Biffa - Council - Brown bins

finnback

Well-Known Forumite
Anyone come across their brown bin being disabled (ie the lid being pinched by the binmen) because you had two brown bins?
(never thought i'd start such a rocking thread - but I sniff skullduggery)
 

Gramaisc

Forum O. G.
The advice on the blue bin still contains this absolute gem.

Q. Do labels and lids need to be taken off glass and plastic containers?

A. There is no need to remove labels. Please remove all lids; they can be placed separately in the blue bin. Leaving the lids on causes vacuums inside the containers that make them difficult to compact within the vehicle.

http://www.staffordbc.gov.uk/faq
 

littleme

250,000th poster!
Anyone come across their brown bin being disabled (ie the lid being pinched by the binmen) because you had two brown bins?
(never thought i'd start such a rocking thread - but I sniff skullduggery)
They removed the lid to one of mine a while back, I emailed a complaint & they replied stating they had done it as I was having a new bin delivered later in the week....which I did. :) I would email them though, so they don't have a chance to 'forget'!
 

staffordjas

Well-Known Forumite
The advice on the blue bin still contains this absolute gem.

Q. Do labels and lids need to be taken off glass and plastic containers?

A. There is no need to remove labels. Please remove all lids; they can be placed separately in the blue bin. Leaving the lids on causes vacuums inside the containers that make them difficult to compact within the vehicle.

http://www.staffordbc.gov.uk/faq

My blue bin was emptied ok yesterday, as I stick to the rules (didn't know about the lids on jars one though...but normally throw the lids in the normal rubbish and just recycle the glass jar.).
But the blue bin men were on a mission down our road yesterday. Rejected 3 out of the 5 bins at the top of our drive alone, with 'bagged items' and 'plant pot' as the reasons and a message on them that photos had been taken.Just hoping the neighbours left with full blue bins don't just pile more on top and leave the overflowing rubbish to end up blowing into my garden, as it always tends to !
 

finnback

Well-Known Forumite
My blue bin was emptied ok yesterday, as I stick to the rules (didn't know about the lids on jars one though...but normally throw the lids in the normal rubbish and just recycle the glass jar.).
But the blue bin men were on a mission down our road yesterday. Rejected 3 out of the 5 bins at the top of our drive alone, with 'bagged items' and 'plant pot' as the reasons and a message on them that photos had been taken.Just hoping the neighbours left with full blue bins don't just pile more on top and leave the overflowing rubbish to end up blowing into my garden, as it always tends to !

yep, same happened to us recently
the bagged rubbish was all recyclable as always but just for ease in a bag
Why no plant pots? Aren't they plastic?
 

citricsquid

Well-Known Forumite
Finally, bin day is exciting again. I love watching the bin rejections around here, although it's been a couple of months since the serious enforcement started and nowadays almost everyone complies. I think rejecting bins with stickers explaining why has to be one of the most effective council policies if my neighbours behaviour is anything to go by.
 

Gramaisc

Forum O. G.
I frequently put stuff in brown bins for other people - with one in particular, I will normally have to remove stuff and put it in the intended bin next to it, usually the green one, but sometimes blue.

In her brown bin I will often find plastic compost bags, flower pots (both plastic and ceramic), the aftermaths of flower arrangements (wire, plastic film, ribbons and bows, and Oasis blocks - sometimes even the plastic pretend basket things), etc. - with the excuse that "it is all just garden waste, surely?".

I remain convinced that the deceased mower would have been in there, if the scrap man hadn't come past first.


I have also seen somebody else shovelling a full, heaped wheelbarrow load of stones into a brown bin and carefully covering it with a few inches of grass clippings.

I have also pointed out to somebody that the No Bin sign on his NiCad batteries meant that he couldn't just put them in the bin - "Well, I don't know that, so I will anyway".

poubellebarree.gif
 

Noah

Well-Known Forumite
The advice on the blue bin still contains this absolute gem.

Q. Do labels and lids need to be taken off glass and plastic containers?

A. There is no need to remove labels. Please remove all lids; they can be placed separately in the blue bin. Leaving the lids on causes vacuums inside the containers that make them difficult to compact within the vehicle.

Interesting, the most recent information I've seen from South Staffs Council says to leave the lids on.
 

EasMid

Well-Known Forumite
You should always remove the lids, especially in warmer weather as the heat causes the containers to overheat creating a fire risk. As biffa found out at Yarlet the other day. Or maybe it was a binman's discarded faggend.
P.S. You should always keep vacuums on a lead in a public place.
 

Dreamies

Well-Known Forumite
My brown garden bin didn't get taken for 3 cycles. I complained and nothing happened just filling up more and more with garden flowers and rubbish. It got taken last week but I don't know why it wasn't touched the weeks before. I try stick to rules with the recycle blue bin. I can be a bit lazy with the actual green bin and occasionally put recyclable rubbish in I don't want to clean out lol. my neighbour said it all goes to same place anyway not sure how true that is.
 

Glam

Mad Cat Woman
My brown garden bin didn't get taken for 3 cycles. I complained and nothing happened just filling up more and more with garden flowers and rubbish. It got taken last week but I don't know why it wasn't touched the weeks before. I try stick to rules with the recycle blue bin. I can be a bit lazy with the actual green bin and occasionally put recyclable rubbish in I don't want to clean out lol. my neighbour said it all goes to same place anyway not sure how true that is.
I'm seeing a bloke that works for a recycling company in Birmingham. According to him, all the rubbish ends up in the same place. I know Birmingham City Council bung it all in an incinerator.
 

citricsquid

Well-Known Forumite
my neighbour said it all goes to same place anyway not sure how true that is.

That depends on your local authority and the type of material you are recycling. The official line is that what can be recycled will be recycled, and when your recycling arrives (in Stafford at least) it's sorted into what can and can't be recycled. You should really recycle things that can be recycled, because even if they do end up in landfill today it's plausible that in future they may be able to recycle them.

http://www.staffordbc.gov.uk/recycling-and-waste-end-destination-of-recyclates
 

Gramaisc

Forum O. G.
I remember predicting that, one day, we will be mining the old landfill sites.

Mixing up the recycling and then sorting it again seems a strange approach to me.

Reusing items would seem better than recycling the materials - as we used to do with bottles and jars in the "old days" - but everybody "needs" to have their own corporate design these days.

I still remember seeing my first non-returnable bottle and thinking how stupid it was.

A lot of packaging still has inseparable and incompatible materials - this ought to be stopped.
 
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