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Here is a tip to all those who’d like their own bin back, put the house number on the lid – that’s the only place we can see it when we are putting it back
Thats so obvious but people put numbers on the sides for some daft reason that other neighbours dont nick them.
Also i live in a block of apartments and we have 3 large steel bins, and residents of one block get quite upset if another block uses their bin, and puts waste in it,and they frequently check whats in it.
When passing a row of wheelie bins on the road just drop something in it especially if its not yours and await a huge tirade of abuse and whatever you threw in to be on the floor' #binrage
people put numbers on the sides for some daft reason that other neighbours dont nick them.people put numbers on the sides for some daft reason that other neighbours dont nick them.
I never bothered until next door but one stole mine.
My binmen do a great job too, lifting smelly rubbish day after day must get old pretty quickly.
As a professional driver, i am also in awe of the reversing skills of the average bin lorry driver.
Not a job I would fancy tbh, so i raise my hat to those who can do it.
And why do they have to try and smash every glass bottle? Whats that all about?
You really expect them to take every bottle out of the bin individually, and place them carefully into the truck? There’s a bin full of empty bottles, it gets picked up, taken to the truck, then upended emptying the contents into the truck, just like the other recyclable waste and general waste. They’re not going to piss around trying to be stealthy when there’s several hundred households to deal with on their shift! #rollseyes
Anyone who thinks it’s a good idea to put ash in the bin that’s not bagged needs to get a face full of it to fully appreciate just how unpleasant it is.
I do believe that ashes of any sort are not to be put into plastic wheely bins for exactly this reason, just in case they’re still hot in places. There’s an explicit notice about no hot ashes on our bins. I just chuck the ashes onto the garden, it’s good fertiliser, provided there’s no plastic or other harmful stuff mixed in.
They're pretty good here tbh.
There's a garbo (yup, that's what they call them!) for the red topped bin, one for the green bin, and one for the green bin with the yellow lid. I even saw a garbo get out the truck and pull someones bin off their drive as they hadn't put it out!
Plus we have verge collections. Once a year there's a hard rubbish collection. We put out all the old junk, bike bits, knackered garden chairs etc on the front verge. A team come round on a certain date with a big truck and a scoop, and take it all away. People chuck away some good stuff sometimes and when each area has a verge collection, you often have people driving round having a nose!
We also have twice yearly green waste collection, so you can trim your bushes (pipe down at the back), removed old tress and chop them up, and they come take that too! All goes to a massive mulcher at the tip, and people can pick up trailer loads for free.
Obvs this is all paid for by our rates. But impressive.
I’d like to see a binman olympics. The blokes who clear the FofD run all around their rounds AND shift heavy loads every 30 seconds. They must be incredibly fit.
No complaints about how they do the job around here but good grief are they grumpy unfriendly sods. Never a response or smile when greeted, thanked etc, entirely ignoring my little ones cheering them from the window... I think the only time one has ever said anything to me was when he snarled at me for standing too close the other week after bringing the bin out just in time (maybe 1.75 meters).
&op
AGREED!
they do get PAID ENOUGH FFS!!
Bin men where I used to live played with my first Staffy on their break, not sure when it started but every Thursday at 10.20 ish the dog would be waiting by the gate and for 15 minutes they would play tug of war with a glove that would get wrecked. This happened most weeks until he sadly died. About 3 weeks after he died there was a knock on the door and it was two of the binmen asking about Caesar, we told them what had happened and this big bloke just started blubbing saying that they loved him and always looked forward to Thursday so they could have a play with the dog. The next week they left a bunch of flowers for us. Good people.
The op seems to have decided to ignore all the great comments about our hard working bin men and women.
my friend who lodges with me was a binman for 4 years 30 years ago, it was hard work for sure but whereas a typical refuse truck then had 4 loaders it now has 2
Would it not have been traditional bins back then? They'd need more labour I'd have thought?
and the amount people throw away now is frightening.
Collection frequency plays a part here too I expect. We have three "garbos" (as they're definitely going to be known as from now on, that's amazing): Grey for general refuse, a brown cardboard one* and blue for cans, plastics and glass. We get the grey bin collected every fortnight and the other two alternate on the off-weeks. So if you miss say a blue bin collection it'll be eight weeks before they'll be back for it. I could fill that one on my own in eight weeks, god knows how a family of five cope.
(* - that is to say, it's for collecting cardboard, it's actually made of plastic.)
I have no issues with our 'garbo' trucks.
I do have a question for those that work on said trucks, do you have any influence or power over what people throw out. I live on a new build estate and as per the law, we have a number of social houses. One in particular always grabs my attention, as during refuse collection their black bin is always overflowing. in the region of 8-10 bin bags every two weeks. whereas when the recycling bin is out, the lid is never bulging and there is no extras placed by the bin.
Its clearly a family that consumes a massive amount and it would appear they throw everything in the refuse bin and very little in recycling. As a person who has a fair bit of care for the environment, this boils my urine.
I have seen that the bin men have left tags on the handles of the recycling bin before, suggesting what they can and cant recycle (although I am guessing this is due to them putting the wrong items in the recycling bin), but is there anything else they can do? IE kick the front door in and educate the folk on less consumption/more recycling?
Or is this outside the realms of a 'garbo' worker and something the council would get involved in..... or i guess i could get over it and just realise that some folk just don't care/aren't educated....?
I understand the point you raise about overconsumption and ignorance on recycling.
But your inferred correlation between people living in social housing and being uneducated seems a bit off. The fact that they are in social housing has no relevance to the point you make other than highlighting prejudices.
@peekay I see your point, and did wonder if that fact was even relevant to my query. Poor education and/or laziness when it comes to recycling and overconsumption is certainly not exclusive to where you lay on the social scale.
Feel free to ignore that part of my post. Although I cant help but think that some of my anger comes from my perception of that overconsumption being paid for with my taxes (if taking it to the extreme). But that's a whole different discussion thread of opinions/prejudices!
Back on topic...… 🙂
Our council's waste provider is being changed. Again. So the bin men will be TUPE'd. Again. To a different company that promises more for less. Can't be very motivating but they still do the job.
One in particular always grabs my attention, as during refuse collection their black bin is always overflowing. in the region of 8-10 bin bags every two weeks. whereas when the recycling bin is out, the lid is never bulging and there is no extras placed by the bin.
around here they just point blank do not pick up the extra bags.
They do sometimes empty your bin and put the black bags in your now empty bin - presumably to stop you just leaving them at the road side.
Or is this outside the realms of a ‘garbo’ worker and something the council would get involved in…
I suspect this is council-dependant.
When I was in the council offices it was the bin men's job to collect the bins, that was it. Any anomalies got radioed back to the office where they recorded it. Any further action (probably nothing more than a snotty letter) would come out of the office, it's not the collection guys' job to police it.
around here they just point blank do not pick up the extra bags.
Again, I suspect this is council-dependant. I've never had an issue with black bags being taken, whereas I've been told by friends in other areas that they can get fined for leaving out loose bin bags.
As you say though, half of the shits round here wouldn't care, if the council didn't collect it they'd just dump it somewhere so it's probably the lesser of two evils.
we have the opposite issue ... recycling bin is full to over flow and the grey bin has about half full .....
councils solution was that we should put any extra recycling into the normal waste... HUH
^^^
All the furtiveness of a neighbour nicking your bin...
Best job I've had was emptying bins into the back of the bin lorry at the end of the day at headingley cricket ground. No idea what deal Yorks cc or ground owners had but doubtless all cash. These old guys who basically looked like hostel dwellers would fill the bins but weren't up to lifting them. Lorry would turn up without binnies, I was building labouring on the stand, and me and another lad would jog after the van. Tenner for ten mins when that was a good night out.
Anyway, our binnies are great, but bloody early at half six.
They do a tough job in sometimes awful conditions. I just couldn't comprehend how they could wreck our bin and just bugger off. I wouldn't spill coffee into a desktop PC at work and not say anything. Or snap of a toilet seat and leave it. That was my peeve.
Salford Council delivered a brand new bin this morning and...took away the half full broken bin.
Feeling happy.
As an aside, the binmen in Nice used to turn up at 5am. What's all that about?
As an aside, the binmen in Nice used to turn up at 5am. What’s all that about?
Errrr, would you fancy that sort of graft in 30+ degrees at midday. It gets canny warm down that way...
Errrr, would you fancy that sort of graft in 30+ degrees at midday. It gets canny warm down that way…
Doh!
Feeling dense.