Ridiculous rubbish sack rule

Ida_Notion

My sister lives in a block of maisonettes, and always used to put her rubbish in a black bag before slinging it down the chute into the rubbish room. One day a few years back, all the tenants got a letter from the council saying that black bags were unacceptable, and that everyone had to use carrier bags (yes, really) from then on in. She'd already put the rubbish out before the post came, but resigned herself to following yet another daft council rule.

The next week she got another letter from the council, saying that they'd found the black bag that she had put out just prior to receiving the first letter, had been through it and identified it as hers because her name and address were on a bit of packaging within it, and that if it happened again she would be evicted.

Lovely. If councils had spent a bit less on sending out hate mail over the years, we might not be being plunged into darkness now when the street lights go out every night at midnight. Still, I don't suppose we should expect much more from a country where flood warnings and a profusion of wellies and umbrellas are signals of drought status

emg

My council (Arun) don't care what colour bag as long as there is not more than 5. And they still collect our rubbish every week too.:T

becs

From another perspective here most charity bags are white and could easily be confused with refuse, also clinical waste would be in yellow bags so if all refuse is in black bags it means the bin men only collect refuse and can work quickly. I would imagine the majority use black bags so means the minority change to black to make a smooth system.

luxor4t

An interesting span of experiences, thank you all.

We get one roll of 13 black sacks twice a year "free" ie one bag a fortnight, I generally find this ample as I recycle everything I can.

This week I did not have a single bin bag left (whether council or poundland) as we had used up the last doing a run to the tip with our attic rubbish, so the study white sack I found under the sink (not a charity bag) seemed a suitable alternative.

I am happy to comply with this [STRIKE]stupid [/STRIKE] rule but think it should have been made abundantly clear from the outset to all residents. None of my neighbours knew about it either!

debtfreesomeday

I encountered this with Swansea council too! We use White liners in our bin, which are black bag size. So, as part of their 'recycling' programme, they want me to buy black bags to put the White bag in, effectively double bagging and doubling the amount of plastic discarded into landfill. They provide a measly amount of black bags per year, which are of a terrible quality too. Don't even get me started on the nappy collections, that's a whole other battle!

luxor4t

debtfreesomeday wrote: »

I encountered this with Swansea council too! We use White liners in our bin, which are black bag size. So, as part of their 'recycling' programme, they want me to buy black bags to put the White bag in, effectively double bagging and doubling the amount of plastic discarded into landfill. ......

That figures :rotfl:

Callie22

We have a similar rule - we don't have a wheelie bin and we are only allowed to use blue, see-through plastic sacks, a maximum of two per week. It's not too bad as we get them free, and every so often we get more of them through the door, but they are so flimsy. I double bag most of the rubbish but you can pretty much guarantee that the bags will get torn open by cats and foxes, I'm so sick of picking up rubbish! I really miss having a wheelie bin

Cheapskate

We have wheelie bins and fortnightly collections (week one black bin, week 2 green, week 3 black, week 4 green plus glass box), which isn't too bad, but if your lid isn't down flat you run the risk of your bin not being emptied - they deem it unsafe as it's overflowing or somesuch. We recycle what we can, but our council has cut down on the types of stuff that they'll accept for recycling; now only papers, magazines, cardboard, plastic milk bottles - not even yogurt pots, gift wrap, etc., although they used to. They now charge for taking away garden rubbish or larger items- think it's £1 per bag or £5 per big item, which can really mount up, so we take our own to the tip or add to friends' compost bins.

Isis_Black

We're lucky as everything is wheelie bins now :-)
Though I I'd have to ask for the largest black bin and for a second green bin!
If the brown bin didn't cost me every year I think we'd have at least 2 of them too :-s

[Deleted User]

bravobeastie wrote: »

Same here in Dudley and we are also restricted 3 bags per week

we are restricted to one closed wheelie bin per fortnight