Wheelie bad weather

daffy2
daffy2 Member Posts: 1,636
edited 24. Feb 2017, 07:53 in Community Chit-chat archive
With Doris throwing a major strop wheelie bins are making the most of the excuse to go walk-about.
I'm not a fan of them at the best of times; as a small person with back problems, and now very sore arthritic hands, lugging them about is not nice. I don't make enough rubbish to weight them upright so can only try and stop them getting out into the road once they do go down. To add insult to injury one of the bins has gone down onto one of the local sick-cat rear end offerings on the gravel...
Meanwhile in the back garden things are flying everywhere, including the felt off my neighbour's shed roof. I've done my best to retrieve what I can, the rest will have to take its chance. Glad I no longer have my allotment -it was very exposed and next to open fields so once something took off there was a good chance you'd never see it again.
Hope you are all OK - keeping warm and still got power.

Comments

  • TheLordFlasheart
    TheLordFlasheart Member Posts: 302
    edited 30. Nov -1, 00:00
    I had to go out and do a bit of shoppping, not good idea when im having a flare up, but I needed to move about.

    Nearly got blown away, but im back in my place, knee rested and and a nice cuppa.
    "Stoke me a kipper, I'll be back for breakfast"
  • dreamdaisy
    dreamdaisy Member Posts: 31,520
    edited 30. Nov -1, 00:00
    We have twigs and small branches down in the side streets around here, some trees too. The Orwell Bridge has been closed for most of the day so the traffic is horrendous. I agree about the unnecessary size of standard wheelie bins - does your council offer the smaller size? DD
    Have you got the despatches? No, I always walk like this. Eddie Braben
  • daffy2
    daffy2 Member Posts: 1,636
    edited 30. Nov -1, 00:00
    DD I used to have a small bin as that was adequate for the family's needs but when I moved 10 years ago and asked for the 'normal size' one at the new house to be replaced I was told that I couldn't have one unless I qualified on health or other grounds(which I didn't then) , and now I don't think they are available at all. I've reduced the lugging problems by keeping the bins out the front next to the gate(rather than round the back as I'm mid terrace) - not easy when the front 'garden' is only a six foot strip between front door and road(no pavement) - so the bin men pull them out to empty, but of course they leave them out. Using my car on bin day means moving the neighbour's bin out of the way as well as mine, and then on windy days like today they fall over and I have to move them out of the way - usually leaving them on their side until the wind drops.
  • frogmorton
    frogmorton Member Posts: 29,332
    edited 30. Nov -1, 00:00
    Daffy - give them a ring it has to be worth a try. My MIL got one very recently.

    Fair bit of damage here tiles off the Church roof, several of my pots blown over and broken. Wheelie bins bashed into my car and large branches everywhere. Postie picked up someone's big black composter bin from the road, (must have been new it was empty)!! Daisycat almost blown over!!

    and someone died in Wolverhampton when some wood blew off a Starbucks café onto them - about 15 miles from here :(

    So I think I consider us all lucky.

    Virtually no movement out there today. the calm after the storm.
  • bubbadog
    bubbadog Member Posts: 5,544
    edited 30. Nov -1, 00:00
    We saw a neighbours bird feeder take flight and land in another neighbours front garden it was lucky no one got skewered with it! And we saw a few wheelie bins roll to freedom! And a couple of our plant pots have toppled over.
    When we got back from the hospital we stood and watched our neighbours one fence panel just blow across their back garden. And hearing on the news about that poor women being killed by some wood was shocking. Hopefully we have seen the back end of Storm Doris and the weather will get a bit warmer.
  • daffy2
    daffy2 Member Posts: 1,636
    edited 30. Nov -1, 00:00
    frogmorton wrote:
    Daffy - give them a ring it has to be worth a try. My MIL got one very recently.
    I've looked into this again and they only supply 240 or if necessary 360 litre bins, ie large or even larger.
    The only alternative is 'assisted service' where the bins will be taken out for you(interestingly no mention of them being put back....), which at present is in effect what I have.
    I also looked at what happens in other parts of the country and apart from confirming that there are wide variations it was interesting to see that several councils use smaller bins as standard, possibly because many provide better pick-ups for recyclable waste. If we had a food-waste collection as my daughter did when living in the city 20 miles away then I probably wouldn't bother with the big landfill bin at all - the rubbish could wait until I was going past the tip to the supermarket now and again. Mind you it's the recycling bin that falls over most often, due to poor lid design- it catches the wind and flips which tips the bin over unless pretty fully loaded - but it's much lighter than the landfill bin, so easier to move.