Large brown wheelie bins

[newboots]

I am just wondering how necessary it is to have a large brown wheelie for almost every property in East Dulwich?

I am lucky and have a garden large enough to house a compost heap, so have done away with my brown wheelie. If I have a lot of garden waste to get rid of (too much for the compost) then I use those free paper sacks you can get from the library.

For food waste I have one of the small brown bins, which we don't even half fill (family of 4) every week.

I just wonder if any other ED residents could swap their large brown bin, if they hardly use it, for a small one? I get the impression that most of them are empty or almost empty nearly all of the time.

It could free up a bit of pavement space and make our front gardens look less cluttered perhaps?

[Robert Poste's Child]

Or share, maybe? We have one big bin between several households in my road. People generally aren't gardening at the same time so if ours is full there's another nearby with room. We also share one blue bin between two. Seems to work out OK.

[Harry]

I'll take it

[Huggers]

Our huge bins are hideous. Our local streets were part of the Southwark regeneration scheme with Victorian railings, tiled pathways and plenty of potential for little flower beds or pot plants.

Unfortunately the size of the bins means that any such planting would obstruct the bin men, so narrow is the space. Putting our bins directly next to our front door and planting on the other side of them, under the bay, is even more hideous, with the bins crowding round the path, looming by the door and filling the view from the front bay window.

In Edinburgh the council provide several jumbo bins that are used by the whole street. They sit in the road. This saves money on rubbish collection as well, I assume, and it leaves the fronts of old houses looking good.

Maybe Southwark just don't trust Londoners to make the effort to walk a few feet to put their bin bags in one of these?

[womanofdulwich]

In Lambeth we can only dream of brown wheelie bins. We can "opt in " and pay for green sacks to be taken away every few weeks.

[steveo]

I noticed in Chelsea there are no bins at all so everything is indoors or out back

That's obviously a major headache but it does make for pretty streets

[newboots]

Yes, the big freeholders in Chelsea like the Cadogan Estate and the Grosvenor Estate have some pretty restrictive covenants in their leases about what can be on show at the front of their properties (such as no Estate Agent signs, no laundry drying on balconies and, quite notoriously, no net curtains in some cases) which is rather Big Brother ... but then you get those lovely unfettered uniform terraces which do look good, no doubt about it.

Meanwhile, I'd be happy if we could just have fewer wheelie bins in East Dulwich!

[raasaygirl]

My neighbour and I did not want a big brown wheelie bin...so contacted Southwark who took the big one away and gave us a nice small one instead. Its about four times the size of the little one you have indoors.

[jamiev]

Whereas I'd like access to a brown bin. Living in a flat my only option is a wormery, which isn't always the easiest of choices. I think communal brown bins would be a good idea.

[newboots]

raasaygirl - yes, that's what I did. That is the type of small brown bin I was referring to. I am sure there are lots of households who could swap from larger to smaller. Its just a case of ringing the council. Right, will stop banging on about it now.

[unlurked]

Is there anything more trivial you could complain about.

[newboots]

Yes, I should think so. Let me have a think ...

[lane lover]

I think sharing makes more sense. The small ones are mostly sufficient, but in summer the lawn clippings tends to make it much tighter.

I find the green bin is too big as well. The size of the blue one (while unsightly) is required.

[gm99]

Small brown bin for the front garden plus green waste (paper) bags free from the library for when you get the urge to do some gardening.

[Sue]

lane lover Wrote:

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>

> I find the green bin is too big as well. The size

> of the blue one (while unsightly) is required.

xxxxxxx

You can get a smaller size green bin (it's larger than the small brown bins, but quite a bit smaller than the ordinary green bins).

Just ask the council. They'll take the old green bin away.

The blue bins are absolutely hideous, so I have two boxes instead, which are at least dark blue rather than bright blue. However they're often not big enough, epecially at Christmas with all the paper and bottles .... But there is no way I am having a bright blue bin, it's bad enough seeing all the others down my street :(

[Huggers]

Ive now got a slim blue bin and it s more discreet than the overspilling boxes I had.

[The Minkey]

I have both types of brown bin. In the Winter, I only use the smaller to dispose of the food waste, but Spring to Autumn I do frequently need the large bin for garden waste. As has been pointed out, if you don't need the larger bin, you can request it's taken away. If you still have a need to dispose of garden stuff occasionally, you can use the brown paper sacks instead. Aesthetics aside, it's a great service imo.

[Sue]

Huggers Wrote:

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> Ive now got a slim blue bin and it s more discreet

> than the overspilling boxes I had.

xxxxx

Is that the same size as the small green bins, Huggers?

I suppose it's too much to hope for that it's dark blue instead of bright blue? The council did say that they would move to a less bright blue when new bins were ordered, but when on earth is that likely to be? Never, probably, unless they're biodegradable .....

[Huggers]

Because it is slim I have now pushed my bins to the end of the front bit that's furtherest away from front door so it doesn't look so horrible. It doesn't look half as bad as the full size.

[Earl Aelfheah]

Could always rent your bin out as a luxury, bijou studio. I'm sure Foxtons would happily market it for you.

[Pugwash]

Bromley council only collect recycled goods fortnightly and they only give one small blue box per household. Daughter's recycled blue box is frequently over flowing and the foxes drag stuff out as does not have a lid. We have 2 blue, 2 green and 1 brown bin in our front garden, One green bin is usually half to three quarters full, blue usually full sometimes have to use 2, brown variable if doing any gardening on top of food waste. rather have wheelie bins that boxes or bags any day.

[simonethebeaver]

How big is the small brown bin? When I read your first post I thought you meant you only half filled one of those caddies every week and we manage to fill one completely every couple of days!

[Sue]

Huggers Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> Because it is slim I have now pushed my bins to

> the end of the front bit that's furtherest away

> from front door so it doesn't look so horrible. It

> doesn't look half as bad as the full size.

xxxxxx

Thanks, I might consider this, I have a separately accessible space for my bins, also in the bit furthest away from the front door! I'll have to measure up.

Could keep the blue bin always at the back except on recycling collection days. Or maybe I could cover it with something to hide the hideous blue. Like that lovely (joke) leafy fablon or whatever it's called these days :)

[fl0wer]

There seem to be several sizes of brown caddy, and plenty of unused ones litter the streets in ED.

It seems a shame to undo all the good that's been done by having people learn how to sort their household waste, but the number of wheelies and boxes is making us re-assess whether having communal bins would work better.

In apartment buildings, especially, unless folk agree to keep compost buckets free of meat and fish waste, they soon stink and neither landlords nor maintenance teams imagine it would be viable to set up smaller, local collection points. Yet 'dalek' style bins work very well, and provide you with free, on-the-spot supplies of good potting compost after a few months.

It is less costly for Councils if we can fit one in to our immediate locale than if they pay lorries to come & take compost material away. Also you can add shredded paper & card, woodpulp eggboxes & fruit punnets, and rags of natural fibres e.g.wool. linen, cotton. This reduces the amount going into blue wheelie bins.

[Sue]

fl0wer Wrote:

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> There seem to be several sizes of brown caddy, and

> plenty of unused ones litter the streets in ED.

>

xxxxxxx

There are two sizes - smaller for inside, larger for outside.

They are often "littering the streets" because they are quite light, and if empty may get blown away in the wind. At least, mine has been several times - retrieved each time some distance away from its usual resting place :)