How much do you fill your bin?

nikki.lizzy.brizzy

It was bin day today, and as I glanced at what was in ours I thought it was quite bad.

We have weekly bin collections; with a black bin, and a recycling box for paper, cans and plastics all in one. There's just me, OH and our dog. Normally the recycling box is overflowing and the black bin is half full.

How much do you fill your bins? Is this way too much?? I'm aiming to fill it as little as possible this week.

rachbc

our bin generally has 1 or 2 black bin bags in a week, our 2 recycling bins are overflowing for the monthly pick up. Ours is fuller than usual as we have done diy this weekend so empty paint pots, packaging for new stuff an some old broken stuff binned

Justamum

I suppose it depends on how many people there are in your house. One person will generate less rubbish than a family. We have a 50 litre bin in the kitchen and average about one bag a week for 5 of us.

I recycle as much as possible, although the recycling isn't collected, so I collect it myself in big plastic boxes until they are full. There is a community site nearby where I take paper, aluminium, glass and any other metal (food tins etc which go into a skip). Old furniture, boxes etc can also be taken. Some is taken to the incinerator, but recycling is collected from there. You can also take stuff you don't want, but which others might find useful, and there is an area where you can browse and take what you want. I've got quite a few books from there. Some people get really good furniture too - I've got a couple of bedside cabinets.

Plastics I take to an industrial site where there is a recycling company.

rising_from_the_ashes

Our recycling boxes drive me nuts - they're like storage boxes without proper lids (have a cover to put over). They're too small (I have 3 for plastics etc & fill them!) and far to light. If it's windy on bin night the boxes end up all over the place with rubbish everywhere.

Sorry, rant over!

Green rubbish bin is usually around 1/3 full and at least 1/2 of that is cat litter!


ETA - just me but I drink a lot of bottled water!

nuttybabe

we have our bins collected every 2 weeks. this week was the green bin (normal rubbish) which was half full (usually nearly full, dont know what happened this time), blue box for glass and tins which was full and blue bag (empty) for newspapers which i never buy.

next week will be brown bin which is emptied every 8 weeks this time of year and white huge polybag for plastics and card which will be full.

i dont think its too bad when i read the other day that they are trying to get bins emptied every week again. Oh yeah, theres me, hubby, 3 kids (7, 5 & 4), dog, rabbit and tortoises.

SailorSam

There's only me here and i recycle as much as i can, my 2 grass bins are often overflowing but only 1 possibly 2 carrier bags of normal rubbish are thrown away each week.

splodger_seedswapper

i have black bin (household) & brown bin (recycle) collection once a week - on rotation (so each bin emptied fortnightly) my black bin gets booger all in it tbh - as i try and recycle whatever i can (i do live on my own though and that does make a massive difference) i compost food waste (if any) so it's only un-recyclable packaging that goes in the black bin nowadays - sometimes it might be two or three months before i put it out for emptying

my brown bin (recycle) does get more use however - and i am glad that my local council seem to have a good recycling ethic - only thing they don't take is glass - but there are plenty of recycle centres close by for bottles etc to go to

System

Our council will only take three bin bags per household so mine get crammed to full capacity. I dont have much to recycle though.

Indispensable_Hobbes

I have a big black bin and a big recycling bin with paper tray.

There are 2 of us and the black bin is filled with animal litter (2 rabbits) which is utterly annoying cos it's compostable but no one wants it I try to recycle as much as possible but some plastics aren't catered for (meat cartons), yogurt cartons etc.

lostinrates

we have a fortnightly wheely collection....I forgot to put it out last time and my worry was not overfilling it but the mild weather and making it not nice for the bin men next time At a push I could go three or four collections assuming dh home every weekend, and one big rubbish generating event (unpacking from moving, some diy, sort outs of stuff for bin, charity shop or better storage here). When the wheely is going to be fullish I do fewer mess generating things or time them for when I think we should take the recycl;ing to the tip anyway. Also, for a long time I wasn;t getting bin collectionbs so it focused the mind, and I find there are somethings I just don't want sitting in the bin for a fortnight (I keep things like used chicken carcasses/animal bones/food waste in a bag in the freezer and put it out the night before, but friends kids' nappies or ''female hygeine products'' do not suit prolongued stewing in the bin, so I take them to the appropiate bin at the tip when they occur if its a while untill the next bin collection (not daily though, once after the event!))

I've given up on the stupid recyling boxes, the lids fly off so what it in there gets wet and yucky, and they are too small...this we do over fill weekly. We are getting a new wheely for recyling soon, so that should help. (atm we do our own tip run every couple of months). We have v. little food waste and no separate food waste bin, so thats not an issue ever and use a green wheely just a few times a year for weeds we don't want to compost.

BUT, we have no kids, our pets produce little rubbish (I use feed bags as bin bags which are quite bulky compared to normal binbags), so at least four days a week its just me creating rubbish...so a nappy from friends baby a few times a month, any extra waste caused by entertaining is mainly recylable...foil from baking pans, bottles. Our main thing is packaging from bought in stuff...so things like yogurt pots, any non recylable here animal food packaging, broken plastic bags from shopping.

tigerfeet2006

We have a wheelie bin for rubbish (collected weekly), a wheelie bin for cardboard and plastics (collected fortnightly), a black box for paper and fabrics (collected fortnightly) and a black box for tins and glass (collected fortnightly).

There are 5 of us in the family and the rubbish bin is usually only 1/2 full, sometimes 2/3rds and once in a blue moon it is full. The other bins are always full.

It always saddens me when I look down our street and see everyone else with overflowing bins. We are the biggest family on the street, the others are all 1-4 person households.

BTW I have a couple of rocks that I put on my black box lids to stop them flying off.