Do you tip at Christmas?

[Nonnie]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7158247.stm

I was reading this article and there I go a wandering again. I do not tip the binmen on the grounds the article gave. I realise it's not their fault but the rules they are given but you try living in the summer with a bin full of maggots because that's what happens with a fortnightly collection no matter how careful you are. We seem to pay an inordinate amount of money in council tax each month and the only services we get bar the usual police/schools/other type mandatory things are the fortnightly bin collection. We have no streetlights, no public services close by, the village even has to pay for the bus stop and it's upkeep (does the bus ever come by?), we have our own private village field that a local farmer gave the village on loan for the kids that we contribute to so what has the council ever done for us? Rant! and they might be expecting a tip? I don't think so. I do realise council tax pays for many other things like libraries etc etc and I don't mind contributing to them but I really would like my rubbish disposed of hygienically and regularly.

They used to come every week and I don't remember my council tax coming down because it went fortnightly....

Our bins are microchipped too so we are being monitored as to how much waste we produce in the hope they can charge us even more!

However I did give the window cleaner a bottle of wine because sometimes it's the only way to make him go away!

[SazzaG]

We're in a similar situation to you Nonnie - no streetlights, no bus service to speak of, nearest 24 hour police station is about 20 miles away. The thing is, it's not like we're in the middle of nowhere!

Luckily, our council hasn't gone to fortnightly collections (yet). They did however decide that after getting the large dust carts down out road for the last 30 odd years, they didn't fit any more! We now have a tiny transit sized truck with one guy who has a habit of not collecting the rubbish if he doesn't feel like it. There's also no backup vehicle, so we often go without collections because it's broken down.

For the same reason, they now won't collect our recycling, despite having done so for 3 years. They will collect our garden rubbish bin, but only if we drag it to the end of the lane, which for some people must be 400 yards.

So no, we won't be tipping the bin men (man). Ba humbug.

[Montana]

We're in a similar situation to you Nonnie - no streetlights, no bus service to speak of, nearest 24 hour police station is about 20 miles away. The thing is, it's not like we're in the middle of nowhere!

Luckily, our council hasn't gone to fortnightly collections (yet). They did however decide that after getting the large dust carts down out road for the last 30 odd years, they didn't fit any more! We now have a tiny transit sized truck with one guy who has a habit of not collecting the rubbish if he doesn't feel like it. There's also no backup vehicle, so we often go without collections because it's broken down.

For the same reason, they now won't collect our recycling, despite having done so for 3 years. They will collect our garden rubbish bin, but only if we drag it to the end of the lane, which for some people must be 400 yards.

So no, we won't be tipping the bin men (man). Ba humbug.

Where abots in Sussex are you ? For my sins, I'm living in Crawley, although I grew up in East Grinstead, and the two places are like chalk and cheese, even though they are only 10 miles apart.

As far as tipping the bin men, it's a definate NO.They will make any excuse not to pick it up, like "having to walk round a car, and I had to take pictures and send them to the council to prove my point, I'm not going to take my own rubbish to the tip, because of those lazy sods.
As for recycling, it seems as though the whole country is a joke, the government try and insist that we do more and then talk about carbon emissions etc etc etc, but do they take plastic(and I'm not just talking about our recycle bins, it's everywhere by sounds of things), of course they don't, the only plastic that our council takes is plastic drink bottles WITHOUT the lids, and plastic milk bottles, and NOTHING else.Now I know that there are many types of plastic, and they all don't mix well, with being different polymers, but there must be millions of tons of yogurt pots and margerine cartons to name but two that go into land fills.

As you can see I'm a bit angry at this whole bin collection and recycling bit, as the government wants us to do more without giving us ANY tools to do it, and making us guilty for not doing more.The responsibility should be put back on the government by the EU, as they seem to be the guilty party here.


Andy

[Will]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7158247.stm

I was reading this article and there I go a wandering again. I do not tip the binmen on the grounds the article gave. I realise it's not their fault but the rules they are given but you try living in the summer with a bin full of maggots because that's what happens with a fortnightly collection no matter how careful you are. We seem to pay an inordinate amount of money in council tax each month and the only services we get bar the usual police/schools/other type mandatory things are the fortnightly bin collection. We have no streetlights, no public services close by, the village even has to pay for the bus stop and it's upkeep (does the bus ever come by?), we have our own private village field that a local farmer gave the village on loan for the kids that we contribute to so what has the council ever done for us? Rant! and they might be expecting a tip? I don't think so. I do realise council tax pays for many other things like libraries etc etc and I don't mind contributing to them but I really would like my rubbish disposed of hygienically and regularly.

They used to come every week and I don't remember my council tax coming down because it went fortnightly....

Our bins are microchipped too so we are being monitored as to how much waste we produce in the hope they can charge us even more!

However I did give the window cleaner a bottle of wine because sometimes it's the only way to make him go away!


1. Were you forced to live in such a God awful place? Or did you choose to?

2. We have a fortnightly bin collection also - and it is never a problem - we have three bins: one for paper/plastics etc; one for garden rubbish; and one for stuff that can't be recycled.

You are obviously creating too much rubbish! Tut, tut, people these days don't know they are born; whinge, whinge; whine, whine......

[SazzaG]

Where abots in Sussex are you ? For my sins, I'm living in Crawley, although I grew up in East Grinstead, and the two places are like chalk and cheese, even though they are only 10 miles apart.

We live just outside Pulborough, so we're under Horsham district council (unfortunately). If we lived half a mile down the road, we be under Chichester DC - almost worth moving for!

Crawley? Did you do something bad in a previous life?

[NattyBoy]

They can spin.

1) Because of the reasons of the article

but mainly because..

2) They act like complete jobsworths round here.

If Ive got some beer cartons that are a little wet, or cardboards not compressed enough they just leave it.

If they demonstrated a bit of comon sense they would realise that if they demonstrated flexibility then I would recipricate with a can of special brew - lol !!

On a brighter note, or postmen are top class. One even joins me in a bit of pisstaking of the neighbour - how cool is that in this modern 'PC' world we live in !!!!?

Im off down the pub for some festive mulled wine (or more likely stella!) see yer in a few hours ....:booze: :spin:

Nat

[emily's driver]

1. Were you forced to live in such a God awful place? Or did you choose to?

2. We have a fortnightly bin collection also - and it is never a problem - we have three bins: one for paper/plastics etc; one for garden rubbish; and one for stuff that can't be recycled.

You are obviously creating too much rubbish! Tut, tut, people these days don't know they are born; whinge, whinge; whine, whine......

It's not a God Awful Place. Was I whinging about the lack of services? NO I was just telling people there weren't any. That's all. No hidden agenda there. The only service I am whinging about is a fortnightly bin collection of waste food. And I don't need the effing bus stop because I drive my effing gas guzzling car EVERYWHERE!

Our council do not take garden rubbish therefore I am obviously better at recycling than you!!! Har har har

Nonnie (under the guise of my husband. He should be so lucky)

[Headhunter]

The feckers removing our rubbish took out one of the stone pillars in our driveway while reversing the other week, so they can stick it up their arse imo - especially as we have to fork out £196 a month in council tax.

[Bodybag]

When I lived in Trowbridge they switched to fortnightly collections. Alternating between normal rubbish one week and recycled the other.

Thats great except we had three children under 5, two of whom were still in nappies!! Can you imagine what thats like in the summer!!!? AND they weren't in the least bit sympathetic when I rang them repeatedly to explain the position they'd put us and, as a result of their planning, our neighbours in. Tossers!!!

Just as good was the fact that they gave us a second, green, wheelie bin. Brilliant, except it could only be used for garden waste. I lived in a terraced house. How much fekkin garden waste did they expect me to produce in a fortnight?

[David Matthews]

I consider myself very lucky, having read the other comments. Our bin boys take everything that's put out. They get a case of beer at Christmas and also if I have bulky items to go at other times of year.

We have a different lot who collect the recycling fortnightly. They are very picky and I regularly get a printed note through the door about my recycling rubbish being wrong/not up to standard. Guess what they get?

[CK & AK]

1. Were you forced to live in such a God awful place? Or did you choose to?

2. We have a fortnightly bin collection also - and it is never a problem - we have three bins: one for paper/plastics etc; one for garden rubbish; and one for stuff that can't be recycled.

You are obviously creating too much rubbish! Tut, tut, people these days don't know they are born; whinge, whinge; whine, whine......

We also have a fortnightly collection - but we only have 2 (very large, no option of smaller ones) 'micro-chipped' bins: one for household, and the other for recycling - which can ONLY have cardboard, paper, newspaper, washed tins & drink cans - NO plastics of any sort except milk containers (washed) without lids, NO glossy magazines, No window envelopes etc - that has to go into the household bin, and glass has to be taken to a local collection point.

On collection day, bins have to be wheeled to the edge of our property by 6am (they are collected about midday so I am told). Local people take great delight in emptying their cars to fill these bins, the odd passing person also tops them up with anything they like too, sometimes resulting in bins not being emptied as they are 'incorrectly' filled.
Later, these bins are then thoughtfully replaced by the bin men 'somewhere' on the pavement 'near' each house - and I am told by the council that I am liable for it after it is emptied. Its nice for them to be left out for the local school & college children to fill them up in their lunch hour :rolleyes:

However, in most of the houses along our road, there is no rear access, so this means all bins have to sit in the front gardens - mostly in the full sun all day in the summer, thus causing even the smallest amount of (carefully wrapped) food to decay & become maggot ridden in a matter of 3 days or less.
I take exception to the 'missive' that came round last summer from the council telling us to freeze food that was to be thrown, or create a compost heap - I've asked our councillor to pop in for a cuppa (as have 57 other households, out of 80 in our road) to see how 'big' our gardens are for adding this facility.

C, not giving the bin men a tip - except to say " put our flipping bin back from where you got it mate"

[Nonnie]

We also have a fortnightly collection - but we only have 2 (very large, no option of smaller ones) 'micro-chipped' bins: one for household, and the other for recycling - which can ONLY have cardboard, paper, newspaper, washed tins & drink cans - NO plastics of any sort except milk containers (washed) without lids, NO glossy magazines, No window envelopes etc - that has to go into the household bin, and glass has to be taken to a local collection point.

On collection day, bins have to be wheeled to the edge of our property by 6am (they are collected about midday so I am told). Local people take great delight in emptying their cars to fill these bins, the odd passing person also tops them up with anything they like too, sometimes resulting in bins not being emptied as they are 'incorrectly' filled.
Later, these bins are then thoughtfully replaced by the bin men 'somewhere' on the pavement 'near' each house - and I am told by the council that I am liable for it after it is emptied. Its nice for them to be left out for the local school & college children to fill them up in their lunch hour :rolleyes:

However, in most of the houses along our road, there is no rear access, so this means all bins have to sit in the front gardens - mostly in the full sun all day in the summer, thus causing even the smallest amount of (carefully wrapped) food to decay & become maggot ridden in a matter of 3 days or less.
I take exception to the 'missive' that came round last summer from the council telling us to freeze food that was to be thrown, or create a compost heap - I've asked our councillor to pop in for a cuppa (as have 57 other households, out of 80 in our road) to see how 'big' our gardens are for adding this facility.

C, not giving the bin men a tip - except to say " put our flipping bin back from where you got it mate"


Yeah baby yeah!

[Will]

It's not a God Awful Place. Was I whinging about the lack of services? NO I was just telling people there weren't any. That's all. No hidden agenda there. The only service I am whinging about is a fortnightly bin collection of waste food. And I don't need the effing bus stop because I drive my effing gas guzzling car EVERYWHERE!

Our council do not take garden rubbish therefore I am obviously better at recycling than you!!! Har har har

Nonnie (under the guise of my husband. He should be so lucky)

If you can re-cycle the garden waste at home then you could re-cycle the 'waste food'. Hmmmmmm....... wasting food, now there is another whole argument - my wife would be first against the wall for that crime!

[gremlin]

We swapped our big bins for little ones and still don't get them anywhere near full in the fortnight. We don't put waste food in because what we don't manage to cook goes either to the dog or chickens and we have three large compost bins for garden waste.
I get hacked off with the bin gestapo, you only have to make a mistake and you get a ticket, and woe betide you if you get it wrong twice.
There is no means of getting a refund for being good and not throwing so much away.
I feel really sorry for parents with kids in nappies, there is no way you can cut down the number used and if the tax comes in they are the people who will get penalised when they probably need the most financial help.
You aren't supposed to put cooked food waste into a compost heap due to the encouragement of rodents and if you saw the size of the rats around here you'd understand why, they are bigger than some cats!

[Thumper]

Well I tipped my milkman a fiver and gave him a xmas card coz hes a biker and a really nice bloke.

My postman also got a fiver and a card too, both the milkman and the postman are great blokes here and both of em said they would keep their eyes peeled for me bike when it got nicked.

I didnt tip my binmen because they wouldnt take some cardboard boxes from me even tho I offered them a fiver. They also have this policy to only remove 2 black bags of rubbish a week from each house and they only take black bags, so if you run out of black bags you gotta go into town and BUY some more from the council. Finally if the local cats attack your binbags overnight the dustmen wont take them either due to "health and safety". Yer binbags gotta be intact for them to remove it.

I used to live in Southwick, Sussex and never had this problem, binmen were real friendly round there and always willing to take cardboard boxes and other crap for a sneaky couple of quid towards their beer fund.

My window cleaner got feckall and told to stop cleaning my windows and never come back, and if he was to show his face round here again it would probably only be a smack in the mouth he got! :mand:

[gary tompkins]

Our council's just issued wheelie bins for recycle collections. We had a small black box before but it was always full by mid week, so I'm glad they swapped to a bigger bin. It only gets emptied every 2 weeks but ours is always full, and by comparison our normal bin (for landfill) is barely half full.

If everyone in Dartford has switched to recycled rubbish like us, it'll make a huge reduction to the amount of landfill. It's nice to know we are are doing our bit to hit waste targets.

Now all the council, EA & police need to sort is the fly tippers :Furious: