Slightly OT - Wheely bin compactors

[Tim W]

Steve Walker wibbled on Friday 13 November 2009 22:28

Maintaining parity with hot coffee and home electrics, maybe they should ban wheely bins?

[Steve Walker]

Definitely good if you need it mail order, but that's plus delivery and many people may be able to pick one up at their local Maplin store - for me it means walking 100m from the supermarket while my wife carries on shopping :)

SteveW

[F]

Our lot say it's down to the risk of BSE: I kid you not!

[geoff]

Do they pry on you ?

[Lobster]

I use my 13-year-old son: much safer.

Dvaid

[Owain]

7.8kWh yesterday :-)

But AIUI *if* these work at all, and aren't just an empty box, they work on power factor so wouldn't have any effect on resistive loads?

Owain

[Tim W]

F wibbled on Saturday 14 November 2009 00:44

Yes, I know loads of potatoes with BSE.

[The Medway Handyman]

Oh that was good....

[fred]

Do they work ok? In extremis I could see the rubbish getting wedged in and not coming out when they tip it into the loader. That certainly happened when I used the boot treatment to overstuff a garden waste wheely bin with hedge clippings but that is different I suppose.

[Tim W]

fred wibbled on Saturday 14 November 2009 10:08

Never had a problem boot squashing general crap. I think the relatively low friction of plastic bags in a tapered plastic bin allows the crap to dislodge when the bin lorry bangs it.

Happy to report back next week...

So far, I've taken an overflowing bin and reduced it to exactly half empty.

[Dave]

Or was it half full? :-)

Dave

[Dave]

That was *very good*.

I didn't catch on until I read your post :-(

Dave

[Bob Eager]

Neither did I!

[fred]

In article , Tim W writes

That's good to know, thanks.

[The Medway Handyman]

Not much slips past us handymen :-)

[Dave Liquorice]

Grrr, our night time (everyone in bed) base load of ~300W uses that much in a day. Lots of little things all adding up I guess, two 15W CFLs, couple of DSAT boxes, PVR, server, network switch, ADSL Modem, UPS, iPABX, TAM, etc etc

[Lobster]

Reminds me (just due to the eco-bollox theme) about that freebie electricity consumption meter offer from British Gas that someone kindly mentioned here a few weeks ago.

Mine arrived the other day and I duly installed it; seems to work pretty well. One of my kids was very interested in it; before I knew it he was running round the house turning on every electrical appliance he could find in order to see how high he could make the display go. Not, I suspect, quite what the device manufacturers had intended.

Fortunately I found out and stopped him before he blew the main fuse...

David

[Tim W]

Report back:

Dustmen just been. Missed catching them in the act, but I didn't hear any swearing and the bin's empty. I'll squish it a bit harder next time.

So this works... Double capacity. Think I'll tell the council to stuff the upgrade and come and get their brown bin (I have the compost heap running) and the useless paper bin. I'll hang onto the tin can/plastic bottle bin - that is almost half useful...

[Mike Barnes]

Ash :

My thoughts exactly. AFAICS the community bin system also fosters good relations with your neighbours and provides a small but (for some) much- needed bit of fresh air and exercise.

[Tim W]

Tim W wibbled on Saturday 14 November 2009 10:27

OK - dustmen been.

No problems. This week I really bammed the rubbish in until the sides of the bin were bulging - in fact there is a slight set bulge left in it now. So pretty tight. I should note that of late I've not bothered with a big kitchen bin - I just hang Sainsburys bags off the doorknob and tie and bin those, so that may help it not get jammed.

I reckon I could have got another week's worth of rubbish in there if push came to shove.

And to be fair, I recycled everything that is practicable round here.