My local bus stop

[Train Waiting]

amazing how each council has to be different. Red for green waste, yellow for domestic rubbish and blue for recycling here.

Exactly the same here!  Scotland has only 32 local authorities* and each has its own system of coloured bins and boxes.  Some have a very comprehensive kerbside collections and some less so.  The potential cost savings by having one (or perhaps two) systems across the country appears to have escaped their notice.  Our bins are a uniform colour, unlike your ones with grey bodies and coloured lids.  Sadly, our bin wheels are black unlike your jazzy ones which appear to have a hint of Poppingham about them.

One of them, Highland, has an area greater than that of Belgium!

Best wishes.

John

[Bealman]

I live in Poppingham, but upside down, John. 

[Bealman]

Chris:

Yeah, we had to sort stuff out like that too, but not for a few years now. The recycling plant (at the local dump) is very sophisticated and we don't need to worry about that sorting stuff too much anymore.

[Crash-Box]

I live in South Lincolnshire. Just down the road is a small town that is part in Lincs and part in Greater Peterborough, two different authorities. The bit in Lincs has green bins for green garden waste, the Peterborough bit green for plastic/glass recycling. Given people move around, what can possibly go wrong?
Bernard

[Nbodger]

I live in Poppingham, but upside down, John. 

George

Does that mean your bins always empty, being upside down!

Chris:

Yeah, we had to sort stuff out like that too, but not for a few years now. The recycling plant (at the local dump) is very sophisticated and we don't need to worry about that sorting stuff too much anymore.

We are the same in the East Riding of Yorkshire, three bins, blue recycling, green general, brown green waste and food waste which goes for composting and given back to residents who want it for their gardens.

Mike H

[dannyboy]

Here in rural Ireland, the rubbish is collected by private waste companies every second week, (not sure if it is the same in places like Dublin). We have a big blue wheelie bin for recycling, a big black one for general waste and a small brown one for stuff for composting. I do not use the brown one as I compost what I can and I do not use the black one, (not telling how I get rid of household waste!). The brown and black bins are paid for by weight whilst the blue one is collected free - although there is an admin' charge of €17 per month, which I have to pay whether I use the collection service or not. The one big problem is that the collection company will only collect from a point which is about a mile from my house, so once a month I can be seen taking the bin for a walk and then I can be seen bringing it back a day later!

[dannyboy]

green waste and food waste which goes for composting and given back to residents who want it for their gardens.

How do you know you are getting your own waste back and not that from somebody else?   

[Nbodger]

green waste and food waste which goes for composting and given back to residents who want it for their gardens.

How do you know you are getting your own waste back and not that from somebody else?   

We are generous in the Nbodger household, we don't take up the option, we donate our waste to the wider community

[Trainfish]

Wiltshire Council just try to confuse you. In Devizes green bins are for garden waste, in Chippenham brown bins are for garden waste, same council. And each bin costs £50 a year, I have 2. However, if you're clever (and I like to think I have some cleverness in me) wait a month or so after the garden waste year has ended before renewing. They still empty your bins but after that couple of months it's 'only' £30 per bin so I pay £60 for 2 bins 

[railsquid]

In Japan we don't have anything as fancy as bins, we just dump the bagged rubbish at a specified spot on the street on the designated pickup days. Or in our case in a little breeze-block enclosure which we part-own along with the other 9 houses on the street.

Pickups are:
- recyclable plastic (weekly)
- paper, glass, cans and PET bottles (weekly)
- "burnables" twice weekly
- "unburnables" every first and third Friday of the month

Glass, cans and PET bottles are not bagged, someone turns up in the early am, places a crate for each at the pickup point, and everything is picked up by mid-morning.

Paid for out of general local taxation.

Anything that does not fit into the above (i.e. bulky items) can be disposed of by prior arrangement, basically you arrange a pickup date, purchase the appropriate (and quite modest) fee in the form of stickers, available from local shops, and place it outside on the arranged date.

[PGN]

The potential cost savings by having one (or perhaps two) systems across the country appears to have escaped their notice. 

I think you're missing the point here.

Consider the scene at a model railway exhibition in, oh, say 2075, when modelling the 2020s is considered "historic railway modelling" ...

Mr R I V Etcounter: well done on getting the right colour cows on your layout ... but oh my goodness, that mix of wheelie bins ... what part of the country are THEY supposed to represent???

[Foxhound]

The potential cost savings by having one (or perhaps two) systems across the country appears to have escaped their notice. 

I think you're missing the point here.

Consider the scene at a model railway exhibition in, oh, say 2075, when modelling the 2020s is considered "historic railway modelling" ...

Mr R I V Etcounter: well done on getting the right colour cows on your layout ... but oh my goodness, that mix of wheelie bins ... what part of the country are THEY supposed to represent???

Right colour cows? "I'm sorry, but Whitebred Shorthorns would never be seen in Cornwall...."

As for wheelie bins in Plymouth: Green for recycling, brown for refuse, black for garden waste. If you want to swap your large brown bin for a small brown bin the Council will charge you for a small brown bin but will not take your old large one. If you leave your old large one outside, they will do you for flytipping....

[PGN]

If you leave your old large one outside, they will do you for flytipping....

Ooooooh ... I'd have LOVED to defend THAT one back in my lawyer days!

I think you'll struggle to find a Court that would be willing to extend the concept of "flytipping" to include placing your rubbish at the kerbside all neatly packed, but in the "wrong" bin ...

[railsquid]

Is fly tipping anything like cow tipping?

[Bealman]

Or football tipping?