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?!

LA's have lost the plot over refuse collection. We collect refuse to prevent disease and vermin, therefore all rubbish left out should be collected because it can cause vermin (and then disease). This obsession with being green is going to kill us all with bubonic plague or worse one of these days.
What's a green bin for? LA collects weekly, recycled stuff in bags and black bins.

I've got one of those tiny wheelie bins at my new house and the council won't swap it (although they've said I can have an extra recycling bin). I now have a very small bin in the kitchen and although it obviously needs emptying very regularly, I can fit more small bags into the bin because there's less space between them (like putting in pebbles instead of footballs). If it does get too full I put the odd one in a public bin but it seems to be doing the trick after the initial house-moving extra rubbish.

Be careful not to be caught putting household rubbish in public bins. People have been prosecuted for doing this. Why can't you have a bigger bin?

Can you get one of those garden burning incinerators thing? Burn all the card board type packaging

Alright judgy!

No idea how old OPs kids are but having had 3 under 3 at one point myself, I can assure you that no amount of telling toddlers to reduce their nappies would make a blind bit of difference. We would fill one massive bin JUST with nappies each fortnigh. My neighbors all rallied round (cos they're lovely) and would let us know who had space in their bins for the time until eldest potty trained and the volume tailed off.

Not all councils will give an extra bin.

If ours hadn't been collected for a month, including Christmas, I'd be BESIDE myself!

I’m not sure because I am the least green fingered person you could meet. I only have to walk past a plant and it seems to die immediately! But I think you have composting bins you shove the food in the top of, and it breaks down and eventually comes out the bottom as compost for all the plants other people seem to be able to keep alive. Not me. Mine all die. Maybe this is where I’m going wrong. No composting.

Who said they freeze theirs? Is this some clever way of making it less attractive to foxes? Where do they put it? In the freezer?

I am also now confused!

She does pick it up. She has too much rubbish for the bin. I suspect she has a small bin - LAs love small bins, they think it cuts down rubbish. Actually, it encourages fly tipping, but hey ho, that's probably some other LA's problem.
And 4 children can generate a lot of rubbish. People do, especially over Christmas.

Superb,well considered post ! Someone upthread suggested getting a skip because it’s ONLY £80! I definitely work with people who just wouldn’t have a spare £80 knocking around!

Out of interest @Badwowwow - what type of bins do you have in your area? From what I’ve seen, some areas are much worse than others for waste disposal.

Here we have -
Black Bin - general waste (every 3 weeks)
Purple - Plastics and tins (every 3 weeks)
Blue - Paper/Cardboard (every 3 weeks)
Brown - Garden and Food (every 2 weeks)

1 of each bin per household unless you have more than 6 people in the house, or you have at least 2 children still in nappies. In these cases you can pay for an extra black bin.

Her first post said she doesn’t have a car

@BustyLaRoux Because we don't do much food waste, so I appreciate not suitable for many, but I have a plastic bag in my freezer marked BIN, in it goes the bones from the chicken, that bit of cake nobody ate and now looks decidedly mouldy etc. When I think it's too much for the freezer, I pop the frozen bag in the waste bin out for the dustmen, shouldn't smell really as has been frozen before it became truly smelly IYSWIM

The council will get upset if they catch you doing that though

@Oooonoooeee Completely agree! Also not sure where on earth a skip is “only £80” 🤯 I was quoted £240 including VAT for the smallest size the other day 🤣

Why haven't you asked for a bigger bin? I did that years ago when my crew were young and we went to fortnightly.

Are you recycling properly as well? There are ways to limit waste.

Regarding the missed collections and build-up issue, you should complain to your local councillor. This won't solve the immediate problem, but if you find out which councillor is responsible for waste collection and explain what has happened and that 1. you have had a missed collection 2. you have no car and could do nothing about it and 3. this has led to your neighbour complaining to social services, the councillor should be able to speak to whoever is responsible for waste collection. It's a complete waste of social services' time if one service underperforming leads to them getting referrals.

And your neighbour is plain nasty. Any normal person would have offered you the use of their bin, ffs!

What a good idea! Though I don’t have room in my small freezer for that. And they do take our food waste weekly. Even so in the summer it does pong!!! And if they miss a week it’s positively disgusting!

Very jealous of all these people who only have three or four different boxes/bins. I live in a La A where we have six different containers to stay on top of! Ludicrous!!

@gamerchick the OP has already said that she has a big bin.

FFS she's GOT a bigger bin.

Is this the new 'cancel the cheque'?

Hi sorry what c people love to pick on mums

I don’t drive as I don’t need a car and love to walk, I in the past have had rubbish pile up and so I’ve leant some tips

i double bag all my rubbish ( I hate wasting plastic ). However helps to ensure smells / spills don’t escape and also less likely to attract foxes

some rubbish removal companies charge a hell of a lot, however keep phoning around and ask if any can take bin bags and cost, the other day I got 5 bin bags taken for 15 which I think is good

get a Tapo/ring doorbell I only got it as I work and sometime miss parcels now I can tell them to leave it on the doorstep but another good reason is that it will record when your bin was out and that no one picked it up

don’t leave it to pile up, I used to get a pile up in the garden then try and find someone to take it, however I always thought oh I’ll wait as I may need to add more to the pile and then I can get it gone in one go, don’t do this it will pile up for a year!

you got rubbish that needs taking get rid asap

i used airtasker but they charge a lot, I’m not on Facebook but I know a lot of people on my area just post on their local community group posting jobs like can anyone take my rubbish please quote

don’t worry about busy bodies, I love the environment and do my best, one reason I don’t even own a car, also you not owning one is good, keeps you and the kids fit too,

people love to pick on mums, my nan used to freely help mums when she saw them overwhelmed, some people just like to judge

Six here, plus a bag of thin plastic to go to the supermarket!

I had a missed collection and they are like yours..... Won't take any unless it's in the bin. I stood next to the bin with 2 black bags of rubbish and once they emptied my bin I put them in and asked them to empty my bin 🤣 they did bless them

You can always ask for more recycling bins. They won’t give you another general waste bin but will give you multiple recycling. Just ask. You need to manage this better. When we have additional rubbish we bag it and put it in the shed to prevent pests. Tell SS your solutions rather than simply stating the problem

You can buy additional bins from amazon or home shop
Make sure bins are fox proof
Ask your neighbour with empty bins if you can use theirs?!

@Badwowwow are you
a) definitely squishing your bin bags and getting the air out before tying them up
b) squishing them into the bin as best you can so they take up least room?
c) putting all your plastic waste into a separate bag with a small opening, so you are really squishing it in as you go - and if possible taking this to a supermarket soft plastics collection

These 3 things will reduce the volume and increase available space.

Ah yes I forgot about the plastic bags for the supermarket!

Our recyclers are fierce too. They often reject all the recycling. Actually I’ve moved and the ones over this way are a bit more reasonable if you accidentally put an erroneous item in the wrong container, they’ll just take it out. But the ones where I used to live were utterly militant. If they spotted an erroneous item (often dumped in the box by a passer by when you’d left your boxes out on collection day), they would take great pleasure in refusing the whole lot!