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Original poster

Can you fit a fortnight's worth of rubbish in a small wheelie bin?

124 replies

Loobeeloo · 07/08/2007 13:46

I have 3 under 3 in my house as well as dh and now we are recycling we have managed to reduce our rubbish down to 4 bags a week.

The larger wheelie bins hold 4-6 bags I'm told (the council won't take them if the lids won't close fully) but I now see there are suggestions we will all get half size bins to avoid "bin envy"!

wheelie bins

How on earth will I get my rubbish down to just 3 bags a fortnight?

OP posts:
Original poster
Loobeeloo · 07/08/2007 13:48

sorry try this link

OP posts:
TheQueenOfQuotes · 07/08/2007 13:49

story not showing on that link for me.

DaftAndFussy · 07/08/2007 13:49

Hmmm. Opened this ready to rant with a 'fornightly bin collection is absolutely no problem for us' type rant, but the half-size bin thing does sound a bit extreme. Sorry!

nailpolish · 07/08/2007 13:50

we have 4 of us in this house and yes we have no probs with only 3 bags of rubbish a fortnight

TheQueenOfQuotes · 07/08/2007 13:51

sorry x posts.

No - that's just stupid. I don't have a problem with fornightly collections - we've had them here for about 2yrs now. But there's simply no way that one of those small bins would hold the amount needed. I think even our neighbour (76yr old with his son living with him "parttime") would struggle with on that size - and he usually lets us put rubbish in his bin if we forget to put the bin out/are too late!

TheQueenOfQuotes · 07/08/2007 13:51

nail - what size bag are you talking about??? I guess we could all be talking about different size bags here LOL.

TheQueenOfQuotes · 07/08/2007 13:52

both our recyling and normal bins are always full to the brim by the time it's their "turn" for collection - so it's not like we don't recycle.

nailpolish · 07/08/2007 13:53

3 black bags
its not just about recycling - its having a 6'2" 15stone husband to squash it down

Original poster
Loobeeloo · 07/08/2007 13:54

You will have to hire him out for squashing services!

OP posts:
mm22bys · 07/08/2007 13:55

What do they honestly expect people to do? The problem is not getting rid of the rubbish but that the manufacturers over-package good in this country.

They need to look at this problem from the other end - like they do in other countries (eg Germany) tax the manufacturers. They would produce less, so there would be less to throw away in the first place.

What's the slogan? Reduce, recycle, replace (or something along those lines).

These smaller bins will just see an increase in rubbish on the streets, and more fly-tipping.

Kathyis6incheshigh · 07/08/2007 13:56

Yes, maybe someone needs to invent a home rubbish compactor.

Our recycling bin is always full of milk bottles from our milkaholic dd. I should melt them in the oven like my dad does to shrink them.

tigerschick · 07/08/2007 13:56

The problem we have is that we don't have a recycling bin. We have a green one, which is for garden waste and 'light' cardboard only, and a black one. There are skips in the village about a mile away but it is limited in this area as to what you can put in them. The main thing missing is we can't recycle plastic food trays, margarine tubs, yoghurt pots etc - only plastic bottles. They take up loads of room in the bin. So despite recycling all we can, we still fill our full size bin every fortnight.

TheQueenOfQuotes · 07/08/2007 13:58

aha - I guess we'd probably use only 3 black bags too - but we use those "swing bin" bags (about half the size of the "average" black bag (anyone else found that even "black bags" are different sizes??).

Miaou · 07/08/2007 13:59

There are six of us in our house and I would guess we produce maybe 1.5 bags of rubbish per week.

Things that make a difference:

Recycling everything possible (obviously)
Washable nappies
Making sure we buy as little as possible with packaging
Milk cartons - rinse them out, then use a pair of sharp scissors to cut them up. They take up about 1/10th of the room in the bin.
Burn all boxes etc (I realise that is not a practical solution for many people!)
Compost all food waste

HTH

Original poster
Loobeeloo · 07/08/2007 13:59

MM I agree ref the packaging, in fact I recently bought birthday presents and told the store concerned I didn't want any of the packaging. The assistant wasn't happy but unpacked it all for me and I left triumphant with no packaging at all!!

I highly recommend this!

OP posts:
Original poster
Loobeeloo · 07/08/2007 14:01

Miaou - I was interested in composting however my mum has an allotment where they have been composting for years and she told me to be careful as that's why the allotments are rife with rats!

OP posts:
TheQueenOfQuotes · 07/08/2007 14:01

Miaou - Milk Carton?? I though we were talking about "normal" bins....or is this for recycled stuff too - if so it's even more crazy!!!

Kathyis6incheshigh · 07/08/2007 14:03

I can't help thinking something has gone wrong somewhere if we are supposed to spend time cutting up our milk cartons

nailpolish · 07/08/2007 14:04

miauo you cant compost meat products, cheese etc,

nailpolish · 07/08/2007 14:04

i put milk cartons in the 'packaging' recycle bin

Miaou · 07/08/2007 14:04

Well, you know the plastic containers you get milk in at the supermarket? Those are the ones I mean. We can't recycle them here, but even if you squash them flat they take up a lot of room in the bin. So if you cut them up into four "sides" and a "bottom", IYSWIM, you are putting five almost flat pieces of plastic in the rubbish. You can do the same thing with margarine tubs etc - anything that your council won't recycle.

Miaou · 07/08/2007 14:06

You are right np; I should have said "compost all the food waste you can". We tend to have very little waste except for peelings, egg shells etc - all leftovers get made into soup!

Original poster
Loobeeloo · 07/08/2007 14:06

defintely quicker to get your hubby to squash it Nail!

OP posts:
TheQueenOfQuotes · 07/08/2007 14:06

ahh - I see - we can recycle them here

Now if ALL rubbish bag were the same size, and ALL councils offered the same recycling services there'd be less confusion for us chatting on MN .

LizaRose · 07/08/2007 14:07

We compost all our food waste in a bokashi bin. I'm also switching to reusable nappies in a bid to keep the rubbish down.