Wheelie bin style

[James Wilkinson]

A neighbouring council has wheelie bins that look like this, but I've never seen them anywhere else. What is the hood for?

[The Natural Philosopher]

Its a nesting box for the lesser spotted Romanian immigrant.

[James Wilkinson]

At least Romanians do work and don't set explosives.

[Andy Burns]

The circular black hole is for rubble and plasterboard.

[James Wilkinson]

I wouldn't put it beyond a council to do something like that.

[Mr Pounder Esquire]

Why are you feeding this troll? You must know that it's Hucker.

[James Wilkinson]

PKB

[Tim+]

It's to enable the bin to be picked up from the roadside completely mechanically (if it's close enough to the road) without manual intervention. The lorry just pulls up alongside and a mechanical arm controlled from the cab does all the work.

The bigger "canopy" makes alignment less critical.

Tim

[James Wilkinson]

Ahhh, I didn't think of that as I got mixed up and thought it wasn't on the truck side of the bin. The binmen don't wheel mine to the lorry and hook the handles on, the other side gets hooked on.

So I guess people not bothering to put the bins the right way round (like my neighbour) wouldn't get it collected at all. Round here they're wheeled to the lorry by the binmen and they don't mind the odd one facing wrongly.

I guess the automated system would fall down in most places with parked cars, which is why I've only ever seen it in one council area.

[NY]

You mean there is a "right way round" for putting wheelie bins on the roadside for collection? I never knew that. I've never seen any instructions. Looking along our road, people place them various ways round - some with the handle closest to the road (which means walking into the road as you are dragging it onto the grass verge), some with the handle furthest away from the road (closest to the house) and some at right angles (which is how you would drag it behind you as you walk towards the kerb but then turn at the last minute to avoid walking into the road).

But our bins are always collected and hooked onto the lorry by hand. One man typically walks ahead and gathers several bins into a group, and then he and another guy take the bins, two at a time, onto the two "hooks" on the lorry.

[Brian Gaff]

So the local yobs when running from the police can hide in them with no fear of suffocation? Brian

[Capitol]

Round here, they beg!

[Bob Eager]

Round here, they clean cars. Bloody well.

[Tim Watts]

Putting all those poor Polish workers out of a job - damn liberty!

;-)

[The Natural Philosopher]

Poles are better car cleaners

[James Wilkinson]

We were told to when we first got the bins, and it seems pretty obvious, and 90% of them are done this way, to place the handles nearest the road. Imagine you're collecting 1000 bins in the day, would you want to turn them all round to pull them to the lorry? Also when two drives are adjacent, your and their bins should be paired off so the binman can take two at once.

It's not a busy road here, but if it was, I'd simply stop to the side of the bin, and continue pulling it alongside me so it's still facing the road.

[Bob Eager]

The Poles are far too busy building houses!

[Bob Eager]

The ones near you might be - these are excellent. Anyway, if you have your way, you'll have to get someone English to do it, and then you'll notice the difference.

[whisky-dave]

Are you sure it's not some sort of glory hole.

[ARW]

I cannot imagine that as I am not a bin man.

Does a bin man's wishes concern you?

They are paid to empty the bins.

Occasionally they put one back outside the correct house when they have emptied it.