On Wed, 22 Jun 2016 16:23:20 +0100, Tim Streater wrote:

In article , James Wilkinson
wrote:

On Wed, 22 Jun 2016 14:50:03 +0100, Tim Streater
wrote:

In article , James Wilkinson
wrote:

On Wed, 22 Jun 2016 12:37:59 +0100, Tim Streater
wrote:

In article , James Wilkinson
wrote:

On Wed, 22 Jun 2016 08:37:29 +0100, Bob Eager wrote:

On Wed, 22 Jun 2016 00:25:57 +0100, James Wilkinson wrote:

On Tue, 21 Jun 2016 23:31:57 +0100, Bob Eager wrote:

On Tue, 21 Jun 2016 23:03:02 +0100, James Wilkinson wrote:

On Tue, 21 Jun 2016 22:16:02 +0100, Bob Eager
wrote:

On Tue, 21 Jun 2016 14:05:16 -0700, spuorgelgoog wrote:

On Tuesday, 21 June 2016 20:29:45 UTC+1, James Wilkinson wrote:
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.

Not all bins are owned by the council; some councils 'give' them to
residents who then have to pay for replacements in the event of loss
or damage.

And bins are not identical. Some get washed out weekly and given a
spray of Bin-Fresh. Others have six-month-old sludge and bloodstains
accumulating at the bottom.

Round here there are at least three different sizes of bin. Normally
one gets the middle size, but can ask for a small one if space is
tight and the bin isn't used so much.

There are large ones (we have one) which are no longer available, but
still emptied OK (a 'grandfathered' arrangement).

No longer available? Why? We can't get them for free unless there
are 6 people in the house, but I see plenty in the babymaking streets.
What do people do round your way if they have 4 kids? I can fill the
medium sized one with just myself and a few pets.

The council response is "Tough. You aren't recycling enough. Your
problem."

Actually I was thinking of the main recycling bin. I wanted a bigger
paper/card/plastic one.

Originally all we could have was the red plastic insert in the larger
blue bin (red for paper and card, blue for cans and plastic). I thought
this was a daft idea and said so.

I discovered that they'd quietly introduced a full size red bin - just
walk into the council depot with the insert, and come out with a full
size bin. I am told you have to pay for them now (I would have incurred a
delivery charge anyway if I'd not collected it).

We are allowed to bale up extra cardboard and leave it next to the bin,
though.

Sounds like you have a very disorganised council.

Not really (Bob and I share the same council). It's quite a good system
IMO.

You have to pay for your bins.

I haven't paid a red cent (or any other colour of cent) for mine.

You have to bundle up cardboard.

Bob said "extra" cardboard. That's cardboard that won't go in the paper
section of the bin. Since when that bin goes out, it goes out with the
garden waste bin. This makes a tight spot for the cardboard to sit
between the two bins. If you have a large item delivered, you have to
break down the waste cardboard packaging anyway. No "bundling"
involved.

No, that's not a good system.
Here we have three bins plus a box plus a tub.
5 free things collected regularly.

We have 3 bins and a small tub for food waste. The black bin holds
landfill waste, and here, so much other stuff is recycled that we can
quite often skip a black bin day and so a month passes between
emptyings.

So that's one less than me - 3 recycling containers instead of 4. I can even
throw out a laptop, a toaster, etc.

They were going to change us to 3 weekly collections for the waste, but it
never happened. They said it was to save money, yet I don't see them saving
money anywhere, they spend far too much on tarmacking roads all day.

Roads will be a different local authority (county council) unless you
live in a unitary authority area.

I've never heard of that before. AFAIK I only have one council, and their website has numbers to phone for roads, waste, streetlights, libraries, everything.

We need
a local referendum on whether we should halve the council tax and do without extra ******** nobody wants.

--
Although I can accept talking scarecrows, lions and great wizards of emerald cities, I find it hard to believe there is no paperwork involved when your house lands on a witch.
-- Dave James