http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/earthn ... tions.html

So then have smaller bins collected weekly then.

Doesn't help that a lot of places (parts of London at least) don't have wheelie bins yet. They make it harder for rats to get at the rubbish.

My compost was invaded by rats, but the advice given in the article contradicted my compost bin placing instructions. It said place it over soil so worms could enter from below.

Round where I live, we still dump black bags in a pile on the street!

+1

We do in Aber, and they do in Carmarthen too...
Back at home, we've had wheelie bins since we moved in, back in 1989....

It's not the volume that's the issue, it's the manpower. if you collect every two weeks, you only need to employ half as many bin men and buy/maintain half as many lorries. More usually these days it's sub-contracted and therefore you only need to pay the subcontractor half as much money.

Two weekly bin collections, whatever the reason the council uses to justify them, are simply a cost saving measure and nothing more. Round these parts, the council made the foolish mistake of pushing through two week collections against voter wishes a couple of months before the council elections. Local opposition party campaigned pretty much entirely on a platform of bringing back weekly collections and won the election with a massive turnaround.

People are not fooled.

Reading the article the bit that stood out for me wasn't the bit about bins it was the bit about the neglect of the public sewer systems.

Back on topic though:
In Peterborough the (wheelie) bin collections alternate weekly. One week is the black bin (general refuse) the other is the green and brown bins - recyclables and garden waste.
I can't say it's ever been much of a problem and I've lived with it for over 4 years.
The only issue is the strict rules over what can and can't go into the green and brown bins and the occasionally random outbreaks of bin-Nazi syndrome where they refuse to take the bin if the lid doesn't close completely or they see something they don't like in the green/brown bins.

I can sort of accept the one about the wrong things going in the wrong bins as the council has to pay to sort the recycling and they run their own composting scheme so they don't want stuff that's incompatible in there. Fair enough, provided the rules are clear and simple (which they actually are for the most part).
The bit I don't get is where they refuse to take a bin if there is too much rubbish. Surely if that's the case then the household has a bin that too small or something unusual has happened, either way the solution isn't to make the householder stockpile it or, worse, go and fly-tip it somewhere.

Thats the responsibility of the water companies. Maybe they should be banned from making dividends until they have the pipes up to a certain high standard.


It would be better if they billed the household extra for the full bins. If they then sorted it out the rubbish in future they could avoid the bills.