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AIBU

To be fussy about my wheelie bin?

(91 Posts)
Elrel Sat 11-Jun-16 15:11:40

DS, adult, was about to empty my vacuum cleaner straight into the my wheelie bin. I wanted the dust drum opened over a smallish plastic bag so that there was no loose dust in the wheelie bin. I put my refuse into the bin in tied black bags, occasionally in a smaller plastic bag, firmly tied, of course. Then it turned out that bag I'd grabbed was a plastic envelope which wouldn't tie. I didn't drop it, open, into the wheelie bin as I thought dust would fly out.
DS questioned my sanity as I was on my way to put the envelope in the kitchen bin, lined, of course, with a black bag. (A ridiculously large M&S heavy duty one as it happens, I'd got fed up with thin poundshop ones ripping. Have Brabantia made a metre tall bin?)
My retort was that was tempted to put it on AIBU and canvass opinion - he delightedly encouraged me to do so. Oh dear!
PS DS doesn't know that I'd forgotten which end the drum opens so I had to re-vacuum the hall floor ...

Ana Sat 11-Jun-16 18:02:26

At the moment our wheelie bin rubbish is collected fortnightly and recycling weekly but the council is changing it to every three weeks for general waste with a view to four-weekly if it goes well!!!

Goodness knows what the smell will be like in the summer, even if stuff is bagged!

M0nica Sat 11-Jun-16 18:45:37

Tegan I am surprised you have rats if all you are putting in your compost container is uncooked vegetable waste and garden waste. We have had a rat problem in the garden a number of times, but never anywhere near the compost. I also put wastepaper and cardboard on the compost heap. All the shredded paper from our shredder goes into it.

Tegan Sat 11-Jun-16 18:56:47

It was eggshells that caused the problem. By the time I realised it was too late.

FarNorth Sat 11-Jun-16 18:59:36

Of course you are not being unreasonable, Elrel. You are saving yourself having to do a lot of nasty bin-cleaning, or enduring a stinky bin attracting flies.

Bad luck on the hall carpet re-hooving, tho! smile

jinglbellsfrocks Sat 11-Jun-16 19:00:36

House dust in fine loose in the wheelie bin. As is cold fire ashes. But all food waste should be wrapped securely or your neighbours will get the stink as well as you.hmm

You shouldn't put any cooked food in a compost bin. That could attract rats.

sunseeker Sat 11-Jun-16 20:18:35

How many bins do people have, I know it varies from council to council. I have 1 black wheelie bin for general rubbish, 2 green bins for recycling, 1 small food waste caddy, 1 slightly larger food waste bin and several green bags for garden waste.

My family in Australia have just 2 bins, 1 for general rubbish and 1 for recycling and garden waste. Every few weeks they also put out large items for collection (furniture etc.) anybody can come along and take it and what is left over the council collects and disposes of. They found it hard to believe when I told them how many bins I had and were amazed when I said if the wheelie bin lid isn't closed the rubbish isn't collected!

GandTea Sat 11-Jun-16 20:52:41

How glad I am that our council is still in the dark ages and uses bin bags. Take us less room that W.Bins .and more hygenic

tanith Sat 11-Jun-16 20:53:42

Black for general waste, blue for recycling, small caddy and larger bin for food and 3 green sacks for garden waste.

Elrel Sat 11-Jun-16 22:05:17

Dramatic Tessa and Jings - thank goodness, two people who would have put the dust straight in the bin. Poor DS was quite excited to see which of us got more support but then went very, very, quiet. He's not very happy about the Russian goal either. I'd better remind him he was born in Wales!
Tegan - my compost rats were most likely attracted by egg shells too, although I did once add some nibbled (by us) corncobs which can't have helped. Maybe washing egg shells and no corn cobs would have kept them away completely.

Elrel Sat 11-Jun-16 22:08:43

He's still questioning my sanity, still about the bin. There may well be another reason tomorro?

harrigran Sat 11-Jun-16 22:21:25

Everything gets bagged before being binned, even tissues get tied in a nappy sack. We have a green, a blue and a brown bin but we do not use the brown one as they have asked for £25 a year to empty it.

Deedaa Sat 11-Jun-16 22:27:14

It's a bit worrying that people are using so many plastic bags. We have a bin for rubbish and a bin for recycling. I wish our council would do a food waste collection. I used to compost all of it but our garden is so small that we have far more compost than we can use, so the waste all goes in the kitchen bin now. We have someone who comes round and cleans the bin once a month.

merlotgran Sat 11-Jun-16 22:27:39

We have two bins. One for recycling stuff like cardboard, plastic and glass. You are not allowed to put anything in bags....It has to be loose. I wash out food containers and tins before chucking them in which is probably a waste of time but I don't like to think of the smells because it only gets emptied once a fortnight.

The other bin is for green waste and as we have three large compost heaps I struggle to fill it.

Nelliemoser Sat 11-Jun-16 22:32:29

In Cheshire we have three big bins but you can choose size depending on your household. We have a dark grey general waste bin, a silver all recycling and a brown garden waste bin.

I don't like emptying my vacuum cleaner directly into a bin either. I can often fill the garden waste bin in a week.

jane999 Sun 12-Jun-16 09:41:28

We have one wheelie bin for garden waste, no food waste to be put in this bin.
One yellow bag for cardbosrd
One blue bag for paper
One red box for glass
One red box for plastic and tins , no tin foil
One black wheelie bin - small size as there are only 2 of us - for everything else.
Boxes have lids which are liable to blow off in strong winds, and the contents can be scattered over a large area.

Before we moved to this area se had one black wheelie bin and one big blue wheelie bin for all recyclables - great system

jinglbellsfrocks Sun 12-Jun-16 09:49:41

We have:
A grey one - General rubbish.
A green one - garden waste.
A red one - paper, card, tins.

Excellent system.

But I get a bit annoyed when things like marg containers say "recyclable" but our council hasn't got the facility for it. Or rather I get annoyed having to explain it over and over to DH. hmm

Grannyknot Sun 12-Jun-16 10:12:59

Those food waste bins - urgh. The ones that our Council provides have ridges (air-holes) and bits of food that escape collect in there - and as I walk past the houses in my street after the food waste truck has been I have to hold my nose (because most people don't clean them after). Yuk. I don't use mine. I just try and throw away as little food waste as possible.

I used to carefully separate everything for recycling until I realised that the recycling truck men just chuck everything into one big yellow wheelie bin shock. So despite having two different coloured recycling crates (3 if I count the food waste bin), I only use one.

Granny2016 Sun 12-Jun-16 10:18:35

I try to dump as little rubbish as possible and have exchanged my larger wheeled bins for small ones.I have more in the recycling bin than general waste,I also pay £30 a year for a garden bin.I collect all foil and take it to a collection point.
Whatever can go into charity bags does.
I am concerned by the amount of plastic that I put in the bin which is not recyclable ,so would not add to that by wrapping my rubbish in plastic bags.
I thought the idea now was that we dumped less plastic bags into land fill.
It,s not the best job to wash out a bin but it is soon over.

Phoebes Sun 12-Jun-16 10:22:31

My Greek husband calls them"Willy Beans!"

Carolpaint Sun 12-Jun-16 10:26:57

This is all trivia, many cases of ocd. Get on and get a life. Indinana has told you how to compost. Cooked slop can be flushed down the toilet. Wimps United. Ran a course on female assertiveness, one woman could not bring herself to say 'fleas', is that how you wish to be? ?

jinglbellsfrocks Sun 12-Jun-16 10:32:38

Oh I could be so assertive in reply to that silly post. But it would be deleted and I would probably be barred. (I'm already on the short list)

jinglbellsfrocks Sun 12-Jun-16 10:33:05

Oh sod it.

Get stuffed.

SueDoku Sun 12-Jun-16 10:34:51

We have two wheelie bins - black for general rubbish and green for recycling. Both emptied fortnightly.
All paper and card, plus (washed) tins, glass and (recyclable) plastic go loose into the green one, most other rubbish is collected in the black bag lining the kitchen bin and knotted before it goes into the black bin, while bedroom and bathroom bins are emptied into the large bags that 9 toilet rolls come in, and popped in too.
BUT I do empty my vacuum directly into the black bin grin as a bit of dust isn't going to attract flies, rats etc.

Ele19 Sun 12-Jun-16 10:35:31

Hello

Ele19 Sun 12-Jun-16 10:42:11

Do you not realise that using all those plastic bin bags in your wheelie bins is VERY bad for the environment!! Google plastic in our oceans and it makes sober reading. So PLEASE PLEASE stop buying bin bags and help reduce the impact of this manmade disaster. And yes I mean ALL OF YOU not just the obsessive compulsive cleaners...