How many bags of rubbish do you put out? (MERGED)

daleigha

we (me, OH and cat) usually put out about 3 binbags each fortnight, although if we didnt have the cat it would probably be only two - her litter takes up a lot of space!! we dont have a recycling bin (i have found apartments dont seem to for some random reason - this is the second one i have lived in that doesnt ) but i save all our recycling stuff and bring it to my mums, and bottles to the bottle bank when there are loads under the sink - i hate throwing out food waste - potato peelings etc, but as i live in an apartment i have no space or need for a compost bin!
x

moo842

we are a family of 5 and we put out about 1 1/2 bags a week. We recycle loads though, the recycling here is pretty good, its only glass they don't take and the bottle bank is a two minute walk away!

MandyLou66

Have just read in the local paper about a lady yet again who is struggling with fortnightly rubbish collections. She has 2 children aged 8mths and 2+ years, and is saying that the bins are overflowing and the council are refusing to empty them..

Got me thinking to when mine were small (now 22 and 20) we just had a regular 'dustbin' not a huge wheelie bin but it never seemed to be a problem, was wondering why and I realised how times and packaging have changed.

I didn't have baby food jars.. they just had liquidised versions of what we ate.
I didn't have disposable nappies.. contents flushed down the loo and terries washed.
Food wise .. meat from the butcher wrapped in paper not plastic tubs.
Veg.. bought from market just tipped in your shopping bag.
Water.. from tap!!
They only had 'pop' on special occasions, diluted squash the rest of the time so not many bottles to dispose of.
Milk.. milkman delivered and took the bottle back.

Just a few I can think of but I'm sure if we went back to them we could cut back on one hell of a lot of rubbish!1

Can anyone think of any more?

CRANKY40

I can honestly say I haven't had a problem with my fortnightly bin collections. Happily I seem to have more in my "recycling" bin that in my "rubbish tip" one. I love the fortnightly collection because it saves me dragging all the recycling to various places.

When I was small pop came in bottles that went back for a deposit, or back to the pop man who came round once a week.

bertiebots

I think you make a great point! We are lucky to still have weekly collections but even as a family of 5 rarely fill the grey bin. We have 2 large green wheeley bins that are collected monthly....now they are a different matter and usually both are full before the month is up.Dh is often seen jumping in the bin at the end of the month lol! Shopping at the market for veg and meat definatley = less packaging and it still baffles my as to why supermarkets are so het up about carrier bags but insist on packing everything in plastic trays.( I use re-usable bags btw.)
We could manage very easily with a fortnightly collection.

tomstickland

I recycle everything I can. Sadly there's no recycling of transparent plastic food packaging. I fill a small kitchen bin over about 2 weeks. Almost all of it is food packaging. So someone who buys a lot more processed feed and doesn't bother recycling will probably fill their bins a lot more quickly.

We're just seeing a problem that's been brewing for years come to a head now. Those that complain should have the option of their garden being used as a surface rubbish storage area.

roxy7699

I would be happy to have fortnightly refuse collection but not recycling. We're fortunate to have plastic, normal and food waste recycling - I always seem to have a fair bit of plastics but most is packaging, normal recycling varies but is mostly paper and is only what doesnt fit in my compost bin. The food waste is rarely full, but not collecting every week is not so pleasant (knowing from when I havent taken it out for collection and the contents are growing creatures).
I could probably go for monthly refuse to be honest as the only thing ever in my rubbish is milk and juice cartons.

maryb

me too, i only have abot 5 small carrier bags full of rubbish per week for a family of4 (plus extras at weekends) but the recycling bins are always full. There would be even less if our council collected anything other than plastic bottles but they are very fussy. I buy Yeo Valley which DOES come in recyclable pots (after you take the cardboard wrapper off and recycle that) because it has exactly the same symbol as the stuff they will collect, but when I put it in the recycling I got a threatening note from the bin police.

mind you, although fortnightly would not be a problem from that point of view I do think the rat problem would get completely out of hand - I had to stop feeding the birds when I saw rats on my bird table in the middle of the day less than a foot from my kitchen window EEEEEW. And were they bothered when I thumped on the window? Not a bit of it. And as for the foxes... I don't know what it's like in real country but they are certainly a pest in our bit of suburban London

OrkneyStar

MandyLou66 wrote: »

Have just read in the local paper about a lady yet again who is struggling with fortnightly rubbish collections. She has 2 children aged 8mths and 2+ years, and is saying that the bins are overflowing and the council are refusing to empty them..

Got me thinking to when mine were small (now 22 and 20) we just had a regular 'dustbin' not a huge wheelie bin but it never seemed to be a problem, was wondering why and I realised how times and packaging have changed.

I didn't have baby food jars.. they just had liquidised versions of what we ate. ditto for my DS (14 months)
I didn't have disposable nappies.. contents flushed down the loo and terries washed. we use 'real nappies' most of the time- a bit fancier looking than terries but the same wash or flush principle (also try to wash in Eco balls/soap pods when I can)
Food wise .. meat from the butcher wrapped in paper not plastic tubs. I hate plastic bags but thats what they give us now!
Veg.. bought from market just tipped in your shopping bag. most of the time I don't put veg in bags (unless its like 15 loose small things) and use paper mushroom bags that can go in recycling
Water.. from tap!! ditto, or flavoured sparkly stuff- bottles are recycled
They only had 'pop' on special occasions, diluted squash the rest of the time so not many bottles to dispose of. ditto
Milk.. milkman delivered and took the bottle back. we do throw the cartons but again into recycling

Just a few I can think of but I'm sure if we went back to them we could cut back on one hell of a lot of rubbish!1

Can anyone think of any more?

hi there,
I like your post and have added on what we do now, basically to show that even in this highly plastic world you do not have to generate huge amounts of waste. We don't have an outside bin at all, but THB counting the small bin liners and kitchen/bathroom bin liners I'd say we could quite happily manage on the collections described. Our bins are not that smelly as basically all cardboard, bottles, plastic, tins etc goes in recycling and the peelings etc go in the compost caddy for transfer to green cone. There is a recycling pick up but as we live near the Amenity Centre- I just take the box over every so often and tip in to respective bins.
I think people also need to see if they can reduce the amount of 'waste' they throw.
Ultimately your rubbish is you responsibility and one of the biggest marks you will leave behind when you are gone (particularly if your parents used disposable nappies on you!).
x

one2escape

I will be the odd one out. We were struggling with the weekly collection never mind the fortnightly. We are a family of 6. We have just got a bigger bin but we fill it in a week. We have 2 children in nappies and the other 2 where nappies at night. We fill 2 recycling boxes a week. Use our blue paper bin and the brown bin. We then have to store black bags in the shed until the bin is emptied. It is then hit or miss do we get maggots. Last fortnight they where crawling out of the bin. This week it is due to be emptied tomorrow we have 2 big grey bags full of rubbish to be put in. There must be health and safely issues with the fortnightly collection. Does anyone else have the problem of when they open there bin a million flies fly out?