Wow! For people who can afford to put out that level of waste, I'm surprised they put up with such an eye sore for rubbish collection days. I have to admit that a row of bins looks a bit better.

Now I'm wondering if the bins help to get people regulating their waste more here. Our rules are that all waste needs to be contained in the bin and the lid spiffs be closed (although they generally still collect bins that are over filled and pushing the lid up). Recycling is a separate bin as is compostable waste and they alternate to be collected every two weeks, with the general waste weekly.

There is a hard waste collection one a year that you have to book for anything too large to fit in the bins. That's where your electrics and wood can be collected. They used to have this in one month of the year, for each region, but the council's decided they didn't like people coming round helping themselves to what was left out (ironically, rather like what you encourage when you pull things out of the bags for others to see). I think it was because they have charities coming to collect the reusable stuff and they weren't getting much.

Anyway, it kind of pushes you to sort out any stuff you no longer want yourself and take it to the local charity shops or fill up the charity collection bags when they come around.