Great, we've just had our second bin nicked!

[thefabfour]

Our second bin mysteriously disappeared over a month ago and has not re-appeared. We took the last bin left in the central collection point. Just an hour ago we have had someone come onto our property and remove the bin. DH ran after her and it took several minutes for her to understand that, as a family of six or more people we are entitled to two bins and have not just nicked one! Looks like it wasn't just a mistaken swap, but someone has taken it.

I was wondering if, in this era of fortnightly bin collections whether there are any other larger familiies having their extra bins nicked?

NO but it does annoy me that my neighbour with a family of 5 has one and we don't, how do you apply for them ?
Maybe the rules are different here ?
Thank you

The criteria round here is six or more people living in a property.

TBH, I wasn't that keen to apply for it as a second refuse bin means that we now have a total of four bins outside the house. However, DH insisted and with two DC in napppies it has proved invaluable.

Saying that, the LA have now reduced the service to alternate refuse/ recycling collections once a week and at the end of the fortnight both bins are crammed full. I don't know how anyone would manage with one bin hence why ours has been nicked

Think it maddens me as we are entitled to this (and definately need it). We are not just being greedy.

Paint your address on the front of both.

Comeoveneer- it was painted on the front. DH did it in spectacular fashion some time ago.

Thats what makes this brilliant.

I think people think we have just been singled out for special treatment and fail to notice the large number of people living here.

Well at the moment, we have weekly collections but more often than not, ours is scarcely half full. The recycling only gets emptied once a month and that bin is always overflowing.

I'd happily swap to fortnightly collections of each.

What about putting that sticky back vinyl wallpaper stuff all round it? That would make it stand out.

10 of us in our house (11 when ds home from uni). We have one refuse bin, one green bin(garden waste), one bottle/cans bin and a paper/card sack, one smallish waste food bin. We also compost stuff.
We considered a second bin but once the recycling bins were delivered we found that we only needed the one refuse bin.
Although we have had to do a tip run over christmas with all the extra packaging.
We are also on alternate refuse/recycling collections but seem okay with the one refuse bin.

Have you thought of using reusable nappies?That would cut down on the disposables in the bin?

we had someone try this with us - dd was only a few weeks old, i ran out the front door, no shoes on, at night, with dd in my arms, yelling 'give me back my bin, you thief' - they abandoned it & ran off.

our council charges 100 for one if they go missing, so i was enraged!!

put up a 'thieves will be prosecuted' sign next to where you keep them?

if one does get nicked, call the police & reprt it or you could end up paying for a new one.

Is there anything you can do to secure it on non-collection days?

Kickass- We're ringing them LA in the am. I sincerly hope that we don't have to pay. That will really get my goat- def a police job in that case.

Expecting/ Juule- i do try and do as much recycling as possible and our recycling bins are overflowing. Problem is, the council will not empty them if the recycling is not in the bin and so I end up resorting to throwing away things that I know our council recycle, such as plastics when it becomes full as now where else will take them.

I also used to religiously use reusable nappies with DC1 and DC2. However, following PND after DC3 and DC4 I decided (with much guilt) that i needed for my own sanity to let things go and prioritise things for the sake of my health. I made a consious decision when DC4 was born that I wanted to exclusivly bf him but that the nappies would have to go. I appreciate that this probably makes for a lot of our waste and have already decided to use recusables as much as poss until the bin is sorted out.

Earlybird- I think this is part of the prob. We had the bins at the front of our house as there is not a lot of space in the garden. Having two bins out the front must is too much for some people!! When this is sorted, will def go round the back out of sight

Hope the above makes sense- lots of typos

Saw a thread ages ago about bin locks - the wallpaper is a good idea

i think it's quite normal for larger families to have 2 bins, specially with fornightly collections. it's the people stealing them who are out of order. if that lady has had hers taken, then stealing your is not the answer - she should be contacting the police & council

we still have weekly collections here leeds ,but have the larger old type bins for both but they dont make them any more so can now have as many green bins as we like my bins r always full and thats with recycling too

wow juule - impressive

We have two food digesters which are ace, much better than just composting. See www.greencone.com/home.asp?lang=1 - we use the Green Johanna.

They don't take up much space or smell and get through loads of waste. We also compost and burn excess recycling in the fireplace - fun for pyromaniacs!!! Intend to use cloth nappies with the twins most of the time, although no promises i also need a life. No problems at all with one bin - I think it's great for larger families to show they're more sustainable.

In fact, I've been trawling round the country judgmentally stealing bins from big families who still make the novice mistake of buying things with too much plastic packaging....