Forum Topic

Will Ealing Refuse Collection accept 3rd party bins?

Long story short I need smaller bins than Ealing offer so they fit in my front better. The ones I am aiming to get are Manufactured to EN 840 and RAL-GZ 951/1 standards.I'll ask the Council but considering the time that can take, wondered if anyone in the borough had had a similar intent.Best regards

Julian Poole ● 147d15 Comments

I've actually seen Estate Agents moving the bins out onto the street and out of view in order to take the For Sale advertisement photos.

Philippa Bond ● 130d

That's the power of being and having an organisation to represent you and negotiate/argue for you!  The hideously oversized bins have been detrimental to small properties and have done nothing to help to reduce the amount of waste or spatial awareness of those who never flatten any boxes - when so much work has been done to change designs to enable this easily.Today I compared the info on two different supermarket's plastic milk bottles.  Both with the same info  - basically: empty, rinse, drain , flatten, replace lid  and  recycle.  The number of huge uncrushed  ones  sticking out of bags and bins is amazing!  Councils used to have to compete to win grants to send info around and employ Recycling Officers who would  also visit schools., WIs etc to give talks.  Recycling and reuse of resources appears several times in the national curriculum.

Philippa Bond ● 130d

On the Brentham estate we were offered them by the Brentham Society which they provided for us. I doubt that Ealing council would have been so helpful!

peter king ● 131d

A lot of it is really not that complicated but there certainly have been some problematic pieces of packaging - because they were constructed of MIXED materials - Pringles crisps tubes were one but there were other similar ones eg Jacobs Cheeselets and Twiglets tubs. If I bought them (usually just at Christmas) I used to use a can opener to separate the metal base abd strip off the aluminium coating on the inside in the hope that this would improve recycling.If these materials are going to be successfully recycled into other packaging avoiding the need for more raw materials it needs to be easy to separate the materials.  Jacobs have now changed their packaging and there is no longer a metal base although you may not notice that!There is a lot of clever cardboard packet/box packaging that just unfolds and flattens for recycling and has no metal staples or plastic attached etc eg packets for tea and we should applaud this.WRAP (Waste and Resourcs Action Plan) the now global NGO  worked hard to change our view of what we waste and throw away as a resource and there has been a lot done to work with the major food manufacturers to lightweight their cans and bottles as well as save money and resources and methods of packaging to reduce the amount of packaging used.I think it must be much more complicated for companies matching their products to the best packaging for each product.The Councils have info on their websites on what they each recycle in their kerbside collections as well as the street banks.  As this depends on the markets for selling it on what each collects can depends on the contracts they have for selling it on to pay for the collections even though there is an effort to make them the same across the UK which will be really good if you travel from place to place.Lots of packaging has info on it now too.www.ealing.gov.uk/recycling There is also info on the recently updated UK national recycling website:www.recyclenow.comI bought a cheap magnifying glass in a pound shop that lights up so that I can read instructions on cooking and storing food etc.  It also makes it easier to read recycling instructions!

Philippa Bond ● 131d

I find that I have no clue what’s recyclable & what’s trash.I do basic blue bin (recycling) & black bin trash.For example, Pringles crisp, the old tubes I bunged in recycling.Apparently that was wrong.So complicated I can’t be bothered & therefore don’t care

Peter Yale ● 131d

RaymondI hope you have complained about the treatment of your food waste bins!I saw the operatives one day having a race to get to the end of the collection and chucking the bins down.  They haven't done it again AFAIK!  We have now reduced our food waste so that we don't use the big food waste bin (it's rather more difficult to wash out than the little food caddy).  We now generally manage to just use a compostable magazine wrapper to fit any food waste in. We do also have a wormery where the egg shells and banana skins and tea-leaves go before going on the garden. I do get up to put it out in the morning as it doesn't lock any more but because there is so little in it I don't worry about missing a week because there is plenty of room.  I see some people hang their food waste bins on railings and others put a brick on top of theirs and/or wedge them against a wall to stop those pesky foxes dragging them off down the road in the middle of the night.

Philippa Bond ● 132d

There were originally smaller bins offered but when they were requested people were told that there weren't any.I believe that the Conservation Areas were allowed smaller bins.  In many parts of the country Councils after a while changed to smaller bins since the whole idea is to Reduce Reuse & Recycle.  So much can now be recycled kerbside that there is very little to go into the black bin. Only when there are disposable nappies involved is does there seem to be much more regular residual waste.  However there does seem since Covid to be a lot more cardboard from online purchases - not us as we hardly ever indulge in that.  It is a shame that Amazon and others don't offer to collect this when they deliver in the same way that the white goods companies that deliver fridges and washing machines etc can take away all their packaging when delivering.

Philippa Bond ● 132d

When the wheelie bins were introduced I requested the smaller ones but the large ones were delivered. I was at home when there was a tremendous racket outside.They were fitting wheels to the stacked bins. I went out and asked about the small ones and they swapped mine immediately. The black one goes out every 6-8 weeks and if the blue one is over-full they will take clear plastic bags as well. Green garden bags are “out of stock” and they are providing corn-starch bags instead “and will send the green ones when available”. Mine are getting rather ragged. Handles and covers aren’t particularly resilient.

Peter Bird ● 141d

There were shorter bins that have the same width as the larger of the two versions of wheelie bin used. They have the same lifting arrangement and all refuse vehicles using this standard system can utilise any size of bin as long as the lifting bars are the same - which they are.Many residents in Hounslow have been requesting these ever since they were demonstrated at a roadshow pre-introduction but they never appeared.It remains a big problem for those in terraced houses with frontages less than 1m deep who lost space to keep cycles or their gardens but also have entire windows obscured by the lovely sight of bins. Not to mention in the summer months the smell from those who never wash the bins out.The council went silent but after the wheelie bin protests but this would have been a pragmatic solution for those in very small homes with low windowsills and very limited space.Our problem is the food recycling boxes getting smashed by the operatives who throw them back to the path. Three in a year and we have to pay for them.So we are not recycling food waste anymore.

Raymond Havelock ● 144d

If I recall but not 100% sure when waste and recycling bins were introduced in Ealing , you could request a smaller waste bin but not a  smaller recycling bin. Obviously you need to enquire at the relevant authority.

David Burke ● 144d

I remember the polarisation when the wheelie bins were introduced. I for one didn't want bins that size as they are too tall for my front garden, but as others have said here, they are designed that way to clip onto the back of the lorry so that they can be emptied.I'm not sure there's any way around it. Shorter bins would get my vote.Let us know how you get on.D

Dominik Klimowski ● 144d

From my observations and experience, if it's not original "issue" and/or it's "non-standard", they won't touch it.Happy to be proven wrong.

Rosco White ● 145d

They often don’t collect their own stuff so the very best of British luck in them collecting anything “not on my list Guv”

Colin Goodman ● 146d

Yes, the bins are custom built to slot into the truck so you might find the refuse men not accepting a different size bin.

Bettina Margaret Thwaite ● 146d

I think the trucks are designed for specific bins. Usually the personnel doing the actual real job, are governed by management

Peter Yale ● 146d