Going away for school holidays & nobody to do the bins?

[gardenhenn]

We are taking DC away for a significant amount of time during the 6 weeks holidays and will have nobody to do the bins.

Have asked my parents as they live 25 minutes away but have said it's too far and they also workZ

Siblings/cousins also work and have their own kids to look after and would be unfair as again live 25 minutes away in the same town as parents.

Now, I have never had an argument or falling out with neighbours.

But there is tension due to the varying issues around this estate and I don't speak to my NDN on the right ( I would do her bins at times but she has stopped saying hello/speaking to everyone which suits me fine as she makes me feel uncomfortable).

I do exchange small talk/ hello with the other and get on OK but form feel comfortable asking her.

We genuinely don't know what to do.
Anybody been in a similar situation?

The only solution would be to leave the bins until we get back?

Because then they will stay out there for weeks, signalling to all around that you are actually away for a long period.

They will probably also be full of crap when you get back. That is if they haven't been pinched.

Do you not have a local dump/recycling centre near where you can take everything just before you leave?

Bag it up and do a dump run before you go away.

Don't put them out for collection 🤨 return to regular bin schedule when you get back.

What kind of places do people live in where you can't ask a neighbour to put the bin out once in a blue moon? Sounds ridiculously complicated to do this or that or th'other to get the bin out. Honestly. A quick text and surely a decent neighbour would have no issue. Just leave bin at the front, and neighbour just pulls it out to the pavement, and back up again. It's not like they have to go down the mines for you.

If, on the other hand that just will not work, do as others say, there's plenty of advice from others who may not have willing neighbours either!

Just pay one of the neighbourhood teens to do it. Do you have a estate/street WhatsApp group you can ask on?

Have you seen the suggestions re tip?

Surely it’s better to take your rubbish to the tip instead of expecting your parents to do a 50 minute round trip to put your bins out?

We have a local service that will put your bins out and bring them back in, it’s intended for people with mobility issues but they also provide holiday cover. You could see if there’s something like that locally?

I was coming on to say this. I find it very sad that people living with neighbours never say hello or ever make small talk, so they don't feel they can ask their nearest neighbour to do this.

It's no big deal to put your neighbour's bin out and take it back in again when it has been emptied. That's what we do here - and you don't need to be best friends with that neighbour either.

Is your recycling bin really half-full? All cardboard packaging flattened out; air squeezed out of the plastic bottles and milk cartons? I obviously don't know about you, but a lot of people just fill their recycling bins with mainly air and no compacting down at all, and then wonder why they get apparently full so quickly.

I agree with PP that, if you're away, you shouldn't be generating any more rubbish or recycling; so all they'll need to contain is what's already in there when you leave plus whatever you create between returning and the next collection.

Even with the general waste bin, I presume you have lidded wheelie bins? It hardly matters if an outside bin gets a bit dirty or smelly over a few weeks - you can always give it a good hose out after you return, if you want to. If recycling is the main issue, you can always just bag up any excess in black bags and shove them in your garage/shed/side passageway/car boot (if you're flying wherever you're going and not taking it with you) - then squash in as much as you can over the next couple of collections after you get back.

Yes, it seems both sad and mad. It's barely any kind of favour to ask - half a minute to put the bin out with their own and then another half a minute to bring it back in when they collect theirs.

They might actually be grateful if it's only half-full when you leave it, as that gives them an extra half a bin to play with if they want to clear out and get rid of any extra rubbish of their own.

You might even find that somebody realises you're away and does it for you anyway, unless your bins are locked/hidden away.

Do you have any regular home help like a cleaner or gardener that you can ask to do it? You'll need to pay them, obviously.

And ifnits recycling it will be clean anyway so wont be a problem for you to leave it for 6 weeks.

Just leave it til you get back?

How soon after you return are the Bunns due to be emptied? If not long if they are half full then you just fill the other half after you return.

I don't understand the angst about asking a neighbour you get on with ? Taking the bins out is not a big deal. My neighbours always ask me and act like they're inconveniencing me when it is the smallest amount of effort.

Honestly society is pretty fucked if people aren't even willing to wheel a bin a bit up the road for their literal neighbour

The only bin you need to worry about is the food waste bin in the week you go. Presumably your general waste and recycling are all "clean" and you won't be generating any more of it while you're away . We were away recently on recycling bin week. We just left it. My friend who watered my window boxes put the small kerbside food waste bin out for me, I left it in the front garden in the shade.

Just leave it until you get back then. Recycling won’t go smelly or bad. It can wait. Take the rest of it to the tip

We ask our neighbours to put the food waste bin out for us - or last time we only had one little bag and they suggested we just put it straight in their bin. If we couldn't ask the neighbours for some reason then I might take it to the tip, or double wrap it and leave it somewhere secure until we come back, or dispose of it somewhere else.

Everything else is just garden waste, recyclables, dry packaging, tissue paper etc. Nothing bad happens if it sits in the bin for a few weeks. As long as it gets collected eventually, it's all fine.

I would put it out before you leave and ask the neighbour you do talk to to bring it in , however surely by the time you get back the recycling will be about due again ?

I barely see 1 set of neighbours we are not "friends" but we always do bins for each other, I think most people are fine doing them,

Take it to the dump before you go? If it’s recycling it’s supposed to be washed anyway so shouldn’t get maggots.

Not everyone has a food waste bin. We don't.

I wouldn't be advertising widely that your house will be empty for weeks. Just do a tip run as suggested or leave until you return.

A lot of dog walkers would be happy to do this for a small charge - work is thin on the ground at the moment with the heat and people being away - and they tend to be DBS checked.

We just got back from 7 weeks away and the rubbish in the recycling bin was fine if it’s tins and plastic and it’s all clean it won’t be a problem.