New Brown Bin - questions

Orion

carveone wrote: »

We were talking about the normal black bin. But yes, no plastic bags are allowed in the brown bin. Which means that idiots will do it anyway, just like they do with the green bin

Conor.

When we got our brown bin last year (Kildare) we were given 26 plastic bin liners for it ( a year's worth). All organic waste goes in it - veg peelings, cooked foods - inc. meat, garden waste etc (not grass as I have a mulching mower). No smell from the bin due to the liners. Together with our green bin we have bugger all landfill waste. Thursday was our bi-weekly black bin collection and I didn't even put it out as there was only one small shopping bag in it.

Orion

dimejinky99 wrote: »

stuff and more stuff

You're missing the point. It's not about making money - it's about reducing landfill. TBH I don't care where the send the usable produce - I do care about not filling up good land with non-biodegradable ****e. That's what the brown and green bins are for. Green bin = recyclable, brown bin = compostable, black bin = LANDFILL IN IRELAND. Try looking at it that way instead of acting like a victim and fighting the man.

zynaps

Macros42 wrote: »

You're missing the point. It's not about making money - it's about reducing landfill. TBH I don't care where the send the usable produce - I do care about not filling up good land with non-biodegradable ****e. That's what the brown and green bins are for. Green bin = recyclable, brown bin = compostable, black bin = LANDFILL IN IRELAND. Try looking at it that way instead of acting like a victim and fighting the man.

He's not missing the point. I don't think anyone disagrees with the potential goodness of having our food waste composted rather than stuck in a growing landfill.
But the fact is that this service is badly designed as far as the end-users (ourselves) are concerned. In our household there are only three of us, and after 2 weeks the brown bin is less than 10% full, and we're careful to save our food waste - it never goes in the black bin.

We're not going to pay a lift charge for a 10% full bin, because that would be stupid. But it starts to get stinky and fly-ridden, and for the greater good (i.e. a bit of respect for ourselves, neighbours and passers-by) we've ended up putting it out after 4-6 weeks. It's always about 20% full when it eventually gets put out. We're probably a bit more frugal than most, but it's probably a similar story with most other households (the ones that don't have 5 kids who dump full plates of dinner into the brown bin on a daily basis, at least :pac:).
I've spoken to the council about this, and they acknowledged that it's not perfect, but it sounds like nothing's going to be done.

It seems to me that a) they should collect a tiny bin like the small kitchen one provided inside the brown bin, every week or bi-weekly, and b) the service should be free, since they're making use of the resulting compost and we're paying a standing charge which covers the brown bin. At the very least, we should have a much smaller bin and a proportionally smaller lift charge.
This would be much more hygienic, usable, realistic and attractive for householders. In the current scheme of things, it feels like a joke having to pay a full lift charge for a bin that's at most a fifth full - I know two euro a pop isn't that much, but it's the principle of the thing.

Also, regarding the "doesn't matter where it goes as long as it's not to Irish landfills" argument, what if it's going to a Chinese landfill? Would you be happy with that? I wouldn't. I'd like a bit more transparency in the process - where the material from the green and brown bins goes, what's done with it, and whether and how much the receivers pay for it.
We're not all nodding passive sheep here, accepting any deal that's put on our plate without questions. It has nothing to do with being a victim or "fighting the man".

jos28

We have decided to send our brown bin back. We have tried, we gave it our best shot but we cannot stand the flies and the maggots any longer. I keep a clean house, I wash the bins out after emptying, I use biodegradable liners(sorry ,compostable liners), I wrap all household waster in newspapers before placing them in the brown bin but still the blue bottles plague us. Finding maggots on the car parked near the bin was the last 'organic' straw. Even if we use it for garden waste, it would still take about 6 weeks to fill it. So it is going back the next time it is empty.

djpbarry

As this subject relates to a service offered by Dublin City Council, it's probably more suited to the Dublin City forum.

But, mods, feel free to return (to Green Issues).

dubtom

We've had the brown about 1 year now. I finally found the bin liners to use in it. Although I support the scheme, the guys who collect are some shower of lazy feckers. My last collection was the first time in one year that the bin was completely emptied, all for the want of a little shake. Every time they collected it was left ¼ to ½ still full. If nothing else the liners will insure they empty it completely.

Ste.phen

Where did you get the liners for the brown bin?
Can't say ours smells too bad, but it could definitely use a clean, and liners to prevent recurrence of the problem!

gillo_100

Brown bins have been around in parts of Fingal for a year or so now, and I think they work pretty well, a couple of points i'll deal with.

The waste from the brown bins is not shipped off to china it is in fact composted in various locations in Dublin and then sold on as compost to the public, so you buy back your own rubbish. I'm not exactly sure of the locations where it can be bought back I think rathmines and possibly coolock.

Slighty aside, the reason you can put meat in whereas can't in a normal compost heap is becasue they basically cook it to kill off harmful pathogens. Also on of the biggest costs to the process is apparently getting rid of the plastic bags that are thrown in.

The second thing I was going to say is with regards to charges, because of the way charges work in Fingal, we pay an ammount for each collection no yearly charge, the brown bins mean a saving in money as black bin use is reduced, also there is no charge for brown bins.

Finally just with regards to using it, a newspaper or two scrunched up and thrown in at the bottom can do wonders soaking up mess. We don't put everything in as it does tend to get smelly, but is very handy for garden waste, this won't smell.

dubtom

Ste.phen wrote: »

Where did you get the liners for the brown bin?
Can't say ours smells too bad, but it could definitely use a clean, and liners to prevent recurrence of the problem!

In my local spar.My sis claims that woodies sell em too.

coopersgreen

Can you send them back? I've used mine once and it was filthy. I don't want it anymore. They stink and they're just a magnet for flies and maggots.

Around where I am a lot of people have just left them outside their houses permanently.

Beta Bill

I have something to add to all this. When we first got our brown we used to put our waste directly into it. We soon learnt that was a mistake. Walking past it one day noticed dozens of crawly maggots wriggling around on the ground near the bin. Discovered that even with the lid completely shut there are small "breather holes" in the top of the bin and the feckers were crawling up the inside of the bin and out these small openings! So I taped them up with Duck tape. That stopped that. Only last week or so I noticed a fly crawl into the bin (lid shut) as there is a tiny gap between the lid and the top of the bin - even when the lid is shut!!! So obviously whoever designed these did not do any R&D because no matter what you do the flies can get in there. We now use the large green biodegradable liners and the small ones in the kitchen caddy, this helps for sure but just imagine the billions of flies these bins are hosting in the neighbouring households around you that don't use any liners! Last word I pity the binmen who have to endure the stench - you can smell that brown bin lorry a mile off not to mention the gunge that drips out of it when the turn corners etc.!

samb

I work for a company that carries out composting of 'brown bin' waste

It is a big cost for councils and private operators (we don't do collections ourselves) to carry out collections and they still have to pay composting operators to treat the material. This is why there is such a reluctance to introduce the scheme, and having weekly collections is even more expensive.
I agree howver that a small receptical collected weekly would be best.

The bottom line here is that because of the environmental impacts of sending the stuff to landfill (which are significant) we have to segregate our food waste or we will be fined by the EU.

The composting produced is very high quality and nutrient rich but the problem is no real markets exist so the material is essentially given away to farmers at present. The operating costs for composting is also quite high. Contamination can also be a problem but most contaminants can be screened out of the compost. This material then has to be disposed of to landfill however and it all adds to the costs.

I think if people want there waste managed in an environmentallly sound way then in this case they are going to have to accept slightly higher waste charges and must put in the effort to segregate the waste

wush06

i know this one is a bit old.
But just got one of these brown bins to the door today in dublin.
And from reading some posts on this looks like i might look to send it back, as for the flys and stuff im sorry but its not for me.

John Mason

buy yourself the special bags - no smell no flies.

i wouldnt be without mine, brilliant for the garden waste

PaulieC

you have to write to the council to have it returned. not an email, but a letter. don't expect a coherent response though

suey71

Since last years horrible Bluebottle infestation we infested in having the Brown bin professionally cleaned. We then infested in recyclable bin liners. We also infested in some small bin liners for daily recyclable waste, guess what?

The Blue bottles and maggots are still there and the smell is awful.

The brown bin lorry came this morning and before it took the bin away I went arount the neighbours bins and inspected them. They all stank and they all had swarms of Blue bottles on them.

I have tried everything, and I have had it up to here with the smell, maggots and flies.


What I put in the Brown Bin.
*Recyclable bin liner.
*Left overs from dinner - put in small recyclable bag.
*Veg. peelings " " " "
*Paper and cardboard " " ".
*Grass cuttings " " ".

ollaetta

wush06 wrote: »

looks like i might look to send it back

Found one delivered outside the door myself yesterday. Don't particularly want it but reading the bumph (South Dublin Co. Co.) it says that householders must accept a Brown Bin when one is delivered to them. Checking on the SDCC website for further info they say that this is because "it is a requirement under EU legislation that all Countries in the EU stop sending organic waste to Landfill."

On this basis I can't see them taking the bins back too easily.

John Mason

suey71 wrote: »

Since last years horrible Bluebottle infestation we infested in having the Brown bin professionally cleaned. We then infested in recyclable bin liners. We also infested in some small bin liners for daily recyclable waste, guess what?

Really :eek: i washed mine out with a garden hose a bit of bleach.

got those small bags for the kitchen bin - no flies, no smell, no maggots.

i didnt bother with a bag for the big bin and i just lash the garden waste straight in :pac:

so i put the small kitchen bag on sealed tight - that has peelings, left over dinner and some gone off food. it goes straight in the brown bin and the garden waste gets thrown on top.

are your bags tied tight?

starviewadams

We had maggots and flies all over the brown bin when we started using it(we were just wrapping waste food in newspaper).

Now I wash the bin out with the hose and a bit of jeyes fluid after each collection,and we wrap our waste food up in newspaper first and then put that in the decompostable small bags and tie them tightly.

Now there's no more smell and no more disgusting maggots or flies.Happy days!

sambuka41

We missed the days to get the bin out for about a month and after that the bin was disgusting, flies and the like. But after we kept on top of getting it out for each collection it was grand.

Between that and the green bin its saved us a fortune on the bin charges, we seen what the people before us were paying for bins in comparison to what we are paying,its less than half.

PaulieC

it is amazing how much refuse you can avoid putting in the black bin when you have the brown and green bins.
I had to return my brown bin because it was never collected and the smell and flies were disgusting. I was the only person within a couple of blocks in my area to have one and so the bin lorry didn't seem to know about it and it was never collected. I rang and emailed them a couple of times and they collected it, but that was a pain in the ass. I ended up having to write to them to have them come and remove it. After I wrote, I got three different responses:

1. sorry, we can't collect the bin, EU regulations blah blah
2. yes, we will register the bin (yet again) and come and empty it
3. got home one day and it was gone. about two weeks after that, I got a note in the door sayingh my brown bin was now registered

it would appear that they know not their arses from their elbows in the DCC

wush06

There seems to be alot against this brown bin. i have one young child and soon to be a dad again.
Dont get me wrong we do our fair bit of recycling. But the thought of the kid(s) out the back with maggots on the ground does not sound healthy to me.
Even with bags there seems to be still people saying its a no no.

Might not be able to sent it back so i might use it for an overfill for the green bin eg: cardboard, paper and washed out cans dont have any grass out the back so i will see how its goes.

phasers

Jaysus the effort you've to put into this is unreal!
Wrap in paper, then bag in special little bags (by the way I didn't get a special bin for in my house, nobody around here did ), and this seems to have to be done for every separate meal so that must get pricey. Then even after all that you have to wash the bin once a week?

(okay so maybe it's not a huge effort but it's still an effort)

I only ever put my black bin out every 2 weeks anyway, and since the price of that has gone up all this has done is made me pay more for a service I don't want.

John Mason

there isnt any work involved.

you get a little bin you put in the kitchen

you put the recyclable bag in the big.

when the kitchen bin is full - for us about 5 - 7 days

tie the bag tightly

place in bin

put bin out once every 2 weeks.

no need to wrap in paper


i put the black bin out 3-4 times a year but the green and brown go out every 2nd week

it has saved me a fortune - i get a worse smell coming from black bin then my green bin

voxpop

According to the sdcc, compostable bags cant be used

From faq:

Can residents use compostable bags?
No plastic bags are to be used. This is stated on the leaflet.

They just say wrap it in paper - which isnt very practical

John Mason

voxpop wrote: »

According to the sdcc, compostable bags cant be used

From faq:

Can residents use compostable bags?
No plastic bags are to be used. This is stated on the leaflet.

They just say wrap it in paper - which isnt very practical

But this is the Dublin City Forum so it really doesnt matter what South Dublin Council say

this is the link from Dublin City Council - it doesnt mention anything about not being about use bio-degradable bags http://www.dublincity.ie/WaterWasteEnvironment/Waste/Documents/binleaflet.pdf

zynaps

cambo_gueno wrote: »

After I wrote, I got three different responses:

1. sorry, we can't collect the bin, EU regulations blah blah
2. yes, we will register the bin (yet again) and come and empty it
3. got home one day and it was gone. about two weeks after that, I got a note in the door sayingh my brown bin was now registered

it would appear that they know not their arses from their elbows in the DCC

Heh!
That is indeed possible. After moving into this place in 2007, I spent about 2 years trying to explain to them that I should not have to foot the unpaid bin collection bill from the previous occupants. Got the Ombudsman involved and after about 6 months of "it's fixed... no actually here's another bill for the same thing" they eventually sorted it out.
I suspect there are plenty of decent people in there, but there is a slight bureaucracy problem.

voxpop

irishbird wrote: »

But this is the Dublin City Forum so it really doesnt matter what South Dublin Council say

this is the link from Dublin City Council - it doesnt mention anything about not being about use bio-degradable bags http://www.dublincity.ie/WaterWasteEnvironment/Waste/Documents/binleaflet.pdf

Yeah - i guess they dont specifically say you cant. But the do say no plastics. Anyway, I was kinda hoping someone could give some helpful advice on how to keep the flies and maggots away if compostable bags are a no no.

K09

Hi,

What do people do with garden waste without a brown bin?

dubtom

K09 wrote: »

Hi,

What do people do with garden waste without a brown bin?

Well I used to use one of those compost bins that DCC sell. After two years using it for garden waste I was left with a sludge which would probably have killed every plant in the garden if I'd used it as compost,I abandoned it when the green bin came. The brown bin is a godsend for garden waste,I got a little shredder that clears up the occasional pruning waste from the trees too,surprising how much will fit in the bin.