Is it illegal not to sort my Rubbish?

[VXRTOM]

Afternoon Everyone,

Our local council has recently introduced a new rubbish system and provided us with as follows:

A general rubbish black bin
A green bin for cardboard and stuff
A container for plastic things
A container to be kept indoors for food waste only.

Both the food waste containers, plastic item containers and cardboard bin state that your not allowed to use plastic bin liners.

What I want to know is "IF" I was to not bother and just throw everything in the general rubbish bin in black bags, would it be against the law? - (not to say i'm going to or do) I am just curious.

It seems so unpractical to have a large plastic container for food waste that cant house a plastic bag, so left over curry's and scrapings from end of meals etc will be sitting in the bottom of it for 1 week until emptied by the bin men. (and how good a job of emptying will they do of it? - not giving bin men a hard time but they have to do hundreds so don't have time to ensure bits of rotting food wont be left in it)

It is inevitable that after about 1 week the plastic container is going to start smelling pretty horriffic so wont be able to be kept indoors (unless you are Onslow). The answer would be to spend time every week cleaning out the inside of this large rotting container full of food waste after it has been emptied, which frankly I just wont do.

So, I just wanted to know if I was to not bother dividing anything out and just put it into black bin liners into the general waste bin, am I committing any offenses?

[Finlandia]

In Sweden, the holy Mecka of silly green taxation, we have so called "rubbish police". They go through peoples rubbish and slap the criminals with heavy fines for not sorting in a correct manner.

Unfortunately, I'm not telling porkies, this is the sad truth.

[dirty boy]

We had biodegradable bags supplied for our small indoor food bin. I've now got a compost heap I use for old food instead, i've binned the food bin.

I do use the blue bin for card/paper/metal/plastic (no bags) and put grass cuttings in the green bin.

I still put a lot of stuff in bags in the general one, as it's a two weekly collection and we always run out of space.

[speedychrissie]

I may be wrong, but at the moment I dont think there is anything saying that you have to sort out your rubbish and recycle etc. In the near future that may change as you may be taxed on how much rubbish you throw away into landfill (there is already a prototype system in place that can weigh wheelie bins and record individual household weights).

In bristol we have had the food bins for quite a while and at first I tried using it, but I came across the same problems you have described. The food bin was never cleaned so had a layer of rotting food and maggots, so I stopped using it.

[Technonotice]

Some councils have a policy of not collecting your rubbish if you don't bother to recycle. The crews manager will check your rubbish if your not seen to be making an effort.

HTH

Edited by Technonotice on Friday 11th September 14:09

[otolith]

I wonder if they would draw inferences from the lack of compostable waste? All ours goes on our own heap, if they introduce a collection for it they can get stuffed!

[G_T]

On the subject of recycling I think you all should have a good read of this;

http://www.shrubwalkers.com/prose/list/not.html

Very interesting alternative view. I personally stopped recycling after having read it.

[pacey_sot]

speedychrissie said:

I may be wrong, but at the moment I dont think there is anything saying that you have to sort out your rubbish and recycle etc. In the near future that may change as you may be taxed on how much rubbish you throw away into landfill (there is already a prototype system in place that can weigh wheelie bins and record individual household weights).

In bristol we have had the food bins for quite a while and at first I tried using it, but I came across the same problems you have described. The food bin was never cleaned so had a layer of rotting food and maggots, so I stopped using it.

That would be a good scheme if they removed the waste collection part of the council tax, but who honestly believes that the government would remove or replace taxes when they can just add yet another new one

[VXRTOM]

Thanks for everyone's input so far, We live in a 'terrace' with no back gardens )as we back onto other houses) and a small front garden which now has to house ugly looking bins in what used to look like a nice little street and now all you can see is bins - lovely.

Biodegradeable bags would be better I don't see why I should bother frankly just because the council can't think things through. I think it would be a bit harsh of the council to stop collecting my rubbish if I don't recycle as that is part of what council tax is made up of. I didn't request these bin and additional hassle or agree to anything per se.

Frankly I have enough to do in a very busy hectic life (as most people do) without having to worry about such trivial and labour intensive processes, putting cardboard and stuff in another bin I can manage but im not sifting through 1 or 2 weeks remains of food. What was exactly wrong with the old system?

[VXRTOM]

Technonotice said:

Some councils have a policy of not collecting your rubbish if you don't bother to recycle. The crews manager will check your rubbish if your not seen to be making an effort.

HTH

Edited by Technonotice on Friday 11th September 14:09

If that's the case, ill put a few plastic liners down in my boot and dump a weeks load of waste outside the local council offices once a week - see how they like it.

[V8mate]

Different authorities are taking differing approaches to enforcement; some will have teams who will take action against you.

I'd get used to it though as the collection authorities are under ever increasing (legal) pressure to supply 'uncontaminated' waste to the disposal authorities. You'll only be able to resist for so long.

[TheCarpetCleaner]

Where I am at the moment, we can still just put binbags out once a week, and they get collected.

We are the last of the councils that are not enforcing it yet though, I am sure it won't be long until the bin nazis get their hands on us

[southendpier]

Here we have

1: orange bag for all recyclables - this lives in the kitchen.
2: a blue bin for all food wastes
3: black sack for anything else.

ALL collected on the same day weekly and it works well

1: we now recycle (or whatever the council does with it - burns in a chinese power station probably) more waste than we throw away.
2 realise how much food we waste and therefore take steps to cut back in purchasing and preparation.
3 only throw 1 bin bag of your houselhold muck per week.

not bad for a house of 5 people. It works fellas, and I am one of the most cycnical people about this whole matter.

Reduce- reuse - recycle. in that order saves YOUR money and waste. As for saving the planet who knows, too busy drving driving around in my car to notice.

[Iain328]

We have wheely bin for general rubbish, blue box for recycling (tins & glass basically) and a blue bag for paper.

Recycling collection won't take cardboard, plastic bottles or milk/juice cartons etc.

Wheely bin has to be put out by the road or it won't get emptied - even though if I forget its less than 30 feet away & very visible (and the twunts wonder why they don't get any cash at Xmas !!! )

[Puggit]

We use a Green Cone which is in our back garden. The £68 price tag for a piece of plastic is as disgusting as the waste inside it. But it does work!

We got our's through a scheme that Reading Council ran - for a more palatable tenner

They then collect rubbish on alternating weeks, with both recyclables and garden waste on the other weeks. Works well, but means 3 wheelie bins!

[tim2100]

We have a food disposer in the sink. Put food remains in and it gets churned up and down the drain. it makes mince of anything that goes down.

One advantage of this is that we have no food waste to throw away so the bin bags don't get ripped open by vermin at night.

[WorAl]

dirty boy said:

I've now got a compost heap I use for old food instead, i've binned the food bin.

then.....

dirty boy said:

and put grass cuttings in the green bin.

you are joking right? surely

[Bill]

VXRTOM said:

Biodegradeable bags would be better I don't see why I should bother frankly just because the council can't think things through. I think it would be a bit harsh of the council to stop collecting my rubbish if I don't recycle as that is part of what council tax is made up of. I didn't request these bin and additional hassle or agree to anything per se.

We leave the brown bin outside with a biodegradable bag in it and have a steel tin for the food waste inside that gets emptied regularly. The advantage is that we don't have food waste sitting in the kitchen bin stinking the place out.

The disadvantage is that Bristol council can't process the waste locally so it gets driven 80 miles to a plant in Dorset

[TheCarpetCleaner]

southendpie said:

Reduce- reuse - recycle. in that order saves YOUR money and waste.

Happy to recycle where possible, however my friends council tax bills (who are in areas that enforce the multiple bin system collected every 2 weeks) have not gone down, they have gone up as per usual.

I don't know who is saving money, but they are certainly not...

[dirty boy]

WorAl said:

dirty boy said:

I've now got a compost heap I use for old food instead, i've binned the food bin.

then.....

dirty boy said:

and put grass cuttings in the green bin.

you are joking right? surely

Not at all.

Grass takes far to long to decompose.