Our red bin is pretty much always full now, but that's because our garden is infested with cabbage trees so now we can just stuff all the bloody cabbage trees leaves in the red bin. Yellow bin seems to get pretty full (which makes me wonder why we need so much packaging in our house and has made me look at ways of reducing how much rubbish we actually bring into the house, so a good thing). We have a compost bin so green bin is pretty empty most of the time, unless we've been gardening, but it does get quite stinky since meat scraps do tend to go in there.

I was also sceptical of the bins, but think they're bloody good, but we have very convenient places to store them so that makes a difference.

Wobbler wrote:nasty green bin is nasty

we brought a supply of 'biofilm' compostable bags for the compostable bin under the sink - makes emptying it less unpleasant, and the green bin doesn't get disgusting too!!

Tinkerbell wrote:Our red bin is pretty much always full now, but that's because our garden is infested with cabbage trees so now we can just stuff all the bloody cabbage trees leaves in the red bin.

We generate bugger all rubbish, between the recycling, fireplace and compost there's not much left. So I am progressively disposing of a large flax bush into the rubbish bin. And it's most excellent for getting rid of crap from the garage, just wheel it in and empty the bin into it.

scatter wrote:Our recycling bin goes out 1/3 full each time.

You need to drink more beer then, between the empty bottles and the cardboard boxes they come in you'll have your bin full in no time.

cabbage tree leaves get taken if put in the green bin

or so I have heard

they do ask you not to put in Flax leaves, so i'd imagine cabbage tree leaves would be the same. tho, if they dont specifically ask for us not to put in cabbage tree leaves, then how can they expect us not to!? still. i use our cabbage tree leaves to start the fire. they really stuff their shredders at the composting plant...

I work with one of the guys overseeing the new composting plant and asked about cabbage leaves as I too was wondering as it doesn't mention them on the 'DON'T' list yet at the greens pit at the dump they have always said no to them. Apparently they are now fine as long as there is not a big clump of them. The new mulcher is an amazing beast that can handle pretty much anything. It's quite impressive to watch in action. But flax leaves are still off limits.

Thanks xcguy, that's great to know!

ahh nice, if only the green bin wasnt full of lawn cuttings then...

..and they bothered to empty it when its put out..

scatter wrote:Our recycling bin goes out 1/3 full each time.

I thought that would've been an invitation for Slim to have MOAR BEER

I thought it was urban myth that sometimes the bins were only 1/2 emptyed but this week it happended to us !
Seems some of the truck drivers don't 'shake' the bins using the ligting arm and some (or all) of the contents remains stuck in bottom of the the bin

Oh yeah, we opted for the bigger 240L green bin. We'd previously been paying waste management about $170 a year for a 240L green bin.
With new CCC system we paid $162 (?) to upgrade from standard 80L to 240L. Not happy why it's cost about the same as the 240L for just a 160L upgrade though (240 - 80 = 160). Maybe mayor Bob is getting a kick back so he can afford more expensive cars, apartments and lawyers to deal with his pet cat ????

Yeah, I struggle with that. In my view an upgrade for the green bin should be free. Afterall, if someone requests a bigger bin they are likely to be 'recycling' more green material, therefore potentially resulting in less organics ending up in landfill and more commercial compost being produced (which CCC and it's partners create revenue from). In Timaru they have a green bin the size of our Red one (240L). It ony gets emptied fortnightly but still means residents can get rid of more greens than what we can in ChCh with a 80L bin. I have made enquiries as to why such a small bin was chosen but didn't really get much of an answer

scatter wrote:Dunno how they decided what size bins to give us

Our recycling bin goes out 1/3 full each time.
Our rubbish bin goes out 1/2 full.
But our green bin always goes out chocker. It's so friggin small that if we mow our lawns, we can't put anything else in it

So put the rest of your grass in the red bin - it will compost just as well in a landfill and you can get a smaller yellow bin.
I hope you can recycle chains and old cassetts cos all mine went in the yellow bin last week.

RHR_Rob wrote:So put the rest of your grass in the red bin - it will compost just as well in a landfill and you can get a smaller yellow bin.
I hope you can recycle chains and old cassetts cos all mine went in the yellow bin last week.

Rob, grass will not 'compost' when landfilled, it just slowly rots and gives of harmful gasses due to the anaerobic state it is in. And the only metal that can go in the recycling bin is cans and tins. I would assume you could put bike parts in the automotive parts category on the 'NO' list. A metal recycler would be the place to take them if you wanted them recycled properly. Or save them up and give them to event organisers looking for old parts for making trophies with

I had to fill my red bin as i had done a night time raid on my neibors half empty green bins and topped them up for them
What will you make with and oily chain and worn cassette? typical organiser you give them crap and then get to win it back