Reported to social services

[Badwowwow]

My local authority went on to fortnightly collections and since then I have struggled so much with rubbish! I have 4 kids and there is too much to last 2 weeks! I don’t have a car so can’t take it anywhere myself and can’t dump it anywhere. So because of this and it being Xmas I have had extra rubbish! A few times the foxes have torn the bags open if it’s not in the bin and I clean it but still left with additional rubbish as my local authority won’t collect any additional rubbish and will only collect what’s IN the bin. I have admitted this is a struggle for me as sometimes bin collectors don’t turn up then I’m left with a situation where the rubbish hasn’t been collected for even longer. Well someone has reported me to SOCIAL SERVICES!! Because of this, Social services! Really! I’m so upset that someone would do this. What will happen now?!

There is, but op dislikes her.

Wait until their bin is out then chuck your extra bags in there.

'Given the rubbish outside'.....how much is there? Most things go in recycling, so what does your rubbish consist of?

Why are you saying "having 4 children is a good enough excuse to not pick up your rubbish"?? OP clearly says she picks it up.

My local authority is rolling out the food bins this month, but we can't use them until 1st April. People are already moaning that they're blowing around the streets. I've not got mine yet.

My tip is eight miles away along a dual carriageway. I can't walk there. I can't compost and I don't have a horse (or dog).

I live alone. My recycling bin is currently full from the Christmas and sale delivery packaging mostly, though there would be space if I crushed it down.

Today I have thrown away the following:

Two tea bags
Banana skin
Satsuma skin
Apple core
Tray salmon came in (recycling)
Salmon skin
Top of tray salmon came in
Two egg shells
Off cuts from chicken drumstick meat
Tray chicken came in (recycling)
Plastic cover for that tray
Coconut milk can (recycling)
Kombucha tin (recycling)
A sachet some Thai curry sauce came in
A sachet some Thai curry herbs came in
The cardboard cover for those (recycling)
Ends of courgette, onion and garlic skins, middle of peppers and chillis, stalks of coriander
Plastic bag courgette came in
Shortly that will be joined by the outer of a cauliflower.
Plastic bag the cauliflower came in
Some junk post (recycling)
The package for a clothing item (recycling)

I think that will be it for the day

See my list below, in my house "most" stuff does not go in the recycling.

We tend to struggle with a build up over Easter and Christmas if we don’t plan. You have to be militant about recycling and food waste in the weeks leading up to Christmas and we prioritise minimising the stuff that goes in the general bin as that is the bin you need to prioritise and manage. We then generally avoid recycling cardboard or wrapping paper until the first Christmas collection has been. That is clean recycling and no bother to keep somewhere in the house for a few weeks and saves up space for the kitchen recycling (which we still clean but would rather get rid of).

On bin day can you just sneak your rubbish into their bin.

we didn’t have our recycling collected and then it was Xmas. Maybe 5 weeks between collection, really not ideal! My DH went bin hopping, putting our left over rubbish in other bins around midnight.

Is there any houses currently sitting empty? Those bins will be empty if you’re able to put them out front/collect them afterwards?

Below?

If your bins haven't been collected in 4 weeks then it's an issue with the council, not with you!
Put in a complaint to the council and highlight that they have missed a collection therefore you need 4 weeks worth collecting rather than just 2 weeks.

We had an insane amount of rubbish from Christmas because of the ridiculous amount of gifts/ toys family got for my kids - we had 2 extra bin bags of crappy plastic that couldn't be recycled etc. so I don't think you're unreasonable.
Can't understand what on earth social services need to be called for - they will see it as a waste of time.

Hopefully you can get them to help escalate the bin collection issue with the council.

It's not your fault!

I am pretty certain that the people who take 3 months to fill one bin on this post are the same people that can make one chicken last 4 people all week!

I think this might be worth thinking about

She has said she is not.

She has livestock which consume the food waste

To all the posters who have no read the OP's posts:

1. yes, she has reported the missed bin collections
2. to the bigger bin brigade, yes, she has the maximum sized bin available
3. to the get more bins brigade, she's not entitled to another bin
4. to the just take it to the dump posters, OP does not have a car and, no, she doesn't have someone who can take her/her rubbish to the tip
5. to the 'oh my, how much rubbish do you produce, why, we barely fill one bin every month', well, good for you. Now go and have your fifth meal of Mumsnet chicken. Oh, and yes
6. she does clean it up when those London foxes savage the bags

OP - it's shit and of course you're stressed by the Social Services call. Still, on the positive side, Social Services are likely to be less judgy than many of the posters on this thread

Get a bigger bin.
She has the maximum sized bin available

clean up after foxes
She does

report missed collections.
She has, repeatedly. There are staff shortages, hence delay on bin emptying

it’s not that hard
Clearly it is that hard though for you to read OP's posts

As someone who works in waste management, pay a man (or woman) with a van with a waste carriers licence to take your bags to the local waste transfer station and then put in a complaint to the council. You can't be letting the waste attract rats, that's a big no, regardless of the council's fault, just clear it and then deal with the blame game.

You can buy bins!

Put it to your LA that missed collections that are their fault should result in extra refuse being collected. Contact your local MP to ask them to help the LA rethink and change the policy on that front.

Ask the elderly neighbours if you could put excess rubbish in their almost empty bin to help you clear your excess rubbish. Failing that, do what many do where I live and play bin roulette (see which bins have space and toss a bag in there).
As for SS, please don't fret. They have a protocol to follow when reports are made and yes, it can include speaking to your children's school and/or speaking to your child(ren) but, as others have said, if things are all OK, there really is nothing to worry about. They may even be able to offer/suggest help you might not be aware of. Everything will be OK OP.

Can you get a bigger bin? Where I live bigger households are entitled to a larger capacity bin.

At the end of the day, whatever waste you and your family make is nobody business

3 adults here, our recycling bin is over flowing every two weeks - because we drink in the house . So wine bottle , cans I really cba to squish , beer bottles - and normal recycling waste - bin is full every two weeks

Bad me

Food waste - zero

Household that cant be recycled - a half bin every two weeks

My neigbours can go wind their necks in - they put out the compost bin - food waste, which has a bigger impact on global warming then a bin full of cans and bottles which are recycled time and time again

You probably don't live in London or have a significant amount of rubbish - but here the councils will only empty one bin!! The others would be mere decoration

That sounds frustrating and it's always annoying when collections are missed. We have 4 people in the house, a normal sized bin which is collected every 4 weeks (8 weeks if they miss one which happens a couple of times a year). We manage, because most things can be recycled.

You have one extra person in the house, but you have a bigger bin and it's collected twice as often as ours. I would suggest it's a waste problem and/or lack of recycling. I'd do a bit of a bin audit to see what's actually causing all this waste and whether any of it could be reduced (I'm simplifying but for example using a reusable bottle instead of buying plastic bottles of water or whatever) or recycled in your other bins. Check all the details on your council website to make sure you're recycling everything you can as sometimes the rules are updated without telling everyone, e.g. some councils started taking tetrapaks for recycling when they previously didn't. Reducing what goes in the bin in the first place will hopefully keep it more manageable for the future, though I appreciate it doesn't deal with the stuff lying around right now (but might make it fit in to future collections easier if you can find somewhere to safely store it in the meantime). Good luck!

Lifelong Londoner. Borough of Wandsworth - we have 4 bins. Borough of Richmond - same. There’s different types of waste needs different bins.

Have you contacted your MP? They can often make an extra bin round appear as a one off.

Alternatively, there's usually people who do rubbish collections on Facebook local pages for about £50 - just make sure they either have a licence or just collect it in a car, otherwise they may fly tip it and of the rubbish has your address you'll be liable.
.
As for social services, explain that yes you have lots of rubbish due to a few missed collections but you're sorting it by doing one of the above.