UKC

So I'm trying not to jump to conclusions and looking for 'the other person's point of view' here.

There's a bus shelter on the road just outside my house, with a rubbish bin beside it. Bin men come in a van (flat bed type thing with a cage around it) to empty it once a week.

Someone left three full bin bags of rubbish at the side of the bin about two weeks ago, and the collection guys have ignored them, just taking the actual contents of the bin. As a result, one of the bins has split (maybe foxes). I've been out and cleared up the crap and put it in my bin (which is now full) and asked the local Councillors to get on it.

Im trying not to resort to a feeling of 'effing useless jobsworth bin men'. They could have lobbed those bags into the back of their van in 5 seconds. Please someone, speak up in defence of these guys and suggest a valid reason why they ignored the loose bags. I'm trying to maintain a positive vibe these days

Im aware that this wins the award for Least Climby post and most Victor Meldrew post at the same time. 

Im bored. 

Probably under strict instructions to do x, y, z and not a,b,c on pain on consequences. I'd aim your criticism higher.

I’m with the bin men. If word got out that if you left your bin liners of rubbish at a litter bin then it would get cleared, then this form of fly tipping would increase. I hope they sift through the bin bags and fine the culprits (ok, maybe a warning first).  

It just seems a bit crap to ignore it, knowing that at some point it's going to end up sprayed all over the street and require a load more effort to clear up bit by bit

Addressed this with the councillors 

Jobsworths to a man! In the interest of 'elf 'n' safety they could have slung the crap onto the flatbed in seconds and it would have been the right thing to do! Prevaricating about what precedence it sets is window dressing (and laziness).

My thoughts exactly fella. Just trying hard to find a reason not to assume the worst. 

Report the bags to the council as fly tipping.

I've sent an email to the local councillors and had a reply within about 10 minutes which was bloody impressive

Well done 

Before condemning the bin men we need, IMO, to know exactly what their rules are 

It's so easy to say "it only would have taken them a minute to clear extra bags". Perhaps if they cleared all the extra stuff they meet in a day they'd never get finished 

I know mate. In trying the "walk a mile in the other guys shoes" thing. 

That about sums up my experience.

My old man was a bin man, and he wore a bin man's hat. He wore baggy trousers, and he lived in a council flat.

Or run out of space? 

I used to live in a flat above a petrol station and behind a bus stop. Access to the flat was across the forecourt. 

If I left bin bags by the flat door the bin men wouldn't collect them as not 'at the edge of the property'. 

If I left them on the forecourt they wouldn't collect them as they were commercial waste.

If I left them on the pavement they wouldn't collect them as they were fly-tipping. 

If I left them by the bus-stop they wouldn't collect them as "that's a different team" (who in turn either classed it as fly tipping, or as domestic waste.... and "that's a different team"...)

But even when I stopped them to ask they wouldn't tell me where to.leave them - just said to speak to the council - who gave a standardised reply of "leave them roadside at the edge of your property"......

A difficult one.

I agree it seems curlish/ridiculous to be collecting rubbish and ignore rubbish right next to the bin that is being emptied, and I can see your point in not wanting to have rubbish strewn outside your house.

I also see the point, made elsewhere, that collecting the additional bags encourages some people to think it is OK to leave rubbish next to a bin, because someone else will clear it away. This is a point I have seen made online around the NC500, that leaving rubbish next to a bin is not taking responsibility for your rubbish. As also mentioned, the bin men might have been told to only empty the bins.

Not far from our house is an area used for football at weekends. After the matches there is always rubbish left. One weekend whoever was organising the games had put dustbins around every pitch. Even though no one taking part or spectating could have been more than 50 metres from a bin,. rubbish was still thrown on the ground.

Some people have no social responsibility.

Dave

Bin people. This is not the 1970s

Years ago I did time working 'on the tools' for the local authority (but not on the bins) and, has others have said, you do what you are told.....and only what you're told. 

Although it's all work done by the local council, every department has it's own budget and performance goals. As crazy as this sounds, if bin men pick up waste that is fly tipped everyday that amounts to lots of extra waste going to (probably) landfill, which incurs fees. That eats into the 'household waste collection' budget and looks bad. Much better is to shunt that work onto the 'fly tipped waste' department and get a pat on the back for saving your department money, even though it's now cost twice as much to deal with. 

The same principal applies to all council services. 

Dealing with fly tipped waste is a tricky one. As others have said, clearing it away might encourage people to do it again as they know it will be cleared by others but I don't think that's as likely as leaving it. If you leave a pile of waste anywhere other people will quickly start adding to it thinking it's an ok thing to do. Waste breeds waste. 

Bin folk? Or are only fishing people folk?

Refuse Collection

And literally, in TC's situation, they did.

Au contraire  - surely a dustman, and sporting cor blimey legwear?

Our front street currently does remind of the winter of discontent, so I'll stick with bin men

Ha!

The done thing round where I live is dump anything you don't want on the pavement and after a few weeks the rubbish fairy's take it away. 

All large enterprises, including the private sector, charge internally for services. It's not a bizarre, council only, practice.

Going back to TCs point, it's probably due to a combination of landfill charges and environmental issues.

If you have a van picking up very small quantities of rubbish from bins next to bus stops it's a reasonable assumption that they'll only be a very small proportion of batteries and other hazardous materials in the total waste when the van is full. If they start chucking flytipped bags of asbestos and who knows what in it's then all hazardous waste, different landfill requirements, charges and taxes, not to mention PPE for the workforce.

That's probably why a different team will deal with unknown flytipping.

Maybe they get to collect such rubbish under the heading of "fly tipping" or some such, and get paid (double) overtime on Sundays to do it.

Simple solution ask the council to get rid of the fixed bin.

We had this issue in Croydon, bin was always over flowing, bags being left. Street was always a mess. Croydon council got rid of the bin. No more mess. Not sure where the rubbish is now, but it's not outside my house. Maybe don't look in the woods.

But if you think you've got it bad, our bin men are going on strike for three weeks. Should be fun. In all fairness their salaries are horrendous. I don't really get how they retain their staff at all. HGV drivers on £12 per hour. How?

Where I work this is a never ending problem. Various local scum think it's Ok to dump their rubbish next to our bin (that we pay for). I have to move it sharpish, because as soon as one bag gets left there, all the other tossers think that it is now a dump and will swiftly add to the pile. If I call the council they will eventually take it, but by that point it will be a huge stinking heap outside our workshop. So, I don gloves and go through the bag, and if I find any identifying item I return the bag to outside their front door. I have so far resisted the urge to return it via their letterbox. If there's no address I just move it so that it's not outside someone's door.

The bin people are f***king useless lazy w***kers too though. We have a clearly marked recycling bin that we have to keep locked at all times, otherwise the scum will fill it with their rubbish and the council won't collect it because it's now contaminated. It gets emptied at random times, and the bin men never lock it after they've emptied it. So if I don't check every time I pass it, it will be left unlocked and filled with rubbish. I tell the bin people this every time I see them, and I've complained to the council, but I guess it's just too much effort for them.

<End of rant>

I'm less than impressed with our council bin men. I go to work at 0630 and put the bin out against the wall on a Thursday and they empty it at 0700. I get home from work at 1700 and most of the time the bin is left in the middle of the pavement blocking pushchairs etc.

A few years ago they went on strike and private companies were drafted in. Without fail they put the empty bin back against the wall rather than dump it in the middle of the path. 

Bins were gone when I passed at 6:30 this morning.  Whoo Hoo!

Ideally the bin men would collect the rubbish, and report it as 'Fly tipping' so that the council can do what ever they do with those reports.

Slightly OT - Why do people not want dog waste dropping in their skips? I've never been told by skip companies that tehy won't accept it. I never lob my poo bags on, I always take them home, but there's often a lengthy sign in a skip asking people not to do it (but never with a reason why)

Immediate thoughts are whether a person sorts the rubbish at the other end and doesn’t want to be sifting through shite, or that the poo bags will inevitably split when something is dropped on them and they just don’t want their skips plastered in and stinking of hot shite.

A lot of skips go for recycling rather than land fill. Not if its covered in dog crap. 

Why a warning?