Bin collection

Ana We have 'assisted ' collection in our area at no cost. The bin men will collect and return your bin to wherever you ask on your property, as long as it is outside. We also have a man who cleans the bins. He is self employed but I don't know what he charges as DH does ours.

I am more than happy with our 2 weekly collection Black for rubbish green for garden and blue for recycle Black one week, blue and green the next. However I was a bit cross when my black wasn't emptied this week when I rang up to complain I was told it was only half full so they wouldn't empty it now the bin men were at my gate must have walked over, lifted the lid, then gone no further, as it only had two black bags in it so now my rubbish including food waste will have been sat there a month when it does get emptied........ I could have a smaller bin but some weeks it's overflowing so don't want to go down in size.... I just think that's a silly rule

Council, police and firebrigade pay?
Landfill charges for those who do not recycle?
Roads, lighting, social care, both adult and child, neighbourhood wardens,parks, open spaces, cemeteries,flytipping, flyposting, pest control, street cleaning? I could go on, but I assume you get the gist, gillybob.

We have five bins, one for food, one for paper, one for glass, one for tins and plastic collected weekly and a wheelie bin for the rest collected every three weeks. I asked if I could put s broom handle against the wheelie bin because I couldn't close the lid if I put it in, and if the lid isn't closed it will not be taken. No I couldn't leave the handle next to the bin, take it to the site, the site is two miles away and I do not have s car. Next helpful suggestion - ask someone to take it for you, they will collect it but the charge is twenty five pounds for one to three items , twenty five pounds ? Cheaper to buy a saw

Well, Scouts offered to send kids with bikes and a trailor to help anyone who needed it- for a very small donation - and they stopped it as no-one asked for it.

Neighbours, friends, family help the few that do not have a car or have mobility issues.

Why could it not work in UK? There is absolutely no reason why not. The bins are quite nice, wood clad, and most of the container is underground- goes down about 15 feet- and the lorry has a heavy lift system.

As said, here we pay by weight, with an electronic card to open the lid, put bag in which is weighed, then dropped when you close the lid. In some Concils, they have a system of 'official' bags for that council- for sale in all shops and supermarkets in that town/region - with the town logo on and specific colour- and people pay for a roll of 10 bags- works out about £1.50 to £2.00 per bag approx, depending on council.

Where I live there is no 'street corner', the main road stretches for miles.

As for 'everything being done for us', you try hefting a heavy wheelie bin up a flight of steps onto the pavement, same with the recycling containers. It's not easy when you're no spring chicken any more!

In Spain, where DS lives, the communal bins are on street corners and take up one parking space. They are emptied frequently. I would rather that than have endless bins (my friend in Manchester has FOUR wheelie bins) on pavements and in front gardens.
Where there is a will there is a way. Unfortunately we are too used to everything being done for us.

I suppose it could if everything were to be provided, such as the communal bins, but councils aren't going to be doing that in a hurry and some places just haven't got the space.

It's a completely different system and would require an awful lot of planning and expenditure.

Why would 'no collection' not work in this country Ana?

Ours is a joke. We are forced to have 3 bins (most people have nowhere to keep them) a blue bin for recycles, a green bin for garden/vegetable waste and a grey one for the rest. The collections are staggered and since I moved into this house 5 years ago they have NEVER once been collected on the day they were supposed to be and even then they are only collected after several telephone complaints. Next year they are going to impose a charge on bin collections in addition to our already huge council taxes and I am very angry. What are they spending our council tax on? (Other than council,police, firebrigade pensions of course) .

For our business we have to pay for rubbish collection - it is compulsory. Cost £10 a month for one rubbish and one recycling collection. This is on top of rates.

How many collections will they get for £25?

Grey bin for all recyclables and green for garden waste
Black bin for non-recyclables
Collection on alternative weeks.

I would like to have a food waste caddy, though in fact, most of my waste is vegetable and goes on the compost heap.

One wheelie bin for general waste, black box for glass and plastic, blue box for paper and card, and green caddy for food waste, all collected weekly. We could have a green waste wheelie bin, (annual charge and collected fortnightly) but we don't have space to put it in our bin shed. The general waste bin is never full. I tried putting the food waste on allotment compost heap, but it led to a rise in the rat population!

Added to that, in a small yard within the village are large bins for anything like glass, clothes, and plastics.

Works well here, Oxfordshire are big on recycling.A brown bin for garden waste, green for the recycling and black bin for any other rubbish apart from food, which is put in a smaller dark green bin.All bins emptied every two weeks: food bin every week plus general rubbish, then the next week all the garden and recycling plus food bin.
All our bins are tucked away, so never on the drive.

Yes, I think ours does too Galen.

'No collection' wouldn't work in this country.

My council collect, empty and return for disabled people.

And that is the joy of no collection- if you have 3 children, you can go as often as you wish, when you wish... but of course as you pay either per weight, or per bag (depending on Council here) then recycling i really helps. Many have swapped to modern washable nappies with liner, for that reason, as disposable weigh a ton when used.

(Sorry, my post was in reply to vampirequeen's)

As I said, it's not a problem for me as I live alone, but I know my DD (with two children) is only just managing with the three-weekly collection even though she's really good at recycling.

Households with two adults and two or three children aren't going to find it easy. I think the Council's ultimate aim is four-weekly general rubbish collection, which may backfire on them if there's a rise in fly-tipping.

Ana - most people have neighbours, friends or family to help- and the massive inground communal bins, with credit card system that weigh and charge to your account- are never very far from any village or town location - it works. And it is a/much cheaper than when we had collections and b/ has massively encouraged people to reduce, re-use, recycle' and avoid un-necessary packaging. Win, win. Even in our rural location, the nearest bin is 250 metres away and we drop bags on the way to shopping- there is a recycling centre about 1 mile away- and another larger one for larger items, 4 km down the road- again we drop anything at either on the way to other errands or visits. It works.

And it avoids the dreadful situation of each house having 2 or 3 massive bins in their drive, as we had in UK.

If you recycle properly then three weekly shouldn't be a problem. We have three bins. Green (non recycle stuff), blue (recycle) and brown (food waste and garden rubbish). The green and blue bins are collected on alternate weeks and the brown bin fortnightly on a different day.

Although we always have to put the blue bin out we often miss a green bin collection as we don't have enough rubbish in the bin to make it worth the hassle of putting it out.

I heard £25 per month.

Ours is the same as POGS!

I am sure that was the figure quoted, ( but with problems posting, it took 4 goes), I may be wrong. Here, we have quite a good service, black bins for paper and tin, blue bags for all other household waste, and our binmen are very good. Glass has to be taken to bins in several designated places, ie, supermarkets. There are brown bins for garden waste, but at £60.00 per year, yes £60, we no longer use that option. POGS, your £24 a year sounds a bargain.

We have separate bins, bags and boxes for food waste, textiles, paper, cardboard, plastics, tins, glass, and small electrical items (phew!), all collected every week. Garden waste fortnightly, but that's optional and chargeable (we have a compost heap instead). And all other waste collected fortnightly. It works well, apart from a few weeks of chaos every time the council changes supplier, when the lorries get lost or come on the wrong day, catching everyone out!

As for a rebate if you opt for the private collector, there's not a cat in hell's chance. We live on an unadopted street, and are responsible for maintaining our own road and pavement, but we still pay full council tax.