Just curious what Ozbargainers will do. I've placed some cardboard in a neighbour's bin a couple times the night before collection when their bin looked empty while ours was overflowing. One time, the following morning, they took the cardboard out and placed it on our front lawn.
What Would You Do if Neighbours Put Cardboard in Your Council Recycling Bin The Night before Collection?
waterbottled on 14/10/2021 - 13:49
Comments
Honestly, I think the issue is that you're in their perceived "personal space". It's sort of like someone walking across your lawn to get to the other side, or leaning against your car or standing in your yard.
Even if you don't cause any actual damage, many people feel like that's their space, and others shouldn't encroach upon it unless allowed.
I know it might not make any physical difference, but I'd imagine after the first few times, they just internally fume, and then it goes round and round in their head until it feels worse then it is and they do the above.IMO I'd ask first.
Get off my lawn!
happened to me once,
worse if they put in shit (rubbish in recycle or vice versa) in your bin and you get caught during council audit, you end up dealing with council to prove your innocence.
i had to prove with my security footage that there were people dumping things into my bins, yet, they didnt fine them (as far as i know)
i stopped chasing when they said i dont have to pay the fine.
@Damnsmart: Which council is this?
I wish my council audited my street as the block of units next door almost always put whatever the crap they feel like in the recycling bin when a tenant is moving out.
Just didn't expect the neighbours to care that much.
You made a massive presumption there. Obviously they knew it was you…
If I had more rubbish to added into my bin the following morning, and I can't add more rubbish into it, because some selfish person filled it up, I would be very annoyed tbh.
Your neighbour paid their rates for council to dispose their rubbish, not yours.
yeah a presumption i admit.
although, the portion of council rates you pay for disposal of rubbish doesn't increase or decrease based on how much rubbish is being disposed of. regardless, point taken.@waterbottled: Actually it does, as in some people have multiple bins if they cant fit in all their rubbish into one bin. There are also fines etc if there is an audit as mentioned above.
@lonewolf: Yes I still pay extra to have a larger bin. This was from the days where I had two kids in nappies, and needed the extra space. My council only supplied small bins. Sometimes people filled my bin up as there was extra space not realising that I would put more nappies in early in the morning.
Having to keep nappies an extra week in summer wasn't pleasant… now the council has moved to fortnightly rubbish collection :(
You don't know if they were still planning to use the bin. Sometimes I put ours out and then my husband reminds me that we had more stuff to add to it. If we go to our bin and someone else has put their stuff in, we're going to be angry. Partly because it's damn rude, partly because we then have to go through the whole lot and check if there is any contaminants in it. They now warn you if you have stuff in there that shouldn't be, and I don't want to take the chance that someone put in stuff they shouldn't have. It has happened to us before where someone put in a whole pile of their crap that was not recyclable and I was furious.
If it was me, I have been on both ends. And if it's clean rubbish, or recycling in the right spot, who cares?
But that's me.
What I'd do if I was you, is go over and apologise and say "hey, I realise that might have been rude or insulting but I really didn't mean it like that, and I won't use your bins again without permission, but if I am overflowing and yours is empty may I come ask you about it in future? Anyway here's a bottle of wine, no hard feelings, apologies again".
If you have a problem after that I'll be (profanity) surprised.
@spersephone: Surely despite not liking wine you'd still see it as kind gesture and genuinely apologetic? Lol
@Castcore: Not saying it was a bad suggestion, but it's an assumption they would like wine and an assumption they wont mind OP using the bin again. I am a shy/antisocial and if I was on the receiving end I would feel very very uncomfortable for many reasons so this advice terrifies me a little.
I understand it would be a friendly apology but I'm already under the impression that said neighbor who assumes it's okay to do this in the first place is rude and insensitive (this happened to me and I didn't find out till one morning I tried to add more rubbish and it was full so I was a little mad for a while). Of course I wouldn't want to make a scene but to follow up with "is it alright if I keep doing this as long as I ask?" would really put me on the spot. Like you said, I would be surprised if someone said no to this, because now I would feel almost forced to accept because refusing now makes me the jerk.
Wine literally makes me vomit so on top of that I would feel like I have to act like I'm going to appreciate something that bothers me from someone who already bothers me and who sound like they are planning to bother me more in the future.. even though I would want nothing more than for them to just mind their own business.
Then it's not like I can move away or anything so I have to spend the rest of my life pretending to be a nice and normal human to them while avoiding them to the best of my ability since if someone is sociable enough to bring wine to my front door they are probably going to try talk to me whenever they see me again.
I already know I am probably in some kind of minority like this but there are at least some people are like me who wont like this at all.
@secondstory: I appreciate your honest and thoughtful response and I can totally relate to being introverted. With me I basically want nothing to do with my neighbours, I'll be friendly and I definitely want to be in their good books but would very much appreciate as little interaction with them as possible.
I think you make a good point about feeling like a jerk and being forced into saying it's fine but that's only if you don't have a reasonable reason to say no and deep down you know that. Best case scenario is that they just leave your shit alone and you don't have to interact, I get it. But in reality that's not what's going to happen so you gotta know how to deal with it. If it was me, I would cop it and say look it's fine as long as you seal the bag properly and make sure the recyclables are correct and don't worry about asking me in the future. I'd then make a point of taking my rubbish out as I put my bins out and not put more in until it's been emptied because if I didn't fill it up this week I probably wont next week either. It's not an ideal solution but it minimises further interaction, makes you seem like a kind person and makes it clear what your expectations are.
Unfortunately for us introverts and anti-socials life is full of fake appreciations because we know the person on the other end is doing something they think is kind even though it makes us uncomfortable. You're probably in a minority but not as minor as you might think, and I wouldn't exactly enjoy this type of interaction but I would be able to understand that my neighbour is genuinely apologetic for whatever they have done so I'd deal with it and try to be chill so they don't feel the need to come ask me every time, because I'd hate that. Having to be kind and appreciative to people you don't like is a bit sucky and even more so if it's for something you don't like haha (such as wine), the key is to not get to the stage of not liking them. If they're shitty people then it's unavoidable but if it's for reasons like them using your bin then a minor change in your habits or expectations can go a long way in making you feel better about it.
If you really hate it though you can shut it down by being honest and it would be a bit of a scene which is most often easier to just avoid because (profanity) that…but that is an option.
So yeah, I hear where you're coming from and it would be nice if everything just worked out fine and people kept to themselves and left your shit alone but in a world where that doesn't happen and where having shitty neighbours sucks so hard… you don't want to be the shitty neighbour and you also don't want to think of your neighbour as shitty because that takes energy, so just shifting your expectations will go a long way to making it affect you less and in general fostering a positive and minimal interaction with your neighbour.
How they know the cardboard is yours?
it was the cardboard box his ozbargains were delivered in, had his address and all written on it
So why bother if they place your crap on your property knowing it will be discarded a week or a fortnight after? Assuming you're responsible enough to manage your waste.
Oh goodness. This reminds me of the dog poo in wheelie bins discussion.
This time they live next door - lol.
Past 10pm is fair game
Once the bin is on the kerb, it is fair game.
Anyone who does that is a complete Karen
It's actually not "fair game", and my local council agrees with me.
its fair game for decent people.
Technically if you want to be an a-hole you can fight it and council will back you because it's you renting the bin.
Put the bins out when you've put everything you need to in, check with stake holders in the house before the bins go out if they have anything that needs to go in.
Be a good neighbour and let people put in the overflow, you never know when you might need it, and if you're a dick about it, you'll find the same back to you.
I even go as far to offer to neighbours if i see them with a tonne of gardening rubbish, that if my garden bin has any room when its out to feel free to fill it up.
What shits me is when people put stuff in it after its collected (esp when they put it in the wrong bin.)
@TrendyTim: Except that those "decent" people to whom you refer don't tend to exist in the real world, because invariably I find they'll either overflow the bin (resulting in a warning or fine from council), put improperly bagged stuff in the bin that leaves a messy and smelly residue all over it, or simply put the wrong stuff in the wrong bin. If people could be trusted to act "decently" it wouldn't be an issue. If you have such neighbours, then lucky you. Not all of us do.
not what they did. I wouldn't care as long as it didn't cause a mess or take up space for the next cycle
.That's what I thought as well. we never make a mess nor overstuff it. and only a couple ours before collection.
in a neighbour's bin a couple times
It was probably, The
strawcardboard thatbroke the camel'sgot neighbour's back up.You said the night before in your topic… are you trying to lessen it by saying a couple of hours now?
Did you do it at 11pm and was collection at 1am…
yeah this is pedantic, it creates a precedent of "liar liar pants on fire"
was the "cardboard"… so much it filled most of the bin?
Same with me. No issues if it's clean rubbish and if I've put the bins on the kerb then I don't intend on putting more in.
What grinds my gears is when people put stinky/leaking rubbish in my red bin or passersby out dog poop in my bin!
I wouldn’t care as long as my bin was still emptied. If you push too much cardboard in then it may get stuck and not be emptied into the truck. Perhaps this is what happened?
With Covid we shouldn’t be knocking on peoples doors randomly to ask about using their bins so I’d be careful not to put too much into someone else’s bin.
If I have extra then I usually just leave it for the following collection. If it’s just one or two small extra items then I may pop them in someone else’s bin if it won’t cause a problem.
For non recycling I would not like someone using our bin. We are vegetarians so our bin does not have any odour. Other people’s bins stink from rotting meat in there so I would not like someone doing that to our bin. Therefore I would not put non-recycling into someone’s else’s bin as well.
Bins are designed with a cone shape so there is NO way they will get stuck. Physics.
Tell that to the stuff I've had stuck in the bin on more than one occasion.
It is very possible to have stuff stuck.
I've had numerous occasions that I've only had half a bin emptied due it being wedged in (usually my fault for over stuffing).
What if they had to put stuff in to fill the bin but found that the neighbours stuff had filled it so they couldn't?
I often put my bins out before I am necessarily done filling them so that I don't forget.
Would have asked as a courtesy.. but leaving on your lawn is a bit dramatic
Gotcha. Agreed on the dramatic point. Not going to be dramatic back to them about it though.
Well the next time you can put the cardboard in and set it alight. That way if they need to put more cardboard in later there will be plenty of room.
Which bin-type did you put it in?
If you kept the cardboard for the week, and put it in their recycle bin on subsequent fortnight. That's fine, understandable, and good. We want to recycle cardboard. We don't want to put it into the regular bin, and put it into landfills.
If you put it into their regular bin, that is a different matter. So which bin was it in?
Your neighbour sounds pretty unreasonable.
Though I get it.If my neighbour did that, I'd put it back on their lawn too, as he's a massive a-hole.
Come to think about it - im surprised he HASNT done that yet.My other neighbour I couldn't care less if the bin is emptied the next morning anyway.
A bit of give and take goes a long way.Hopefully I'm like your other neighbour.
Sounds like you are neighbours. Small world.
put peanut butter on the handles
Crunchy on one Smooth on the other…
Would be funny because it cements it further that you're the a-hole
You were in the wrong and lacking common courtesy expected in first world countries.> Does parking in front of their house make people that angry?
and this further shows your thread is just trolling or you're a completely inconsiderate neighbour from hell, which is it?
she seems a lot sterner and kind of a Biss (from what we can hear over the fence).
Nice attitude towards women
you had me at "neighbours from hell" - tracy grimshaw
Sounds like one of those neighbours with 10 people in a 3br- 6 cars out front, 1 lonely council bin overflowing, weeds at waist height
I think its safe to say that your neighbour doesn't like you.
Don't know what we would've done to make them not like us. Does parking in front of their house make people that angry?
Don't know what we would've done to make them not like us
You put cardboard in their bin without asking first.
That's a bit dramatic. All the upvotes from classic introverted ozbargain unit dwellers
@Juice-Wa: Well, the neighbour obviously doesn't like it happening so what other reason do you think it is?
@onetwothreefour: They said it happened once. Not sure why they would get up early specifically with the intent of emptying their cardboard on their lawn. Sounds like maybe they wanted to put their own recycling into the bin and it was full. Can't think of any other reason a someone who isn't an a-hole wouldn't do that otherwise.
yes if it blocks my ability to safely reverse out of the driveway
If the vehicle is legally parked leaving a safe gap from the driveway, then no one has a right to complain, right Mr W?
@DoctorCalculon: Can’t tell if you’re being sarcastic but yes? The road is public space, first come first serve but a bit of common decency goes a long way, especially if you can already see my car parked in the driveway.
Can’t tell if you’re being sarcastic
No sarcasm intended.
especially if you can already see my car parked in the driveway.
How is this parameter at all relevant?
Legally parked, i.e. no obstruction to anyone's driveway (including one's own).
Do you actually park in front of their house?
Yes, you will be surprise. People don't like it even though it is public road.
My neighbour parks in front of my house despite having a clear 20m frontage. I think he's an A grade d!ckhead incidentally.
@BartholemewH: Is it because his house is near intersection where cars turn and potentially scratch his car?
I do know how you feel. I park in front of my house daily and sometime my neighbour park in front of my house taking my spot.
You’d be surprised. My local council laws state my verge is my parking, if you don’t get permission from property owner they can have you towed. Roads are tight and parking space is minimal in new estates. I don’t want my guests parking 500m away because you decided to take up what little space there is outside my house. Don’t always assume it’s public or you might find your car gone when you come back. I’ve heard councils towing cars because they parked facing the wrong way…
I had one neighbour put poorly written threats to me when a family member was living with us for a few months and parked in front of their house in a legitimate parking spot. They just like to keep it free for their friends/relos etc. Kept parking there until after the letters stopped then moved the car down a road a bit. People are funny about public property near their house.
I once was staying with a mate, and had a rental parked in front of his house. The bloke across the road backed into it and didn't leave a note. He eventually owned up when my mate asked bout it, he said he was planning on coming over and checking in with him about the car but it was a bit of a dick move not to leave a note, could have cost me a few grand with rental excesses. It was clear that the bloke had felt some kind of entitlement that because the car was in the arc of his normal reversing pattern it wasn't his fault, and that was across the road from him, not on his side of the road front of his house.
Tl/dr: when money is involved it does funny things to people
You park in front of their house too? You are an annoying neighbour. I would be pi$$3d off if you parked your car in front of my house and used my bins. Find somewhere else to park and learn better bin management.
Are you friendly with them? If I knew my neighbours well and I knew they wouldn't put any contaminates in I wouldn't care, if I didn't really know them I'd think it was rude if they did it without asking.
we say hi to them sometimes when we exit the house and the husband's out the front playing with his kids. Never spoken to the wife though, she seems a lot sterner and kind of a Biss (from what we can hear over the fence).
What's a Biss?
ㅤ
she's a "bit st"range…
waterbottled has a lisp.
Ring council and report neighbour for littering :)
Looking forward to your post in 6 months time when they (profanity) with you.
Blind leading the blind.
What do you really think the council will do other than lodge a dumped rubbish collection?
This was your rubbish in the first place. So, you should really be dobbing yourself in rather than your neighbour.
Come on guys this was genuinely funny
If there is room in the bin, prior to collection, no problem. I'd prefer that to it being left on the footpath/verge.
If it's put in the bin after collection, that's a very different situation.Very different situation indeed. Neighbour's probably a biss.
esp if bin is collected early and you aren't even up
Depending on the time of night i'd go back to gaming on my PC, maybe watch a movie or if it's getting late ill go to sleep, I sure as hell dont sit here caring if someone adds extra to my bin that's out the front waiting for collection.
How much of a shitty person are you to want your neighbours to ask to use something that you're not using and will be emptied the next morning.
This totally, I let my neighbours use my bin all he time and they have even let me book their hard rubbish collection. I get some people want to be left alone but they're neighbours, we live in a society, have a bit of decorum. I can think of a multitude of reasons for OP to not have asked them, e.g. Was late, didn't want to disturb them, hadn't seen them that day. I cant think of one reason why you would take rubbish out of your bin and leave it on some poor bastards lawn.
OP I wouldnt use this as an excuse to be a shit neighbour back, just work on the relationship and know what to expect.
Believe it or not some people's lives are so good they have nothing better to do than argue over pretty grievances. Move to the UK, it's practically a national sport over there!
When you put the cardboard in their bin, was the extra cardboard sticking out or did it simply fill up already empty space?
or just don't be a d***head…
it's obviously a sarcastic comment.
My direct neighbours and I have an understanding that once the bins go out, we can use space in each others bin if necessary. It's rare anyway but even though we've talked about it before, we still tend to check, especially if we're going to fill the remaining space.
This, its just sensible that once on the kerb you've cleared the bins in the house and have extra space. As long as the neighbour doesn't compress the trash I'm personally fine with it and my current neighbours have the same attitude.
I do take issue with neighbours who put trash in my bin while its still in my driveway
my neighbour sends me a text when their bins are out so that I can fill theirs with mine.
Mine sends a postcard
I do facetime with mine and we talk to each other while we fill up each other's bins.
Is this on only fans?
Asking for a neighbour….
I live in an apartment complex. I don't have this problem.
Regular garbage goes down the chute to the garbage room.
Recyclables are thrown in to the recycling bin on my floor. Luckily, I only need to share with 2 other apartments.
I think its common courtesy to ask first before you put your rubbish in someone else's bin :)