Does anyone else ever have so much household rubbish that the lid of their wheelie bin doesn't close properly?

[saltire]

And if your bin lid isn't closed proerly, do you get a letter from your local council telling you that in future it won't be emptied, and if you leave the rubbish at the roadside the householder will face a fixed penalty notice of £50?
Just wondering, as my wheelie bin lid is never shut properly, i have two kids and am a full time childminder so have lots of rubbish./ I just thought i'd do a quick poll and see what other councils/local authoritys did.

Slaitre - I think the answer is in one of your ealrier posts, "Envirnmental services feel that it is important to enforce this policy to further encourage recylcing at Recyclin points".

What they mean is that they are encouraging you to take any extra waste to the Recycling Points.

Likweis, their policy about forntightly pick-ups - they are just transferring the onus.

You should contact your local councillor to say that this apporach is not in itself very green, as they are assuming that people have cars - and that they will make thes eaddiotnal journeys for what may only be a small amount of waste.

What they should be doing is encourage more doorstep collection of recyclable waste - so more than just the paper that they currently collect. Ask your councillor what they are doing about that!

We have wheelie bins supplied as if you put out bags they get ripped to bits by seagulls. I emailed the council to say that we couldn't fit everything in the bin and the next day a much larger one had appeared in it's place so no complaints there. Mind you, I think it was because my ds is disabled and receives free nappies from the NHS so they couldn't blame me for filling the bin up.

I keep meaning to ask if we can have some more recyling boxes because they only empty them once a fortnight and they are always full to the top after the first week. Next door has got extra ones so it's worth a try.

To answer the original question, Yes they have taken the bin on the odd occasion the lid was sticking up.

REcycling? LOL! Edinburgh Council has yet to get round to introducing this to inhabitants of tenements, never mind that well over half of the city's housing stock is tenements.

Fortunately we live close enough to a recycling centre to walk to it. Before, however, we had to drive to one. Not very green.

All this 'service' for £150/month for Band C.

What a joke!

Have pity on me - I pay £260/month for my council tax- and I'm not even in the top band!

I'm fortunate - we can afford it - but we do get a bit fed up of all the wealthy suburbs around Glasgow taking advantage of all its services, like its world class museums, without having to pay for them.

The average council tax band in Glasgow is an A - so the few "wealthy" suburbs inside the city boudary really get hammered.

In our area you can have extra recycle bins and glass boxes but not ordinary bins which is fair enough. Really I ought to get a second green bin but then they will start taking over my back garden.

I think some of you have made some quite negative comments about the waste disposal although I agreee that it should be a combined policy of trying to improve recycling collections in order to reduce general waste.

I actually think that people on this thread have in general been very positive towrds the idea of recycling. The complaint has been more about the councils making things difficult - and assuming that people have cars in order to get to the recycling points. And also that for some people, fortnightly collections had casued a problem with maggots. Not very nice.

I know it drives my dh mad that I insist on sorting through the waste paper bins as I empty them, so that I can put the "suitable" waste in to the Blue (recycling) bin.

We don't put paper in the bins in the first place. I don't think you can expect the council to clean out wheelie bins. However I do see your point about having to go to the tip - not only is it not practical for lots of people it sort of defeats the environmental objectives. Obviously far more environmentally friendly to have all the green stuff collected in one round.

our wheelie bin is only collected once a fortnight.

I have 140 nappys in that bin we do recycle but struggle like hell and often have to take things to the tip to dispose of them.

also lid has to be closed or they don't take the bin no xtra bags either.

I'm very much in favour of recycling - so much so that our recycling bin is always full. The problem is with the fortnightly collection. If the plan is to increase recycling and reduce landfill then it would make more sense IMHO to collect the recycling bins every week and increase the range of materials that can be recycled. Rubbish tips and recycling banks are no good to families like ours who have no car.

Coppertop - our problem is that the recycle bin is only emptied once a month. Then becomes very tempting to bung it in the black bin which is emptied weekly.

Our wheelie bin is only emptied twice a month. Overflowing yes, but recycle loads too and more is recyled than binned.

we used to put out a regular - really not shittin you 6-8 bags a week.

now its 1 or 2 becuase we recycle with the recycle bin men - so am not even putting myself out.

I was once told by someone who works in recycling, that the two weekly uplift of general household waste was based on the lifecycle of the house-fly so, in theory, they should never get to the stage where maggots hatch. Maybe the maggots don't know that tough
When we went to fortnightly collections, I must say I was pretty worried that we would have overflowing bins as there are 6 of us in the house including a wee one in nappies. In reality I've never had any problems (except at busy times like Christmas) and it's actually our recycling bin that's over-flowing as that's only emptied every four weeks in Summer.

I recycle too to stop overflowing bins

Not since the council started recycling collections - can't believe how much paper and how many soft drink bottles go in the box! If your wheelie bin lid isn't closed cos it's too full the bin men turf out the extra bag/s and leave them on the path. You also get a "sticker of shame" on your bin telling you it was too full!

Bozza - not sure what you mean by 2You don't put paper in the bis in the first place": where do you put waste paper then? It's got to go somewhere before it goes into the recycling bin? But it might be idfferent where you are/in your house: you might have room for recycling boxes in a cupbard or something. Despite the fact that I live in a big house (or half of one ), there are no cupboards and very l;ittle other storage space, except in the kitchen, which is all accounted for, so waste paper bins in every room are the only way I can "sort" my rubbish.

All paper goes in to the recycling bin when I empty the bins around the house. I don't have two waste peaer bins in every room - hence the need to sort. I do try to put "paper" into one particular bin in the kitchen, with the envelopes and other dross that isn't allowed in the recycling bin going in to the bin in the hall - but it is a bit difficult to explain the subtle distinctions to ds (5). The fact that he puts things in the bins is enough for me!

My Mum & Dad's recycling is even more bizarre - they are only allowed to put out plastic containers that are PET 3 or something like that (the number that is inside the recycling symbol) and the recycling people even go through the boxes by the side of the road and leave behind any plastic bottles that are not "correct".

We get our stinky bins (1 black-normal, 1 green-recycling and 1 brown-garden waste and glass) emptied once a fortnight.

The recycle bin is usually full after just over a week so we either have to stop recycling or bag it up and put it in my mums bin.

They'll take extra waste at Xmas time but not at any other time. If the lid is up even an inch they won't touch it then DH has to load up his works van and go to the tip.

I recycle everything possible and only have 1 bin bag a week in the wheelie bin and that is a bio-degradable one, which are harder to find than hens teeth at the moment every supermarket seemed to have stocked them in the past then as they haven't sold they've discontinued them. In my view ALL bin liners should be bio-degradable normal ones should be banned!

We have a green plastic box for papers, glass and tins. I shred any finsihed with post/envelopes etc and they also go in there.

There is also a cardboard bin at the local supermarket and I collect everything even toilet rolls and cereal boxes and take it when I go shopping. Most people in our street have a full bin and bags at the side. It's not too hard to sort your rubbish and deal with it appropriately.

Forgot to say that I also take any collected plastic bottles as well when I go shopping.

I have noticed that our bin men are more inclined to be a little bit flexible coming up to Christmas!

Since we started recycling all plastic, gloass, cans and paper our wheelie bin is half empty! Shocked myself at how much we were throwing away . do not ahve a council recycling bin, just take it all to the local centre when it is full (have nice ikea thingies to put it in)

Sounds like we're in one of the few areas that doesn't have wheelie bins! Theres talk of them being introduced in coming years but a lot of opposition.

We put out 1, sometimes 2, black bags a week (family of 4, one still in nappies ) and 1 recycling bag (alternate weeks for paper/textiles and tins/plastic). Our neighbours seem to put out 3-4 black bags plus recycling which always amazes me as they are a family of 4 too (no nappies either). Without rooting through their sacks I can only presume that they buy a lot of prepackaged goods and don't recycle everything.

Someone earlier asked about how to reduce your rubbish - We noticed the amount of rubbish go down when we started shopping at the fruit and veg shop/butchers/bakers etc rather than getting everything from the supermarket. Supermarkets are the worst culprits for over-packaging. Why can't carrots, for example, in the supermarket be bought in an unwrapped bunch or by weight in a recyclable paper back like they are in our local Fruit and veg shop. They don't need to be shrink wrapped on a plastic tray FGS! Sorry, but I get so wound up by buying things that you take out of a box only to find that are then in a plastic wrapper and then in a plastic tray etc.

We only have one wheelie bin - brown for garden waste and cardboard - but it actually fills up really fast, esp if you take the cardboard sleeves off plastic food trays etc We keep meaning to use cardboard boxes to carry shopping home in, then recycle them, but haven't got there yet.
They do get snotty if the lid doesn't shut - they wouldn't take the christmas tree till we hacked 6in off the top.

Apart from that we have a green box for paper, glass, tins and plastic bottles (also esoteric things like old clothes and batteries), but the regular waste still goes in black bags
(hate wheeling wheely bins down our bumpy path anyway, much prefer carrying bags or boxes).