fortnightly bin collections

[theothermarg]

no i,m not going on a rant,too much of that about in the media. i would like to know how other people cope. i am all for recycling(welli am a lotty person) and i can see why councils are doing it and bin space is not a problem but the smell and the maggots and fly,s are! they say keep the bin closed, it is. wrap food waste in newspaper, it gets soggy. i buy plastic liners instead of recycling carriers cuz flts find little holes in them. well plan for the south glos maggot season is wash food off all waste plastic and foil,that can go in R/C carriers put all non compost food waste in a carrier in a small sealable container then just add to the bin on collection days. i know rules differ ours is black bin rubbish green bin cardboard and garden waste(nearly empty in my case)box for cans glass foil and paper plastic bottles are taken r/c point (when i,v finished reusing them)
how do other people cope?  marg

[theothermarg]

[emmy1978]

Here in Bournemouth we have 2 bins, one for recyclables and one for all other waste. As yet, nothing for garden waste.
I live in a block of 14 flats and it amazes me how many people are unable to follow the simplest of instructions. No food waste or non recyclables. Please wash all containers etc before adding to bin.
Every day i fish out the bags of fast food, bags of unsorted rubbish and general household waste that some bright spark has considered recyclable.
Last week someone had put a bit of broken scooter, a small doormat and a mirror in there.  ::)
The thing that worries me is this : If the bin is considered to contaminated for sorting it goes to the landfill along with everything else. This means if you live in flats then your neighbours could be ensuring that your good intentions and efforts are wasted.  >:(
So, unless me and OH and the only other person in the building who cares doesn't 'check' it, we would have to carry on taking ours to the local banks at Tesco, as we've done for years. Mkaes me feel like a right old grump i can tell you.  :)

[ninnyscrops]

No probs here.  Green top wheely collected weekly with non-recycleable household rubbish (we usually only put out fortnightly anyway). Brown topped garden wheely collected fortnightly along with cans/plastics basket. Other fortnight is newspapers/magazine basket. All uncooked waste fruit/veg goes in composter. Cooked and uncooked bones go in buried green cone in front garden. Any waste bread/cakes/pastry goes on bird table. Cooked leftovers too small to freeze as a meal go to the dog (apart from curry!). Milkbottle tops and foil go in bag outside with the milkbottles for the milkman. Bottles/jars taken to recycling centre on a Sunday morning. Old clothes saved until one of the charity bags drops through the letterbox. Condenser dryer water goes in butt.

Our kids call us ecowarriors!  ;D ;D ;D

[cmorningstar]

/delurk/

I think the new recycling / rubbish collection in Oxford is great.  We have had terrible problems with foxes coming around and ripping bags of rubbish apart when they were left out on the pavement for collection.  The bins aren't as much of an eyesore as I thought they'd be. 

As for maggots and flies - haven't had that problem yet;  I put a thin layer of bicarbonate of soda in the bottom of my wheelie bin to keep smellies down and if the flies start showing up I might try vinegar.  Not sure if the vinegar would actaully attract more flies though ! 

Have you tried emailing the environmental dept of your local council to ask for advice?  They have probably gotten a lot of questions on this from others and might have a cheap and cheerful solution?  (assuming they are on the ball of course)

/back to lurking/

[katynewbie]

 ;D

Nope, you delurked! Now you are officially posting it will become habit forming!
I had to ask for a bin for tins and glass, no one else in my street has one, although the binmen drive through it to get to the next street where they all have them.

Go figure!

:-\

[kt.]

We recycle loads & I still have to do a trip to the tip with excess bags between collections as they wont take anything outside of your bin. If you leave stuff outside - they put a sticker on your wheelie-bin & after 2 you get fined. Guess there will be an increase in fly-tipping which will cost more to recover than the weekly collections. Just a matter of time before people start dumping rubbish bags next to other peoples bins.

[theothermarg]

ninnyscrops what is a burried green cone for bones etc i,m curious £ local council     
you won,t have a maggot problem if you wrap it enough but i don,t want to fill my bin with extra paper and plastic so i,m thinking of ways around it as i said i am not against it in principle just don,t want maggots
marg

[cornykev]

We have a green recycle bin which is almost always empty unless we have some thick branches to put in it, a black bin which has cans, glass and plastic bottles, paper and cardboard in it. We still have black bags for rubbish and we also have a problem with foxes and cats, and still people can't get it into their thick heads that the collection is on thursday not tuesday or wednesday but BLOODY thursday  >:(, rant over.  ;D ;D ;D

[Hyacinth]

hmmmm, here in my part of Brum we're not yet into the once-a-fortnight collection of general rubbish and have black bags rather than wheelie bins. We're also in the Uni student accomm. multi-occupancy belt. The rubbish problem is bad enough now, but if, as will happen, this won't be cleared for two weeks....... ???

As for our bags and boxes for recycling, I've a simple solution which works well for me. Paper gets shredded for compost or torn and put in the bottom of my tom. pots, etc. 8); bottles, cans and plastic go to the Recycling Bins at Aldi every Sunday when I then take the opportunity of checking the bargains in the shop 8) 8); and the rigid containers therefore not used for recycling collection have been planted up with potatoes 8) 8) 8)

[powerspade]

I put out my recycling bin every time the collection is due but my local council has`nt collected any in me street for 4 months

[manicscousers]

we have a black bin for 'unrecyclable ' stuff, usually only goes out two weekly anyway as there's only 2 of us, the green 'garden waste' bin goes out only when we've got honeysuckle or ivy clippings, or the bl**dy awful ground cover we put in 35 years ago when we knew nowt and can't get rid of
glass, plastic( if we're not using it for labels or watering bottles) goes to the recycling centre,
cardboard gets stored until autumn for the raised bed covers, paper goes in the compost bin,
clothes either for dusters if useless or charity if ok  ;D

[ninnyscrops]

Hi there theothermarg, and anyone else who might be interested,

Here is a link, we've had ours about three years, never had a rodent or other problem.  Just make sure you close the lid properly otherwise you will get lots of flies, left it ajar once and lots of them were around the lid but soon sorted, closed it a splatted most of them!  ;D

http://www.greencone.com/home.asp?lang=1

We have the one on the left and you have to dig a hole large enough to take the black basket shown in the right of the picture.  Other than the "big dig" it's easy to install.  After three years filling the contents have never got to, what I would call, normal soil level.  They provide it with an activator which I only use if I put lots in, which is once in a blue moon and still have half the original jar left! Cannot recommend it highly enough (sounds like I work for them, but don't) it's refreshing to come across something that does what it says nowadays.