I worked as a bin man during the summer holidays while I was at university. This was before wheelie bins. For a summer job it was fairly well paid and kept me pretty fit. Great on sunny days working in a nice country side area, where I was being paid to go for a nice walk and empty a few bins. Less fun on wet days in run down areas where bins were over flowing and every house had about 10 black bags.

I think the biggest problem with ash is when the rubbish get crushed any loose powder can fire out the back of the lorry and cover anyone standing there. Also the council pay by weight when they empty the lorries, so are keen to collect as little waste as possible. your small amount of sweepings won’t be a problem, but someone will have left a wheelie bin out filled to the top with soil in the past.

The problem with paint tins used to be that if there was any paint left in them as soon as they were crushed the paint would dribble out of the drain holes at the back leaving a nice trail down the road. I think the drain holes are now sealed up, so no longer a problem really.

7) You’re not allowed to bin more than two “bags” of diy waste….. mind you I had them when I rolled up with it in two 1 tonne grab lorry sand bags

The first time I was caught out by that I asked whether I could dump all 4 of mine that day seeing as I hadn’t “tipped” any in the preceding 26 years of my life…

Apparently I couldn’t… So drove to the other tip in town and dumped them there…

As spchantler says a bit of cash will get any rubbish removed. We used to take anything if some gaves us a tenner or so.

Personally, I reckon its some 9 year old fresh out of uni without enough to do!

You seem to have a lot of time on your hands to be butthurt about a reasonable and polite letter. 😉

Do you live in Tunbridge Wells, berm?

well, if you think about it, instead of getting very angry, they have most likely had people filling whole bins with ash, and this causes the problem. The workers then would have a directive to flag any dust from the bins to make sure it doesn’t occur again.

or you can froth spittle on the internet.

Count yourselves lucky our council will only take rubbish put out in crappy thin blue bags that they provide. They will not touch any kind of bin. The bags are very thin and all the animals have a field day ripping them apart over night. Oh we only get a limited amount of bags, 80 per year them you have to buy extra ones at sky high prices from the council.

Mr Woppit – Member
Do you live in Tunbridge Wells, berm?

😆

cant they wear a dust mask?

Yes, that’s a much better idea than putting dust into a bag.

[Quote]Plus, stop whining.[/quote]

Ok, so lets get a few things clear here.

1) It’s the General waste bin, which I’ve had for about 20 years now without issue, so if dust in the mechanism is in fact the issue its taken a good while to figure it out, and if its dust on the workforce then they really ought to be reviewing their H & S practices after all this time.
2) What we are talking about here is emptying a small amount of floor sweepings into the bin, of which a proportion will have been dust, but by no means all.
3) It joins a long list of thou shalt nots, which include such things no empty paint tins, these have to be taken to the tip, to a specialised disposal area, which hasn’t existed for 4 years now, so if you buy paint you cannot dispose of it, or its empty container.
4) Regarding wages, I’ve not mentioned where I live or what authority it is, so I’m not sure what other people elsewhere are paid has to do with it. Here it is relatively well paid as unskilled manual jobs go.
5) At the tip, you are not deemed to have waste if your vehicle is over 1.72m high, they are barriered off and they consider you to be trade.
6) If you manage to sneak in you are exposed to bin police arguing over what your waste is and where it should go. So for example I tried to dispose of a broken broom head with red nylon bristles, I had to too and fro between the plastics bin, the wood bin and the general waste bin as the attendant at each told me it went in the other.
7) You’re not allowed to bin more than two “bags” of diy waste….. mind you I had them when I rolled up with it in two 1 tonne grab lorry sand bags
8.) You may not dispose of plaster board or coving… apparently that does not exist as waste os its nto a problem.

Etc etc ad infinitum……. And then they are complaining about the rise in fly tipping the twunts

Personally, I reckon its some 9 year old fresh out of uni without enough to do!

Or you could just carry on if you like, up to you I suppose 😀

I just nearly replied to this thread.

Then I had a word with myself

As should the OP for getting so upset in the first place (just ignore it man) and then for gracing us with the mind bending dullness of this thread.

(yes I’ve still posted and just made the thread even worse… it makes me feel better that you lot have now read my drivel, like I did yours… :lol:)

I believe having a rant about something totally inconsequential is a tradtion that has been kept for many years by the collective hive mind of STW, and frankly I don’t see any reason to stop being Mr Angry of Tunbridge Wells for your benefit Ro5ey. Its a free country and if I want to mount my long legged equine friend (not in the biblical sense) then I shall….. so nerrrrrrr. 😛

chief31 – Member

I would call £400-£500 a week low pay would you?

i’d call it a significant pay rise.

seriously, how do i apply?

(if it’s true, etc.)

Plasterboard and coving are banned from landfills as it gives off hydrogen sulphide when it degrades, the biggest problem this causes is attacking the engines which run off landfill gas and them needing to be overhauled very frequently, however you need a fair bit to create harmful levels.

As for bin men, they get paid a shift wether they work it all or not so the faster they run the quicker they get to the pub and the bookies.

And as for recycling, it’s over rated. Bung it all in the same bins and send it to landfill as they are all really struggling to stay open due to reduced waste volume at present, that and the stupid tax the government has imposed. So we will have a lot of landfills close early leaving half filled holes in the ground which produce free power while we continue to export container loads of waste to every less developed country than our own.

As for your dust problem, can you not make a life sized jack in the box for next time?

as they are all really struggling to stay open due to reduced waste volume at present

Is that not the whole point?

Is that not the whole point?

Regretably not…usually its down to some aberration caused by poorly thought out rules/legislation. For example, in the 90’s the Germans introduced the Green point thingamebob, where the retailer had to accept packing back for recycling. This created an enormous volume of material for recycling. Good eh? 😆

Well no not really, as the glut of recyled material knocked the arse out of the market for it, and the fiarly predictable result was a high proportion of the recycling mills in Europe went bust and closed down as a result, thus creating a situation where mountains of material was coming in with nowhere to go. Not so good now eh? 😐

So the solution to it was trains full of waste material quietly slipping off into the Ukraine overnight, where said materials went into landfill. Not so clever now is it? 😯

Truthfully the answer is not to be so wasteful in the first instance and to change our shopping habits and consumptionist lifestyle. However, who’d ever vote for that? So instead we just pay lip service to the problem, employ bright young things who aren’t actually quite bright enouigh to be of any real use to come up with stupid names like the Place Directorate, and stupid bloody rules that drive perfectly reasonable and sane people into fly tipping.

Plasterboard and coving are banned from landfills

So call me old fashioned, but surely the answer is to come up with a sensible alternative disposal route, rather than simply ban its disposal. Theres going to be mountains of the stuff in the country lanes by that route!

in the 90’s the Germans introduced the Green point thingamebob, where the retailer had to accept packing back for recycling. This created an enormous volume of material for recycling.

…in the short term, and then retailers insisted on less bulky packaging, which was the point all along?

…in the short term, and then retailers insisted on less bulky packaging, which was the point all along?

And clearly you’ve noticed the reduced level of packaging in your purchases? Obviously you buy elsewhere to me if you have. Mind you Fortnum and Mason isn’t everyones cup of tea I suppose

No, but I’ve never noticed a derelict recycling plant either. Or Bin Police panda cars on each street taking people off to Bin Court to be sent to Bin Prison for that matter.

So call me old fashioned, but surely the answer is to come up with a sensible alternative disposal route, rather than simply ban its disposal. Theres going to be mountains of the stuff in the country lanes by that route!

Not quite mountains, but plenty around my way.

Lets see if i get a note….

My bin contains all the grass cuttings , half the scarifying moss all compressed

And our token bin bag on top.

Im my neck of the woods thats wrong too, if you want to get rid of garden refuse, you have to pay for an additional wheely bin for that, but its only for compostable items, but you can’t use it for compostable kitchen waste,….. its all just too confusing.

Not quite mountains, but plenty around my way.

Yep, I’m quite serious about this one, I have the good fortune to have an office on a farm a bit out in the sticks. The farmer has actually now established his own refuse tip for all the flytipped stuff that is dumped on his land, (and which becomes his repsonsibility when it is). He’s no fool, so he pays for it by running it as a commcercial waste site, but its getting to ridiculous dimensions. Literally after every weekend, you’ll find car tyres, builders rubble, garden refuse… all sorts dumped in the entry to fields, by the roadside and sometimes even in the road itself.

Madness!! Make it too hard for people to do the right thing, and they’ll do the wrong one IMHO

…and yes, its still boiling my piss!!

You lot should all move to Cardiff.

Isn’t part of the concern that you empty the ash from your woodburner straight into their precious bin and set it on fire?

A little bit of dust/ash is probably good for your bin/bin-waggon in terms on neutralising sticky ming.

berm bandit

i live in the country

its one bin , one collection , once a week

we already take our recyclables to the recycling centre

i took 2 blue 45 gallon drums of moss to the tip the other week and got the spanish inquisition and presented with a form to declare it was private waste.

then was told im not allowed to bring that much at once again but im only allowed 3 trips in a week.

its going in the grey bin.

Mental isn’t it?

1) It’s the General waste bin

I put all many of shit in mine, often dog shit by the spade load as I clear the garden (we’ve nearly an acre so it adds up) plus anything else that can’t go in either the recycle bin (or glass). And ash a plenty. No issues here.

And, luckily for us our tip has no real restriction (except a sign up that says, ‘commercial this way->’).