r/Glasgow Tools

Ok I’ve been in your situation and got it sorted out - in a way. Im also a pain in the arse, control-freak Karen who doesn’t let shit slide, so we might have different personalities lol. I honestly stopped stressing about the bins when I delegated myself to being the person to sort it out. Otherwise nothing is going to happen.

Here’s what I did: I contacted the council and got more bins - for free. If you phone them enough - pester them every single day and say it’s impacting your mental and physical health and you don’t have money - say there are rats or you got cut by glass, and there are not enough bins for the amount of flats, and threaten to phone your msp/tabloids - they will send more. They should only charge for bins that are lost and damaged by your fault. You don’t have enough bins to begin with which is the main issue here, and the council should initially provide them free of charge. If there are 10 flats and your bins are collected weekly, there should be 12 general waste bins (one each and two extra), and 3 or 4 of each of the recycling bins. If your bins are collected less frequently than once weekly, then you need more bins than this.

If the council refuses to give you bins for free (if you pester them enough, they will give you them but you need to contact them constantly!) then knock everyone’s doors and get them to chip in. If the bins cost £100 then that’s a tenner each. Get the money before ordering. If the flats all have landlords or are council tenants, then the landlords/council should pay, not the tenants. Invoice them professionally and address it ‘to the home owner or landlord - refuse invoice enclosed’ as most tenants just forward that mail to their landlords.

I would then buy a can of spray paint and paint everyone’s flat numbers clearly on their bins. Make sure bins are lined up neatly and easy to access. The refuse guys always leave our bins in a big pile - I usually go out and line them up so they are easy to access. It takes about 2mins to do. A couple of my neighbours now line up the bins too. Tidiness can be infectious.

Then send a letter (factors are shite - sometimes you need to do this stuff yourself!) to everyone in the building saying that there are rats in the bin area (most folk are scared of rats) or that you cut yourself seriously with broken glass and they need to use their own allocated bin and to take it out to be collected every week. And detail what you are doing - ordered more bins, lining up bins etc

Print and laminate an a4 paper sign and hang it in the bin area that states the requests to keep everything tidy and use the correct bin. Add clip art of a rat and bloodied hand. You could also reiterate what days the bins have to go out and that everyone is responsible for taking their own bin out. If the bins are all numbered and certain ones are not being taken out, it will become obvious very quickly who is not pulling their weight. You can pinpoint the flat and contact the council/landlord.

I would go a step beyond this and knock on all the doors to hand the letter personally - make up some bullshit that you got bitten by a rat / cut your hand on glass when putting your bin out and you’re worried for everyone else. If your neighbours know you’re making an effort and it’s not some faceless factors guy, it might shame them into co-operating. I would use this opportunity to ask the tenants for their landlords contact info so you can contact/invoice them directly.

If this all fails, then I’d add padlocks to all the bins and give everyone their own key.

With regard to the bins being taken out. Is anyone in your building disabled? The council will take out the bins for anyone not able to do so. I’ve lived in a flat where the council came and collected every non and returned them too. I’d ask the council about this service and how much it costs.

Good luck!