The Nightmare That Is....

[Wirefox]

Your wheelie bin can be no further than 9" from the kerb, it must be open no more than 1", it must be outside on the day of collection no sooner than 06:50 and no later than 07:00 and woe betide the resident whose bin weights more than a marsh mallow in a bikini...god luv ya Mr Blair!

[Dave Humphries]

Your wheelie bin can be no further than 9" from the kerb, it must be open no more than 1", it must be outside on the day of collection no sooner than 06:50 and no later than 07:00 and woe betide the resident whose bin weights more than a marsh mallow in a bikini...god luv ya Mr Blair!

If they are enforcing those rules, I suspect someone has upset 'the men', did you forget to leave a Xmas tip? Or has the council got them on a pay freeze?

[Klickit]

Heaven help the poor sods who have to go to work at 6.45.

And I can just imagine streets full of Warringtonites out there on a frosty morning, kneeling by the kerb with their wee one foot rulers.

[arith]

I only put my bin out once every six weeks because I live on my own; but still have somebody driving round the estate from the council in a top of the range jag telling me I'm not doing it right.

Riots soon, mark my words, it sorta simmering up to boiling point out there.

[Colin Southern]

I use a private rubbish removal company ... put it out anytime the day before -- lid can be open any amount (or additional rubbish left alongside); 240 litres for $5

[mastamak]

Reminds me of an official note that I found on my rubbish bin one morning after collection. It said "The state of your bin has been reported to Council". Apparently the untidy appearance of my rubbish caused offence to the garbage collector. I spent the next month in trepidation, expecting at any moment to be bundled off to a re-education camp where I would be taught how to assemble garbage in a more aesthetically pleasing manner. It just goes to so that petty bureaucracy is the same the world over.

Grant

[Colin Southern]

It just goes to so that petty bureaucracy is the same the world over.

Reminds me of an old saying: "It's OK to question authority, but be sure to raise your hand first"!

[carregwen]

I don't have a problem with rubbish, and I don't expect to as I have to pay £2,000 a year local council tax!

"For a better future" - it's written on the bag of fertilizer in the BR corner of the shot!

[arith]

I don't have a problem with rubbish, and I don't expect to as I have to pay £2,000 a year local council tax!

"For a better future" - it's written on the bag of fertilizer in the BR corner of the shot!

Cor; you must have a drive three miles long My whole street is only half a mile long and 500 properties are on it and it takes the dustbin men half an hour to clear it all. Up the road is Bretby and a mile long private road with one house at the end of it, Madge thought it was a good idea they only pay one council tax. My council tax is in band A. My mums was in band H though.

[CNelson]

It's nice to know I'm not the only one who must occasionally deal with a mindless garbage gestapo.

Chuck

[rick55]

I use a private rubbish removal company ... put it out anytime the day before -- lid can be open any amount (or additional rubbish left alongside); 240 litres for $5

Private is definitely the way to go: where we are (Maryland), the trash is private. For US$25 / month, we can put out 3 large garbage cans or bags twice a week. We usually only have 1 or 2, but if we occasionally put out 4, they magically vanish.

Recycling, on the other hand, is done by the government. It's Thursday every other week, and they send out a calendar at the beginning of the year, because it shifts to Friday from time to time, sometimes for obvious reasons (like a holiday), sometimes for no apparent reason. There's a big bin that they provide, and it had better be in that bin, by God. You can also put cardboard alongside it, if it's banded (like with tape) according to rules about maximum dimensions and banding that are in the calendar, but they say they won't take it if it doesn't follow the rules. They seem to leave it at random, perhaps if they're too tired, or if the truck is full or something. So I put out cardboard, and never know whether it will be gone or whether I get to drag it back to try again in two weeks. Lovely.

Cheers,
Rick

[Dave Humphries]

It is interesting learning how this works in other ares of UK and world, so ...

First up, I am apolitical, I don't even know what colour/party our local council is, but they run the local waste and recycling collection schemes, and the local tip - when you want to take extra stuff down there yourself. All are sub-contracted to a private company. My experience is generally good.

The local tip (in Slough) is clean and well organised with polite staff who'll advise which of the 10-12 different skips to put certain types of waste into. It has been like this for years - I feel I am lucky. They have a sign up saying 60% of the waste is recycled, so I guess only 40% is contributing to landfill.

Collection is regular and weekly (at the moment) of both waste (in wheelie bin) and glass/plastic, paper/cardboard, currently in two plastic boxes, but is soon about to also transfer to wheelie bin collection too, which should avoid problems with odd things escaping the boxes due to wind, etc. I hope it doesn't mean we go to two weekly though. Apparently, the new bins are chipped and you can opt-in to a scheme which weighs how much you recycle and this earns you points redeemable for goods at local shops, it sounds like an incentive to recycle. In our house, it's usually only myself and son that 'go a little further' to recycle, rather than dump in the trash though.

I also pay a sum (about £50/year) for a bi-weekly garden waste collection in another wheelie bin. It saves putting bags in the car and driving to the tip and having a car full of bugs. I tried composting grass cuttings, it didn't work for me, so this is ideal.

I have a wide drive and as the footpath is narrow, so I leave these all on the edge of my property not blocking the footpath, they are supposed to be there by 07:00, but down our street, many put out the night before, as do I, if I remember. I don't recall being 'told off' for this with stickers or letters
When I get home after work, the bins are just left on the footpath, so need to be recovered, but they are normally still in front of my property, but then I don't live near a junction, so lucky again.

I just hope saying I'm happy doesn't put a curse on things and it all goes downhill in future

Cheers,

[Wirefox]

Thats one heck of a wheely bin Rob, I doubt they will shift that with at stick poking over the top. Sounds as if your council tax is nearly as bad as North Cheshire. Still we do get a black bin for perishables and Green bin for grass clippings and a blue bin for used issues of Fiesta. Posh eh? We also get a very serious man with a clip board and a man in a cheap suit and PVC shoes who argues with the Conservative opposition for a living. Best of all we get a man in a hi-vis kagool who plants wild flower seeds along the verges



The idea of paying direct for refuse collection is just not cricket in the UK. Its far easier to pay a nonsensical council tax that is based on the size of your Audi's engine, the square footage of block paving that adorns your drive way and the number of ready meals for one you by per week from Marks and Spencer. Besides us Brits must have something to moan about. It is far to simple just to pay for a direct service. The service must be an intangible mixed up with Eton educated Labour Councillors indiscretions in the trouser department, rotary club expenses and planning application approvals for the well off. After all you do not get much by way of entertainment when you simply pay for a direct service. What about the tubby green grocer who is elected by other tubby green grocers to wear a toilet chain round his neck. Who would officiate over all the ribbon cutting to open their green grocers shops? And what would life be like without the invisible man who posts the party political comics through your door. I bet no other country pays 2000 quid for an annual subscription to the Beano. And who would provide facilities for the disaffected local youth to vandalise? You have to have something to distract them from your cast iron bollards and Hydrangeas. Why pay for something direct when you can contribute to the upkeep of the orange wives that the comb-over councillors display at the local fete. Someone has to keep them in g-strings and Mercedes convertibles. But I would not have it any other way it is a quintessentially British tradition and without it we are just another star on the Euro flag.

[arith]

At the ready.



I don't pay £2000 but only put them out once every six weeks, but I don't waste anything. I'm amazed when I go to the supermarket to see people getting hundreds of pounds of stuff to throw away, my food bill is less than £25 a week, for everything.

[Colin Southern]

And in the middle of a conversation about rubbish, pops up a real gem! Well done

[carregwen]

menage a trois - Mr Green tries to chat up a couple of red-heads... but his chat-up skills are rubbish...

[arith]

It is because Mr Green is a taxman in disguise and the two redheads can sense something is wrong but are too stupid to work out what it is.

Well that environment isn't worth saving and I have great difficulty working out how come it is more environment friendly to have a queue of 4x4's waiting at a tip than for a council wagon to just pick everything up, how come flying as a passenger is bad but setting fire to oilfields is ok.

I'm not green, I just avoid buying anything I don't need, being disabled by an accident that I said wasn't an accident, and if a rich ****** turns up in his jag to tell me I'm putting the cardboard in the wrong place, then he gets to be recycled.

[Colin Southern]

if a rich ****** turns up in his jag to tell me I'm putting the cardboard in the wrong place, then he gets to be recycled.

That's fine - just make sure that the body doesn't leave the lid open more than an inch, and the body/bin is placed out for collection no earlier than 6:50am, no later than 7:00am, and no more than 9 inches from the kerb!

[Dave Humphries]

This thread is a hoot, as well as interesting, but who put a nice picture in the middle of all this rubbish?

Oh, Steve (wirefox), of course, it was only to be expected

[carregwen]

Boys, it's Sunday morning, so time for the tip run....