Bin collection

I don't think the Council would agree to that. There must be people who never use many of the services paid towards by council tax but they aren't entitled to a rebate.

Our local council has just changed to three-weekly bin collection. Doesn't bother me because I live on my own, but it's going to be difficult for families with children.

I do wonder how it's going to affect the bin men, pay-wise. The recycling collection isn't done by them (that's still weekly).

BTW £25 a month seems a bit steep!

Fife Council I believe have a 4 week bin collection.

Falkirk were looking at a 4 week bin collection , no idea if they went ahead.

We pay extra for our garden rubbish bins but it's £24 a year. Our collections are fortnightly for garden waste, plastic/glass/cardboard, household rubbish.

Are you sure it is £25 a month Auntieflo that sounds a lot to me too.

We have none, whatsoever - it works really well

Like granjura, we don't have bin collections.
Everyone has to do their own sorting and take stuff to the correct communal bins, or the dechetterie, which is for stuff like large cartons, garden rubbish, old clothes, furniture, electric gadgets, used oil.

Fine if you're fairly fit and have transport. How do others manage?

We used to have communal bins sited all around the commune - easy for us as one was a few yards up the road and then we had black bags and recycling bags. About a year ago we were given two great bins - one with a yellow lid for recycling and a black one. The size of the bin depends on how many in the house but they allow for us to have many more in the summer!
We have little land fill stuff as being in the country we all have compost bins but our recycling is almost full each week. Big items we take to the dechetterie and every year or so the council organise a pick up of any household large items you may want to be rid of. At certain times too the dechetterie have piles of compost from the vineyards you can just go and help yourself to.

We have 3 large bins and one caddy for used food etc. Black bin is collected fortnightly and is for general rubbish but no food. Blue bin is collected fortnightly and is for recyclables. Green bin for garden waste is collected spring to late autumn on the same week as Blue bin.The caddy is collected weekly. It is an excellent operation and very well thought out.

We have separate bins, bags and boxes for food waste, textiles, paper, cardboard, plastics, tins, glass, and small electrical items (phew!), all collected every week. Garden waste fortnightly, but that's optional and chargeable (we have a compost heap instead). And all other waste collected fortnightly. It works well, apart from a few weeks of chaos every time the council changes supplier, when the lorries get lost or come on the wrong day, catching everyone out!

As for a rebate if you opt for the private collector, there's not a cat in hell's chance. We live on an unadopted street, and are responsible for maintaining our own road and pavement, but we still pay full council tax.

I am sure that was the figure quoted, ( but with problems posting, it took 4 goes), I may be wrong. Here, we have quite a good service, black bins for paper and tin, blue bags for all other household waste, and our binmen are very good. Glass has to be taken to bins in several designated places, ie, supermarkets. There are brown bins for garden waste, but at £60.00 per year, yes £60, we no longer use that option. POGS, your £24 a year sounds a bargain.

I heard £25 per month.

Ours is the same as POGS!

If you recycle properly then three weekly shouldn't be a problem. We have three bins. Green (non recycle stuff), blue (recycle) and brown (food waste and garden rubbish). The green and blue bins are collected on alternate weeks and the brown bin fortnightly on a different day.

Although we always have to put the blue bin out we often miss a green bin collection as we don't have enough rubbish in the bin to make it worth the hassle of putting it out.

Ana - most people have neighbours, friends or family to help- and the massive inground communal bins, with credit card system that weigh and charge to your account- are never very far from any village or town location - it works. And it is a/much cheaper than when we had collections and b/ has massively encouraged people to reduce, re-use, recycle' and avoid un-necessary packaging. Win, win. Even in our rural location, the nearest bin is 250 metres away and we drop bags on the way to shopping- there is a recycling centre about 1 mile away- and another larger one for larger items, 4 km down the road- again we drop anything at either on the way to other errands or visits. It works.

And it avoids the dreadful situation of each house having 2 or 3 massive bins in their drive, as we had in UK.

As I said, it's not a problem for me as I live alone, but I know my DD (with two children) is only just managing with the three-weekly collection even though she's really good at recycling.

Households with two adults and two or three children aren't going to find it easy. I think the Council's ultimate aim is four-weekly general rubbish collection, which may backfire on them if there's a rise in fly-tipping.

(Sorry, my post was in reply to vampirequeen's)

And that is the joy of no collection- if you have 3 children, you can go as often as you wish, when you wish... but of course as you pay either per weight, or per bag (depending on Council here) then recycling i really helps. Many have swapped to modern washable nappies with liner, for that reason, as disposable weigh a ton when used.

My council collect, empty and return for disabled people.

Yes, I think ours does too Galen.

'No collection' wouldn't work in this country.

Works well here, Oxfordshire are big on recycling.A brown bin for garden waste, green for the recycling and black bin for any other rubbish apart from food, which is put in a smaller dark green bin.All bins emptied every two weeks: food bin every week plus general rubbish, then the next week all the garden and recycling plus food bin.
All our bins are tucked away, so never on the drive.

Added to that, in a small yard within the village are large bins for anything like glass, clothes, and plastics.

One wheelie bin for general waste, black box for glass and plastic, blue box for paper and card, and green caddy for food waste, all collected weekly. We could have a green waste wheelie bin, (annual charge and collected fortnightly) but we don't have space to put it in our bin shed. The general waste bin is never full. I tried putting the food waste on allotment compost heap, but it led to a rise in the rat population!

Grey bin for all recyclables and green for garden waste
Black bin for non-recyclables
Collection on alternative weeks.

I would like to have a food waste caddy, though in fact, most of my waste is vegetable and goes on the compost heap.

For our business we have to pay for rubbish collection - it is compulsory. Cost £10 a month for one rubbish and one recycling collection. This is on top of rates.

How many collections will they get for £25?

Ours is a joke. We are forced to have 3 bins (most people have nowhere to keep them) a blue bin for recycles, a green bin for garden/vegetable waste and a grey one for the rest. The collections are staggered and since I moved into this house 5 years ago they have NEVER once been collected on the day they were supposed to be and even then they are only collected after several telephone complaints. Next year they are going to impose a charge on bin collections in addition to our already huge council taxes and I am very angry. What are they spending our council tax on? (Other than council,police, firebrigade pensions of course) .