Bi-weekly bin collections and nappies = disaster!

So a few years back, Barnsley Metropolitan Borough Council, like many other councils decided to switch to bi-weekly bin collections. Each week the bin collections would alternate 1 week = grey bin full of household rubbish, the following week = Recyclables.

Now when it was just Me and Christopher this was just about manageable. But since the arrival of Immie it has been a nightmare. Nappies take up space, no matter how much you squash em! On average we get through about 7-9 nappies a day, sometimes more. We're finding that by the end of the first week and with another one to go, our grey bin is full! General household rubbish and nappies can fill a grey wheelie bin easily. We're very good at recycling now, we recycle card, paper, plastic, glass and tins. But since the nappies started, we're finding we end up stock piling black bin bags in our garage for a week or so till the bin gets emptied. This causes 2 problems 1) There is nothing like the smell of week old stinky nappies in your garage to give it a pleasant aroma 2) When the bin is empty we fill it straight back up again! Meaning the stock piling starts again.

We asked the council for a bigger wheelie bin but apparently you need 5+ ppl in your house to get one and the cat doesn't count! (No wonder chavs pop out the sprogs, its prob so they get a bigger bin!)

So I have had to start doing mid week tip runs with the stinkies. I hate going to the tip. It's like going to the West Ryder Pauper Lunatic Asylum, no one appears to have a brain cell. But anyway, it got me thinking, we can't be the only family with this problem. Our estate for example is chocca with families. So if every family on our estate has to make 1 tip run per week to keep on top of the rubbish, I wonder how that effects the environment in terms of pollution??

No amount of recycling initiatives can avoid the fact that a bi-weekly collection isn't enough for your average family, so if we're having to bin stuff anyway, why not go back to weekly bin collections on top of the recycling program, thus creating more jobs (more bin men needed) and cutting down on the pollution of everyone driving their cars to the tip. I can't imagine it would put the council tax up a huge amount to add that extra collection back in.

Oh and yes I did look in to reusable nappies BUT they use up so much energy having to wash and dry them it negates any environmental benefits of using them.

Hmmmmm time to write to my MP maybe.....

Mama x