On Wed, 22 Jun 2016 16:33:21 +0100, whisky-dave wrote:

On Wednesday, 22 June 2016 12:47:28 UTC+1, James Wilkinson wrote:
On Wed, 22 Jun 2016 12:22:46 +0100, whisky-dave wrote:

On Tuesday, 21 June 2016 20:29:45 UTC+1, James Wilkinson wrote:
On Tue, 21 Jun 2016 19:54:16 +0100, ARW wrote:

"James Wilkinson" wrote in message
news On Tue, 21 Jun 2016 07:49:23 +0100, NY wrote:

"James Wilkinson" wrote in message
news On Mon, 20 Jun 2016 20:44:12 +0100, Tim+ wrote:

James Wilkinson wrote:
A neighbouring council has wheelie bins that look like this, but I've
never seen them anywhere else. What is the hood for?
https://www.dropbox.com/s/qpzkw50rday7lsz/bin.jpg?dl=0

It's to enable the bin to be picked up from the roadside completely
mechanically (if it's close enough to the road) without manual
intervention. The lorry just pulls up alongside and a mechanical arm
controlled from the cab does all the work.

The bigger "canopy" makes alignment less critical.

Ahhh, I didn't think of that as I got mixed up and thought it wasn't on
the truck side of the bin. The binmen don't wheel mine to the lorry and
hook the handles on, the other side gets hooked on.

So I guess people not bothering to put the bins the right way round
(like
my neighbour) wouldn't get it collected at all. Round here they're
wheeled to the lorry by the binmen and they don't mind the odd one
facing
wrongly.

You mean there is a "right way round" for putting wheelie bins on the
roadside for collection? I never knew that. I've never seen any
instructions. Looking along our road, people place them various ways
round -
some with the handle closest to the road (which means walking into the
road
as you are dragging it onto the grass verge), some with the handle
furthest
away from the road (closest to the house) and some at right angles (which
is
how you would drag it behind you as you walk towards the kerb but then
turn
at the last minute to avoid walking into the road).

But our bins are always collected and hooked onto the lorry by hand. One
man
typically walks ahead and gathers several bins into a group, and then he
and
another guy take the bins, two at a time, onto the two "hooks" on the
lorry.

We were told to when we first got the bins, and it seems pretty obvious,
and 90% of them are done this way, to place the handles nearest the road.

Imagine you're collecting 1000 bins in the day, would you want to turn them
all round to pull them to the lorry?

I cannot imagine that as I am not a bin man.

I thought everyone had an imagination.

Does a bin man's wishes concern you?

Efficiency concerns me.

They are paid to empty the bins.

The quicker they can do it, the less they have to get paid and the lower your taxes.

Occasionally they put one back outside the correct house when they have
emptied it.

A bin is a bin, I did not take you for one of those fusspots who gets possessive over "their" bin which is identical to everyone else's and owned by the council anyway.

but they aren't identical they have teh house numbers written on them,

Not here we don't.

They do in most places I know.

The only place people seem to get possessive and write on numbers is council estates. Perhaps it's the ones that have bought their house and look down on the grotty neighbours?

and some are silly enough to pay their own money for them to be cleaned, so they don't smell.

But surely those weirdos get the bin cleaned AFTER it's emptied.

yes difficult washing a bin out with it full.

So it doesn't matter what bin comes back, they will have a clean bin.

No the bin cleaners are private company that clean the bins about once a month but only those bins that they are pains to clean.
A bit like window cleaners not everyone waits for it to rain, some have people come and clean their windows rather than next doors windows.

I know it's a bit complex but we have number on houses too so people can mor eeasily tell them apart.
Why would you pay someone to clean next doors bin and not yuor own anyway, what's the point ?

I'd pay someone to clean *a* bin and return it to me. Once it's cleaned, it doesn't matter who was using it before.

--
Say it with flowers - send her a triffid.