Bin bags

[stuart noble]

Blimey, as a kid, I remember carting wooden blocks round in a wheelbarrow and selling them as firewood. Don't know why the tramlines would have been mounted on wood

[Jules Richardson]

Yes, it saves the headache of ordering things such as bin bags online, and then when they arrive (a week later, over here) finding that they're no thicker than a butterfly's handkerchief.

[polygonum]

I certainly remember one road in Winchester which appeared to be nicely squared wooden blocks, with a surprisingly thin layer of tarmac over. Where works were required, they got rid of the blocks. And those were the places that became lumpy, bumpy, and pot-holed.

But no tramlines so far as I know.

[docholliday93]

No reason why there should be - wood blocks were used in many places as an alternative to stone setts or cobbles - particularly in places where there was concern about noise, since the steel tyres and horseshoes made less noi se on wood. They may possibly have been easier to use for infilling around tram lines, so that may be where the association comes from...

[Andy Burns]

I want to know why all the sacks reek of smoke like the cab of a fire-engine ...

[Andy Burns]

There're apps for that ...

[Andy Champ]

We have to buy their special sacks, or else buy their special bin and pay a fee for having it emptied. They really like to encourage us to recycle green waste.

I've been looking at the twigs that have come off the birch in my garden, and wondering if they'd be any good on the muddy paths near us...

Andy

[Bob Eager]

Whereas you want them to withstand the power of ten billion butterfly sneezes....

[Bob Eager]

I've noticed that with some sacks...thought it was just me.

[Huge]

Nope, I've noticed it, too.

[GMM]

Fat chance of that of course - Birmingham Council are terminally skint as they are, which is probably also the reason for their current enthusiasm for wheelie bins: Once they're issued they will be able to shift to fortnightly bin collections without as much of a vermin problem as would be the case with bags.

Of course, paying for garden bags will lead most people to find another way, like having more bonfires. If we were all organised, it would all get composted but most people don't have the space for a proper compost heap. Come to think of it, the bigger your garden, the most waste you produce so the bigger the heap needs to be......

[newshound]

Tbe big Makro silver ones are good, if you have a card (I have a big bin in the kitchen and standard dustbin bags are too small)

[Frank Erskine]

We've never used bags, apart from odd black ones people used to put out beside their traditional dustbin. Quite a number of years ago the council issued green (coloured) wheelie-bins for everything (except "hot ashes"!). A few years later they introduced brown (coloured) wheelies for "green" waste (just to confuse!) to houses that have gardens, and about the same time kerbside boxes for rudimentary recycling - 'tin' cans, glass bottles/jars and paper. Since there was no lid to the box, they collected a lot of paper pulp on wet days :-)

Then relatively recently they introduced (in lieu of the boxes) dark blue wheelies for 'better' recycling, with an internal basket sort of thing for paper. In the main bottom bit you're supposed to put cans, bottles/jars, Tetrapak-type things, flattened cardboard and foil trays. Their slogan for the recycling bins is "Fits all your recycling in", but there's no provision for used batteries. Actually, thinking about it, most batteries aren't actually recycled. The LA told me to just put 'em in the landfill waste green (coloured) bin.

The landfill "green" (coloured) wheelie is emptied weekly (slight variations around holiday periods) and the other two take their turns on alternate weeks (on the same day).

During winter the brown bin "green waste" service is discontinued whilst presumably the crew are redeployed as necessary on gritting/snow-plough type duties.

Re the size of the bins, most are 240 litres (I tend to think in terms of 70 cl), but there are smaller ones for some old peoples' bungalows and larger ones for some town-house type HMOs.

The green (coloured) bins have serial numbers and the council claim that they have records of who has what bin, but bluntly I have my doubts...

Which reminds me that my green (coloured) bin is due to be emptied later today, so I'd better trundle it around to the grass verge...

CUL -

[mogga]

:)

[Andrew Gabriel]

I bought a kitchen bin which is designed to take regular carrier bags (Woolworths, some 10+ years ago). You have to empty it more often, but at least the bags are free.

Other parts of the family use giant pedal bins, and I get those from Costco. They are quite thick, and come on a roll which is large enough to hurt if you drop it on your foot. It's actually larger than the bin, so when I lift it out, it no longer looks full, and I fill it up by empty all the other bins around the house into it.

[Apellation Controlee]

----------------8><

You clearly don't shop in Marks & Smug.

[Another John]

Ditto: one of the best acquisitions *ever*. Ours hangs on the back of the door under the sink: out of sight, *really* convenient. We've also had our 10+ years.

Good grief no! (I think people who shop at M&S don't go looking for kitchens bins that use free carrier bags.)

Iceland has the best bags: big, strong, free. Perfect for recycling as bin bags! However Tesco still give away bags free, if you're prepared to forego your Green Tesco Points...hmmm - tough one....

John

[polygonum]

Morrisons are the best of the ones we use. Ocado and Waitrose are OK. JS ones are so thin looking at them makes a hole or split appear. Tesco are marginally better than JS.

[Apellation Controlee]

One thing to watch with Sainsbury's bags (and possibly true of others) is that they are degradable. This means that if you pack something in one of their bags and store it, the bag will reduce itself to confetti in a couple of years.

[Andy Burns]

No, because Tesco bags are oxygen-degradable, don't put stuff in them into cupboards or the attic for a few months, they turn to flakes.