff in the bins......bin bags must be a nightmare

Name and shame that council Suedonim. If it was me I would be mailing them and ringing them to complain about the crap service they're providing.

As for excess packaging - heard yesterday that Eire has been charging a 5 cent tax on plastic bags at the supermarket checkout and within a year there has been a 94% drop in bags used. The money raised is ploughed back into green schemes.

Callisto, it's Aberdeenshire! Everyone's complained but they won't budge their position.

Oh God, can I join in.....binmen will not take bin if slightest thing peering over the top.

Have card recycling bin, which fills up after 1 week ( collected monthly). Nearest tip miles away, and often shut or FULL.

Would love to recycle more, but do not have enough room in or outside house to store seperate bottles/cans/plastics/ etc., and then take to tip which is miles away and SHUT.

Also, most plastics and card are recyclable, but, plastics are all different types so when taken to tip (when open), just get dumped in landfill anyway, as no one bothers to seperate them into seperate types of plastic.

Agree with caligula, councils going green to save them money.

Teach this at A level, and more and more products are becoming recyclable..but country does not have what it takes to recycle, so most get dumped in landfill. Card is the most recyclabe, but only accounts for a tiny amount of refuse. So what pisses me off is all fuss about recycling card, when it accounts for very little, and can be contaminated by use of glue, different finishes, so can't be recycled any way...rant...rant..rant

This sort of thing makes me mad. Fife Council

germany has a HUGE rat population. I remember sitting near the fountain, in the centre of Moers, and counting at least 7 different rats rustling in and out of the bushes.

they have v good rubbish and recycling facilites though.
we should move away from recycling collection, and towards every street having communal recycling bins like germany. then you have to educate people to be good citizens and take their stuff though. Only paper is collected from the house.

Oh yuk.

Bring back the Pied Piper.

lol
its no coincidence that that story was set in germany.

we have great council here, recycling boxes in moray collected weekly, for glass, tins and foil

garden waste and household waste fortnightly, except at xmas, when our household bin was weekly for three weeks

my household waste bin is full every fortnight, just, for a family of four, it is a pity councils were not made to be more consistent with their services, though I know here if you don't recycle you can be charged £50 a month extra, neighbour recently got a warning letter

dh got us a "green cone" for £5 we're yet to start it, but I am hoping it will cut down on food waste going in the bin

Hmm, wonder if I can get my house transferred to Moray for rubbish purposes?

Is the Green Cone the same as a food digester, where you sink it about 18inches into the ground? The latter don't seem to work very well in our area. We'd be hard-pushed to find 18in of soil in the first place and even friends who do have that depth have found that the food just sits in the digester, getting mouldy but not rotting down. Bits of meat were still recognisable after nearly two years - yuk! I wonder if the temperature just isn't high enough in Scotland; certainly, my wormery isn't very efficient.

Hmm this is all very interesting. I wouldn't really have a problem with fortnightly rubbish collections TBH. We, a family of four, would not fill up the bin in this time, and it would mean the green bin (for plastics, paper, tins etc) would have more space in it. As it is by half way through week 3 DH is having to jump in it.

I have a compost bin but I am careful what I put in it such as no meat or cooked veg. However I am sure that some of the non cooked peelings and shredded paper etc could be attractive to vermin. Especially just now when it really is not rotting down presumably because it is not warm enough.

Have to say, Glasgow City Council seems to be quite good compared to others here. We have three wheely bins (forutnautely, we have a big garden, but we do have a prbelm with our neighbours, who think that they can keep thier bins in "our" side of the grden, becasue "that is where they've alwways been - not so bad when there was just one each - but not when there are three each! )

The green bin - for "ordinary" waste - is collected weekly.

The blue bin - for paper, plastic and tins (but not envelopes, glass, cartons, carboard or plastic bags) - is collected every foruther week.

The brown bin - for organic waste - is collected fortnightly in summer and then monthly or not at all (no collection in December - one in Janaury for Christmas trees) over the winter. Fortunately, we also have a compost heap!

There also used to be a box for glass collection, but they seemd to have stopped that (without telling us) and have put a number of large wheelie bins around the distirct for glass).

Apparently, there is always a rat within 8 feet of every human being on the earth.. ..

We live in fairly recently built detached houses, hence they are quite close together. Our neighbour keeps her bin at the front of the house to the side so if we want to access the back of our house we have to go right past it. She is never there when it is collection day so DH (or I if he is away) puts it out every week. I have a good mind to push it behind the side gate. We have a screened off area for our bins at the end of the patio.

Now shinyhappy I find that hard to believe as I am sat here at my desk in a large open plan office. The only place they could be that is 8 foot from me is under the floor, and surely they would be making a right mess of all the cables, telecomms etc.

And if it is an average thing then they would have to be closer a lot of the time.

I think you might be suprised. I would have said there was no way we had rats near my house. Mice certainly, we are always chasing out field mice but not rats. Then I saw a huge one coming down the lane the other day and saw a massive one. I think we assocate them with dirty areas. Its very clean around here which is why I was so suprised.

Thanks for the link suedonim, to the article about the delightful Fife council. That quote there from the friends of the Earth guy made me laugh. Fife council have one of the best recycling rates! They have the best recycling rates under the rules they make up for theirselves

Maybe its time for us to all get cats

Am pretty impressed by what some of your councils do!!!!.

We have 1 paper bin, collected every month, and normal bin, once a week. Dp also has to jump on rubbish to fit it all in. However now takes it to work to put in their skip!

As I have said, nearest tip miles away for us, and any local glass/bottle banks are invariably full....they don't exactly make it easy for us....

I now have a vision of Britain being like Greece, with cats everywhere.

This might be the only solution, come to think of it.

It sounds like a solution from a bizarre nursey rhyme, but I know if I see another rat I'm going to find an attack cat.

Is an attack cat different from a normal one?

Oh yes, they're very different, Caligula. They have orange and brown stripes; in some countries they're known as tigers.