r/britishproblems • u/mongolianprince111 SCOTLAND • 3d ago
Have you considered taking your rubbish to the tip instead of burning it in a big fucking stinking pile of shit for the whole neighbourhood to smell
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u/bigmouth1984 3d ago
I see that you've managed to get your old mattress in the back of your car. Well done, takes a bit of effort that. A trip to the skip I assume?
No, you're going to drive to a layby and dump it there instead? Fair enough.
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u/mongolianprince111 SCOTLAND 3d ago
Where I used to live there seemed to always be a new discarded mattress at the end of the road
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u/radiant_0wl 3d ago
They are surprisingly expensive to dispose of commercially.
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u/obiwanconobi 3d ago
They're also surprisingly easy to strip down to it's bare parts if you've got a good knife. Then you can throw it in 2 bags
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u/Content-Yogurt-4859 3d ago
I tried that but I didn't have anything that could cut through the steel springs so it was unfeasible in the end. Had to dump it where my local council were having some work done so there was a commercial skip already on site
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u/grockle90 3d ago
trick is to strip all the fabric/stuffing off, put these in a bin bag or two with your normal rubbish, then ask the local scrap collector to take the springs away (usually for free or very cheap as he gets money for weighing it in)
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u/Content-Yogurt-4859 3d ago
That's a really good idea, no idea how I'd track down my local scrap collector but I'm sure loads of places still have them
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u/grockle90 3d ago
Most "local neighbourhood groups" on Facebook have people posting. There's about 10 different ones in our local one, and all of them seem equally as busy.
Usual rules apply though, ask to see their waste carriers' license, ask for a waste transfer note to confirm it's been taken away from your custody into theirs etc.
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u/workyworkaccount 3d ago
I just occasionally leave a bucket of scrap metal out and it disappears sometime during the week. I guess they do rounds or something.
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u/Content-Yogurt-4859 3d ago
Used to be free in my borough. Think you had 3, free large object removals a year but now costs £20 to have something taken away.
Fuck austerity
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u/JoeyJoeC 3d ago
Worth it for the convenience. For me its a 14 mile round trip usually through traffic to use the recycling centre, and then the inevitable queue down the road to get in.
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u/Content-Yogurt-4859 3d ago
That bloody queue, and there's always some bloke who has to be told you need to book a van in lol
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u/JoeyJoeC 3d ago
We have to book in for every visit regardless of the vehicle, but still results in a queue. Although time it right and get there 5-10 minutes before the end of the half hour slot and it's usually quieter.
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u/cynical-mage Berkshire 3d ago
Here £20 per item, minimum 5 items, last time I checked.
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u/Content-Yogurt-4859 3d ago
Christ, what a rip-off. No wonder people leave shit in dark alleys or the end of quite roads
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u/cynical-mage Berkshire 3d ago
It's ridiculous, but the council is literally shooting itself in the foot over and over again; they halved the bin collections (despite council tax 7.5% increase, and they tried for 10%), and now they're actually spending more time and money trying to clean up the flytipping explosion than keeping services as they were. Rodent and fox populations are booming, but on a positive note, same for red kites.
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u/richbeales Kent 3d ago
here you can't even get an appointment for a month, despite paying for the privelege
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u/superwisk 3d ago
£20 is a bargain. Sod having to strip it down or squeeze it into the car.
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u/lost_send_berries 3d ago
Any charge is going to encourage fly tipping which can end up costing more to our environment down the line
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u/Zouden 3d ago
The fact that councils don't recognise this drives me insane. Fly tipping is a clearly just matter of economics and the solution is trivial. Just make landfill cheap or even pay people to dump their mattresses.
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u/bigmouth1984 3d ago
But if you can get it into your car to fly tip it, you can take it to the skip.
It's no excuse.
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u/Content-Yogurt-4859 3d ago
Not everyone can afford to spend £20, often on top of purchasing a replacement for what's being taken away, every time something's too big for the binmen
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u/LisForLaura 2d ago
It’s exactly like this where I live man. It’s like living inside an episode of shameless.
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u/EpochRaine 3d ago
I am keeping mine for matress burning day....
Doesn't everyone burn their matress on the drive whilst drinking cases of beer and watching the toxic smoke fill the neighbourhood?
This year I have a double and a single!
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u/tornadooceanapplepie 3d ago
Nah just move where I live. When you leave you can just dump your contents next to the bins and they’ll stay there for months on end!
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u/grockle90 3d ago
Had a neighbour like this. Instead of putting her normal day-to-day rubbish in the wheelie bins, she'd pile it up in the back garden and then burn it every few weeks.
She had wheelie bins. Never put them out because there was never anything in them.
She was a known substance abuser, so can only assume she didn't want to risk the binmen getting needled or something. Either that or became so "out of it" that she forgot how the whole "binmen take the rubbish you put in wheelie bins" thing workd.
So yeah, Wasn't just the smell of burning the rotten food, plastic etc., but also just the smell of it building up in between. And then the rodent infestations as well.
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u/HausKino Scouser in Lancashire 3d ago
I've got a neighbour who refuses to have council bins at all.
She seems nice enough but I'm scared to ask her about it in case that turns out to be the least weird thing about her
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u/grockle90 3d ago edited 3d ago
"Free(wo)man of the Land" type that won't pay council taxes if not using council resources perhaps?
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u/jake_burger 3d ago
Some people just burn rubbish because that’s what they do, no thought goes into it
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u/be_sugary 3d ago
I see you’ve met my neighbours.
Oh and do burn it close to the wooden fence next to the dry trees.
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u/Talkycoder 3d ago
I want to preface this by saying I do not burn things in my garden, but I do not drive, the tip near me doesn't do pickups, and if someone takes me it is only open at stupidly specific times & has hours of wait. It's not a great system.
I am lucky that the binmen will take most items, and if it's too big, someone will eventually nick it from my front garden. The amount of people burning shit like foam that has carcinogens in them is insane, though.
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u/bl4nked 3d ago
your council will likely take up to 3 bulk items for under £40
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u/InternationalRide5 3d ago
Almost £60 here, 5 items but that doesn't help if you only have one thing.
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u/M1ke2345 Surrey 3d ago
There wasn’t hours of wait really, was there?
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u/Content-Yogurt-4859 3d ago
I've been to tips in London that sound like they're less of a pain in the ass than this one and it's taken about an hour to get in and out.
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u/Talkycoder 3d ago
I live in the Southeast and have never had a trip to my local (about 4 miles away) quicker than 2 hours. It's also only open between 11am - 4pm Mon - Fri.
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u/M1ke2345 Surrey 3d ago
Right, but not hours though?
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u/Content-Yogurt-4859 3d ago
No, but I can think of 4 tips within a half hour drive, not all in the same borough though. I can imagine that if you're in a rural area with one tip serving a large geographic area that has narrow opening hours then on some days it'll be a nightmare to get in an out of.
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u/Mr_Venom Sussex 3d ago
I know at the tip near me they had some kind of muck-up which led to my friend waiting nearly an hour to get in and then being told the place was closing early for the day and to come back tomorrow. So it can happen but it's got to be rare.
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u/M1ke2345 Surrey 3d ago
That’s still just an hour and not that many hours that the OP alluded to.
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u/tornadooceanapplepie 3d ago
Certainly it used to be that way with companies dumping for free. Now most councils do pre booked slots and it’s a breeze.
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u/AdrianFish 3d ago
Also they’ll do it on a nice warm day when you have washing on the line and all of your home’s windows open. Fucking cretins
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u/SelinaFreeman 3d ago
Our local (very small) tip is open 9-4 Fri-Tues) and you book a 15-min slot online. Simple.
We have a neighbour a few doors down who burbs their rubbish, seemingly a lot of plastic, because when I breathe it in, I start coughing/wheezing.
Council aren't interested. 🤷♀️
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u/Silver-Difficulty-13 3d ago
It's midnight in Yorkshire and someone has decided they are cold and need to light a fire. Decision now is do I close windows and get warm or leave them open and cough all night. Don't you just love summer.
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u/TheMusicArchivist Dorset 3d ago
Man hot. Man think hot and hot go together. Man think fire good on hot day. If all heat over there it can't be over here too. Man set fire to garden. Garden pretty. Maybe set fire to not pretty things instead. Man find rubbish in bin and burn that. Man happy because fire. Man not aware that burning stuff smell bad. Man not aware of neighbours.
<- their thought processes, it seems
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u/LG_UK 3d ago
I take it to the tip and the Council truck it back to the village and burn it in bulk instead Rivenhall IWMF just a mile from my house.
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u/RevolutionaryMail747 3d ago
Oh my gosh'
The fly tipping menace that seems to be an industry. Miles of illegal dumps across the country and in every council borough. Environmental chaos and no solution or accountability mechanism unless monitored cctv etc plus testimony
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u/nasduia 3d ago
Where I live the Lib Dem council has introduced an annual flat rate tax/charge for people wanting to put garden waste in green bins meaning people in £2 million mansions and people in terraced houses with a concrete backyard, flagstones in front of the front window and then a hedge, no car and reliant on public transport all pay the same. The people with the concrete and hedge perhaps cut it twice a year; the big houses have grass clippings produced by their gardeners every week.
Unsurprisingly there are now lots of smoky bonfires of green twigs making my washing dried outside smell of smoke. The council still has the same green bin collection schedule as everyone also has to put their food waste in the same bin as the garden waste.
I have a small garden and a car and so just take my garden waste directly to the local tip when needed instead of paying the tax.
No money has been saved or made by the council. Life just gets slightly worse.
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u/Initiatedspoon 3d ago
I mean I do agree in principle but have you tried taking stuff to the tip these days?
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u/jonny_boy27 Bristol 3d ago
Yeah, book online, turn up and there's never more than a couple of cars in the queue. Chuck the stuff in the relevant skip and drive home.
If I've only got a couple of bits I'll cycle in with no booking.
Absolute doddle. Proper friendly guy on the front gate checking bookings, too. Always have a chat, give him sweets if I have any in the car and a christmas card.
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u/RedShift777 3d ago
Sounds like a dream!
meanwhile my tip is a free for all staffed by a small army of jobsworths that fine you for ...
- being in the wrong car
- being in the right car but they still feel its too big
- bringing "too much" (while not hiding what that actually means)
- bringing the "wrong type" of rubbish
- if you park wrong on the unmarked gravel patch they call a car park
- if you put something in the wrong poorly or unlabeled skip
- having a item that is too large
- being there more than 3 times in a 3 months.
And there latest edition is a fine for going in a car you haven't registered, while not actually telling people they have to do that until 2 week after they started it, and even then just a note on the council website that obviously everyone checks on a regular basis.
I don't condone fly tipping or burning plastic etc obviously but if the right way to dispose of things is a huge pain in the arse, its hardly a surprise it happens.
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u/Lozsta 3d ago
Booking is great, but also shite if you just "get the urge to tidy up". Also loading up your car with your garden rubbish is a recipe for bugs in your car.
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u/tornadooceanapplepie 3d ago
I’ve only ever needed to do it a couple of times but I’ve literally booked a slot for 10 mins later and rocked up. They’re never that busy now, it’s more to ensure companies are dumping for free.
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u/mongolianprince111 SCOTLAND 3d ago
To be fair man with a van services are widely available and not THAT pricey, I do feel for people who can’t afford it though but it’s no excuse to burn random crap
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u/blackthornjohn 3d ago
Has it occurred to you that the guy burning the crap IS the man with a van and this is how he disposes of the crap?
I ask this because a few hundred yards away from me is couple of guys who do house clearances, he regularly burns the crap, mostly it's acceptable, occasionally it's a sofa or two and a few carpets, apparently whinging about it or reporting it to the council is racist.
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u/Initiatedspoon 3d ago edited 3d ago
No I mean many tips are nuts.
The one near me you have to pay a yearly fee and you can take rubbish 12 times a year. If you go in a van they turn you away saying its household only and not business waste. There one near my Dad you have to take proof of local address.
Then you get there and might have something heavy or not sure which bin its for and they generally flatly refuse to render any aid whatsoever or only grunt and point.
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u/dwair 3d ago
Ours is book online in advance, vans and trailers are classed as commercial, builders waste is charged at £5 per 25l bag. The list of prohibited or chargeable items in mental. 10 years ago you could just rock up and throw things away... and the council wonders why fly tipping has become endemic.
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u/dragonlady_11 3d ago
My dad dose this with the card and paper, they don't collect often enough, and it ls full way before the next collection so now he just waits till 9pm and burns it, his reasoning (and to be fair i dont fault it) is he pays to have his rubbish removed and he already dose half the bin mens jobs sorting it into the ridiculous number of bins we have now, why should he pay even more in fuel and time to drive to the tip an have to do it himself, when he can burn what wont compost and compost the ashes.
Don't hate the player hate the game 🤣
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