How big are your bins?

donnalou

I've recently moved and our recycling bin is the same size as before but our normal bin is half the size which means we can only fit 2 black bags in it.As it only gets emptied once a fortnight sometimes it is a bit of a struggle. Last week we were two black bags over. The bin men wouldn't take take them they just put stickers on them telling us that they wern't in the bin so they couldn't take them, When I phoned the council they said that if we have extra rubbish we can buy special bags from the post office at 60p each and leave those out. So I ended up taking them to the tip.
We've been trying so hard to recycle as much as possible.

So I was just wondering how much rubbish do you all produce?

There are two of us by the way

Donna

catz747

I think it varies greatly depending on where you live. We have a 'standard' size black bin for normal rubbish, we can get away with putting it out once a fortnight (there are 2 of us). We have a half size wheelie bin for paper and 2 black boxes for glass/tins/deoderants/plastic bottles but we had to request the second one. They go out every 2 weeks full. We don't have a green bin or compost bin but compost bins are subsidised. We might get one when we look into whether it is ok to put them on concrete, i.e. if they have a special base or something. I think the base has to be bought seperately.
Where my father in law lives, they have a green wheelie bin for compost waste.
We can't recycle cardboard here unless we take it to the tip.

rach

our old 'big' wheelie bin recently became our recycling bin and we got a 'little' wheelie bin (about half the capacity) for unrecyclables. the big (recycling) bin is collected fortnightly and the little (normal) one, every week. we can put paper, card, glass, tins and some plastics in the big bin. i find i very rarely even half fill my little bin each week, but there's only me!

carol_a_3

We ( me and two teenage kids) have a normal size black dustbin which gets emptied weekly. It's usually half to 3/4 full. We have the recylcing collected every fortnight, tins, aerosols, plastic bottles, glass, cardboard and I have a compost bin in the garden. If we want to recycle garden rubbish it has to go in 65p bags and is also collected fortnightly.

My next door neighbours recycle nothing, just the two of them and they put out two full bins every week.

tr3mor

We live in flats, so just have one normal sized wheelie bin. We probably make about 1 black bin liner of rubbish each week but we recycle glass and plastic bottles.

Savvy_Sue

Have you looked closely at what's in your black bags? It sounds like a lot for two people, to me. There are six of us, and we only have our non-recycling collected every two weeks: I think we usually only have two black bin bags, maybe 3 in a bad week ... But this is only since we started recycling plastic bottles and cardboard: council now collects cardboard and we take the plastic bottles to the supermarket.

Hels_Bells_3

There are 4 adults and 1 child in our house and we produce 1 black bag of rubbish for the bin and fill 2 green recycling boxes a week - my aunt doesn't have a recycling collection where she lives so she drops her cans/bottles/cardboard off on a Wednesday night ahead of Thursday's collection. We have a compost heap and chickens so 'recycle' all our kitchen waste this way.

pollys

We have a standard size black bin emptied weekly, the binmen are due today and it's just over half full. The kerbside recycling box is collected fortnightly due to be emptied next friday it's full of bottles, I also have a bag of paper and a bag of tins to go in. Plastic bottles and cardboard are not collected so we take them to the household waste site. Some paper and peelings etc go in the compost bin. There are six of us.

TJ27

We've got quite a large bin for general waste but it is rarely more than half full and is collected weekly.

We also have green bags for recyclable glass, metal, plastic. I put out 2-3 each fortnight. We also have a large bin for compostable waste. In the summer I might fill it with grass and hedge clippings every fortnight, as I have a fairly large garden, but in winter it's not used all that mulch (sic. Ha, Ha)

I have to say that I am absolutely staggered by the volume of waste produced by others in my neighbourhood. I very often see large black bins overflowing with waste and at least half a dozen black bags next to it. And I know they are families similar to mine (Me, wife, 2 kids). I just don't know how they manage to do it!!

donnalou

I really don't know why we produce so much rubbish, Our recycling bin is always full too. We can recycle yogurt pots and things which I know some people cant.

I'm waiting for my compost bin to arrive so hopefully that'll help. I suppose veg peelings, kitchen roll, egg shells and old cut flowers can go in there.

I buy meat from the butchers and veg from the green grocers so theres hardly any packaging there.

I do put out half empty black bags sometimes especially if we've had a smelly takeaway or left over food with garlic in it.

I'm really trying, always grateful for any more tips though

Donna

irnbru_2

donnalou wrote:

I've recently moved and our recycling bin is the same size as before but our normal bin is half the size which means we can only fit 2 black bags in it.

Sounds like a surreptitious attempt by the council to encourage you to reduce or recycle.

donnalou wrote:

I suppose veg peelings, kitchen roll, egg shells and old cut flowers can go in there.

Correct ...

donnalou wrote:

takeaway or left over food with garlic in it.

and this too.

donnalou wrote:

I'm really trying, always grateful for any more tips though

No easy answer. It's mainly cardboard that gets thrown away here as we've no facilities for it AFAIK.

You need to establish what you're actually throwing away, whether anything can be recycled.

Other than food, I would just dump the rubbish straight in the bin without using an additional bin bag and stamp on it to compress it.