Selfsufficientish.com

I've just discovered this site and its forum. Its www.weeklywaste.com This stupid women has set up a site to show the UK just how terrible it is if we don't have our bins collected every week. Its also got a forum where you don't have to register and consequently can tell the people in there exactly how stupid they are supporting this rubbish.

I'm sure we all do our bit and hope that we can all say we could cope with fortnightly collection because we are all so good at recycling and composting, seems we still have a large proportion of the public to educate!

My bin gets put out every 8 to 10 weeks and I get no flys or rats but according to this site its a good job because they both can kill!

Jump on the forum and tell them your story! I have I'm on there as the recycler. Enjoy!

I cope with our local fortnightly collection fine, I produce about one bin bag a fortnight anyway. What I have trouble coping with is my neighbours as our four flats share 2 bins. One of my neighbours produces about 8 bags a week! the others produce 2 bags each. When we had a bin collection strike last summer my neighbours did nothing about the waste letting it all pile up, stinking and attracting vermin even though the local recycling center was still taking household waste!!

Sorry rant over!

Rant of my own... I think that people like this should be made to carry their rubbish 1km to the nearest bin - yes and I mean carry, on yer back, that´s what I have to do (with the recycling too). Certainly makes you think about what you buy in the first place and how well you make things last.

Anyone who wants to use disposable nappies as opposed to washables, because it´s too much hassle would soon change their mind. I know, after 4 weeks of rain and little solar power I begrudgingly used disposables for a week, and they weigh a ton when full!

OK backing away from the soapbox now.....

Clara x.

We've been on alternate week collections for a few years now and it's fine. I was just glad to get a proper bin for my recycling stuff rather than a small bucket thing that I was first given! (A neighbour wasn't using theirs so I had that aswell!)
mithril.

It drives me crazy all the "rubbish" about the problems with bin collections - there is no problem if you act responsibly with your rubbish!! We forgot to put our recycling bin out last time and in a month its only half full because we squash all the rubbish before we put it in - and we recycle everything posible! As to the other bin we also forgot that for a month but thats not a problem either - most small waste food is put down the loo - (cuts out the middle man!! lol), what can be composted is composted, what can be reused is reused and only what is completely useless is binned - after its been squashed and bagged. If for some reason there is really too much rubbish - how about you get off your lazy backside and take it to the tip yourself!!!
As to the rat thing - stop feeding the birds - it attracts rats to your property and its not even that good for the birds!!
Ok - I'll stop stomping now!!

hi there

just been on this stupid woman site and have had my rant too, she obvoiusly needs educating.

on there as guest.

I just checked out her forum - the woman has been banging her bin lids for ages and most of the time no one has bothered to reply to her and those that have have only disputed her claims and made her look daft!!! She's the best laugh I've had in ages!!!

Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.

That said, I think the recycling system in the UK is rather poor compared to other countries, Germany for example. All councils are left to their own devices and all seem to have different rules, and there doesn't seem to be any kind of overarching strategy for collecting and dealing with the waste. I think the system needs to be simplified, and be accompanied by initiatives to get people to reduce waste in the first place, such as making supermarkets use less packaging and teaching cookery in schools.

At uni, we have recycling bins in our halls, but we have to take the cans, paper etc down ourselves and sort it. This doesn't bother me in the slightest (though it's too much trouble for some people), but it sends out completely the wrong message when recycling is some kind of optional extra we can do if we want, but our rubbish bins get emptied every weekday. If I want to recycle all my empty wine bottles the cleaners refuse to deal with it cos emptying the recycling is 'too heavy', but if I put exactly the same amount of waste in the main kitchen bin, it wouldn't be a problem.

Madness!

[/rant]

I'm not in the UK, but we only have our bin collected once a MONTH, and even then it isn't full (for a family of 4). I wouldn't know how to make that rubbish!!

Andrea
NZ

We've had AWC (with a monthly garden waste collection) for nearly two years and there have been no real problems.
A few moaners complain about seperating recyclables and the odd bin filled to bursting with cardboard after Christmas.
One (large) family had to move up a bin size although the council doesn't make this easy. We are approaching the point where we can move down from medium to the smaller size, the council makes this extremely easy.
I'd say I'm pretty happy with the system, certainly an improvement on the stupid blue bag system we have before.

I've posted my feelings on the forum, don't for a minute expect to convince anyone behind the website but at least I can let anyone who comes across it with an open mind know that AWC doesn't result in the new black death (no seriously) or some other such nonsense.

It looks like messages were removed on the other site.

To be honest, calling this woman stupid isn't the fairest thing to do. Misinformed perhaps, but not stupid.

I imagine that for many people a fortnightly collection IS going to attract mice and maggots etc. That's because so many people chuck everything in the bin without even a second thought.

You are right to talk about education Maggie and Hamster - people need to be taught how to shop, how to cook and make the most of everything in the fridge/cupboards and how to minimise waste. ~Meantime, we have to remember that not everyone understands what happens to their waste... many don't even care. As long as it's removed from their bins in a timely fashion then why should they care. Perhaps these fortnightly collections will result in maggots etc... which in turn might lead to people being more careful with what they throw away. It could be a blessing in disguise for many of them.

just to add to that there are some areas where there is no opportunity to recycle anything and because of the living conditions the opportunity to have things like compost bins are non existent.

Where I live I would have to drive 10 miles to the nearest bottle recycling bin and 10 miles back. The kind of defeat the object of recycling in the first place!

baldowrie wrote:just to add to that there are some areas where there is no opportunity to recycle anything and because of the living conditions the opportunity to have things like compost bins are non existent.

Where I live I would have to drive 10 miles to the nearest bottle recycling bin and 10 miles back. The kind of defeat the object of recycling in the first place!

I agree that is AWC is being introduced to reduce collection regularity without improving recyclable collection then it's a bad thing. AFAIK this hasn't happened anywhere, the idea is the inbetween week is used to collect a recyclables collection. This way the council can use the same resources as normal collection and increase recycling. The normal bin has the capacity to last two weeks because less goes in it.

This is to be featured on tonight's Newsnight - 10.30pm bbc2

A LOAD OF RUBBISH?

And The Great Bin Scandal is becoming one of the biggest issues in the English local elections. "The alternative weekly collection" is supposedly cheaper and greener, but the government's not to keen to tell you about it ahead of next Thursday's vote - so how do you feel about rubbish collection reduced to once a fortnight?

Tonight we are delighted that Talk Sport's shock jock James Wales will join us live from his own show to express his outrage at the plans and debate with the Green Party for whom this move represents environmental progress.

Stand well back - but do watch.

Our wheelie bins are half a mile up the road in the farmyard, because the council got fancy new trucks that can't get down to the houses!!
However, we recycle everything we can and take it all directly to one of our centres in the car every week or so, we compost anything we can and therefore only have a small amount of rubbish to go up.
Also, being vegetarian means there's no scraps of meat to attract pests and we also don't throw food away.
Makes for an easy life I reckon.