Better wheelie bin ?

[Andy Burns]

They're not too bad when full, but when empty I do tend to lift mine back into position, rather than drag it, shame the neighbours don't though ...

[Frank Erskine]

On the lid of my recycling (blue) bin there's a loudspeaker symbol followed by "89dB".

Whilst technically that has no significance (such as "dBA" might) it does suggest something to do with its noisiness; or perhaps attenuation (or amplification!) of some noise or other.

I'm pretty sure that another of the bins has a similar "dB" rating, but I CBA to check tonight. Any "noise" of the bins is far exceeded by the noise of the wagon :-) Occasionally the approaching wagon noise is a salutary reminder to put the bin out on the grass verge.

The blue bin has a basket/box sort of thing which sits on top under the lid, for papers. The main body is intended for glass, cans, plastic bottles and flattened cardboard.

The council blurb is that the blue bin "fits all your recycling in", but on enqviry I was asked to simply chuck old batteries/cells into the original regular (green) bin.

My original (green) bin is emptied weekly, and the recycling (blue) bin is done fortnightly, alternating during the non-winter seasons with a brown bin, for (sic) "green" waste, like grass clippings, weeds et. al.

It's all a bit confusing to simple people like me (well I _am_ over

50), but the LA does occasionally provide a collections "calendar" shewing graphically the dates for appropriate bin colours, and alterations due to ban collie days and the like.

[Mike Barnes]

Frank Erskine :

Since this is uk.d-i-y, I can mention my print-it-yourself A4 calendar with customisable recycling dates.

Example:

council collects 365/365. Yes, even Christmas day. One advantage of a home-made calendar is that I can indicate the evening *before* the collection, which is when the bins actually go out.

[Tim]

Our council has a downloadable PDF version of the calendar. I just keep that on my phone. Saves printing anything. I would imagine that most councils do the same.

Tim

[Adam Funk]

I've seen that system in the US but I didn't know it was used in the UK. (I thought the narrow streets and irregular parking in old neighbourhoods would make it unusable here.)

I guess the weight limit that the lorry can lift is probably quite a bit higher than what most people can drag.

[Owain]

On hilly streets it seems somewhat less likely to swallow the entire bin, unlike the rear-loading vehicles which got blamed for an outbreak of disappearing bins.

Owain

[Andrew Gabriel]

Trouble is, the first wheelie bins predate recycling, and they came in all colours around the country. After that, you can't really have a standard.

We have: black bin - landfill blue bin - recycle but not glass red crate - glass reusable sack - garden refuse, but you have to pay £25/year

My parents have: black bin - landfill red bin - recycle but not glass (can be a crate or bin) green bin - garden refuse

Another family member has: black bin with black lid - landfill black bin with orange lid - recycle but not glass green bin - garden refuse

Brother in London has: plasic sacks (provide yourself) - landfill create - recycle, kerbside sorted green bin - garden refuse

Same here. Takes me many weeks to fill my landfill bin, so I don't bother even putting it out most collections.

It can be quite amusing on glass collection days. Some areas of town are almost completeley wine and champagne bottles, others are almost entirely beer bottles, or even spirits. I'm sure a number of sociologists will have got a PhD or two out of such studies...

+2.

[mike]

When recycling started here, we had a divided bin. IIRC, one side was the usual stuff like paper and cans, the other was organic waste. Didn't last long before the council removed the dividers and made it paper/cardboard/plastic/cans only.

Since then we've grown to three bins: black (landfill) with maybe one or two carrier bags of rubbish in it and often not even put out; green (recycling) fornightly which is usually full; and brown (garden waste) which accepts windfall fruit but not fruit peelings, dead house plants but no vegetables... WTF is that about?

Glass has to be taken to a bottle bank (which we do) or put in the landfill bin. Many of the previously green/brown/clear bottle banks have recently been replaced with mixed glass banks. Don't know whether this is a step forward or a step back.

Tetra paks can be taken to one of a few disant collection points around the city (which we don't) or put in the landfill bin.

A relative in another part of the country has recently got a burgundy bin - with a clip-on internal compartment that covers half the open area and is about 12" deep. That's for paper and junkmail. Other recyclables - including glass - get chucked in the main body of the bin. Picking out broken glass from the other recyclables must be great fun for some poor sod at the depot.

I appreciate there's got to be variation for some areas with special circumstances but I'm surprised there's not some common countrywide baseline that reflects best practice.

[Steve Walker]

But the weight limit that the handle can cope with when the truck lifts it is probably a factor too.

SteveW

[charles]

but theer are plenty of commercial bins at least 3 times as big, so I doubt if that is really a problem

[Andrew Gabriel]

It lifts by the rim, not the handle, but there will be limits whatever. I have got a wheelie bin heavy enough that it was actually very difficult to move, but they still took it. That was when we first got the garden waste ones. I had built up a 20-year old compost heap which I never used for compost, and was actually just a pain. So it got transfered into the first 10 or so wheelie bin collections, until the height was reduced. I had intended to take it back down to ground level, but discovered some very substantial tree roots had grown into it, so it only got taken down about halfway.

[Andy Burns]

I "smuggled" half a sack of set cement and a fair amount of rubble into mine once, it was damned heavy that day, when I got back home it had gone, the wheelie bin itself was gone that is. I half expected a snotty letter from the council about abusing it and having to grovel to get it back, after a few days I phoned up, said it was missing, they just sent a van round with a new one ... I suspect it must have broken when lifted and they just binned the bin.

[John Rumm]

I had a bin vanish once... phoned the council, and they said "oh yes, we did have a report of losing one in the back of the lorry from your area"

- they gave the impression that it happens from time to time. Sent a new one round a couple of days later.

[Huge]

We had ours burned, week after week. Each week, the council replaced it. I think we got through 11 before the pyromaniacs tired of the sport.

[Andrew Gabriel]

I notice our council has a listed charge for replacing wheelie bins. Don't know if they actually enforce it. When they upgraded the recycle bin to a full-sized one, they didn't want the half-sized ones back, although they would collect them if you really wanted. I kept mine thinking I might turn it into a another water butt, but as yet, it just occupies space in the shed.

[Huge]

Good luck with getting that out of me when someone's burned my wheelie bin.

[mogga]

Get crime reference number and get a new one free. Thats what we did.

The kids burnt 6 in one night, a couple of next doors fence panels and half of our garage guttering.