Here’s the situation - on bin day, I put out my bins with the draghandle facing outwards, because in my mind that means all the bin man has to do is grab the handle. My neighbour however, contends that it is more appropriate to have the bin lid facing outwards as some bin men like to check what’s in the bin before they drag it to the truck. I’ve never seen a bin man do this. To me, their way means extra work for the bin man but my neighbour says its my way that causes extra work.
In the grand scheme of things I doubt the bin men give a fuck which way round the bins are but I’m interested in what you all think. Handle facing out or lid facing out?
I’ve tried handle out and handle sideways, but they scatter rubbish all over the road so now I flip it upside down to make it easier for them.
I’m with you.
But, I’m keen to know how this discussion with your neighbour came about!
We were at the pub last night and when we walked back home we chatted whilst I put my bins out and that’s how it began :)
Okay. This is acceptable! I was concerned that your neighbour had gone out of their way to criticise your bin orientation, which I’d have classed as, a bit odd.
Maybe I’m a monster but I always put them sideways on because when the wind rushes up or down the street it has a tendency to push the lid open, or worse, push the bin over.
Handle out for me - maneuvering a bin the other way round is hassle.
I’m with you but I have known bin men check the recycling bins to make sure that you aren’t putting plastic yoghurt pots in the plastic recycling because apparently that’s not allowed. (Although I have since moved and the new place allows you to put any plastic in the recycling)
Weird how different counties have different rules. All our recycling has to be in white bags before going in the green bin.
Yeah.
Trafford have three recycling bins - garden waste, paper and tins+plastic. The plastic recycling is just for plastic bottles.
We just have two now. Garden waste in one and everything else in the other.
It is more than weird. It is why we have such shit recycling. If we had a national program then services could be rolled out more efficiently. But no.
American here: we have a big “this side faces street” on the side opposite the handle. We also have trucks with hydraulic arms that lift the bins up, so the two things might be related: the bin has to be in a certain orientation so the arm can grab it easily.
You could always call the service and ask. I’m guessing they don’t care about which way the handle faces as much as they care about things like overfilling or lots of liquid in the bin.
Yeah it’s the same process here - when the bin reaches the lorry it has to face ‘lid first’ then it’s lifted and emptied automatically. It’s the process of the guys getting the bin from the end of the drive to the lorry I’m more concerned with. It just feels more helpful to have the handle facing out so the bin men can just grab it and pull. My neighbours method feels like more work for them they’d have to turn it round first, then pull it to the lorry.
As far as I am aware I don’t think we have any lorries the comment was about. All ours are still wheeled from the kerb to the back of the truck by a human operator on foot that then pushes the button that then lifts the bin, they are then unhooked by a human and wheeled back at least out the road.
In the US (especially hot area) you put your bin a set distance from the sidewalk…no cars are parked on the street, the truck crawls along the curb and a robot arms grabs a correctly orientated bin using a camera, lifts it and return it to the sidewalk all requiring only the driver in his air conditioned cab.
Damn…thats equal parts impressive and horrifying.
I’ve reviewed my doorbell footage and our lot seem to just pull them by the handle straight to the back of the lorry, so handle out is definitely easier for them. I didn’t see anyone checking in the bin.
Edit: On further review, the bins go into the mechanism at the back of the lorry with the handle out (ie, they push them from behind into the lifter), so it might actually be easiest to have the bin sideways with the handle facing towards them as they walk down the street. That way they can just walk up to it and start pushing it towards the lorry.
If they want to check the bin they can still do that with the handle facing outwards, but it’s more difficult for them to pull the bin if the handle is facing inwards
Bin men only check bin when bin feels exceptionally heavy.
Previously our binned had a lad they sent ahead of the lorry who had a quick glance inside and then brought all the bins to the edge of the kerb and aligned them with the handle facing the house. So from that I surmised that handle in was the way.
However our current binmen perform a delicate ballet where they whip the bin from the driveway while flipping the lid up for a quick glance and spinning it around to land on the machine’s hooks in one deft movement.
I honestly can’t tell which way round is most convenient for them, they seem equally happy either way.
Well you’ve just made me realise that I’ve been doing bins wrong. I tend to go handle out, without really thinking about it, but it’s just more awkward for everyone involved. I’ll change my ways on Wednesday.
