03 January 2024 , 12:56
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Putting the bins out can be a sensitive issue for many neighbours, and if someone makes the wrong move, it can cause carnage and life-long disputes.
Bin etiquette is personal to each road, and it's something that you learn when you move to a new area. But when one man made a critical error, he was concerned that he'd committed a "bin crime", and that his neighbour was "furious" with him for what he'd done.
Taking to Reddit, he explained that he'd recently moved to Western Sydney, and he was concerned that he'd "accidentally started a bin war" with those next door, rather than getting a warm welcome that he perhaps wanted.
He explained: "I've been spoilt using communal bins most of my life living in apartments and now I'm learning to navigate this new world with three different coloured bins that go out on different nights on alternating weeks in different spots on the street.
"I thought I was doing okay until tonight. It's red-lid bin night and all my bins are overflowing from the holidays. I had a large cardboard box and a small bag of rubbish that wouldn't fit in my bins, so when I saw my neighbours had their bins out and a few of them were almost empty I thought it made sense to use them. So I broke down the cardboard box, folded it up and put it in one of the almost empty bins and I tied up my small bag of rubbish and placed it in another almost empty bin."
'I don't want children staying up late at weekends - I really need adult time'
This is when he realised he'd made a drastic error, as a "grumpy old lady" came "charging out" to tell him that he "can't use her bin." He continued: "I apologised and explained I thought it would be alright as her bin was almost empty. She tells me it's not okay and I should be putting cardboard in the yellow recycling bins which don't get emptied until next week. I agreed I should be leaving cardboard for recycling week and I asked if I could leave the small bag of rubbish in her bin. She said no and started rambling about council rates and I joked she's not getting her money's worth if she only uses a quarter of her bin but it didn't lighten the mood and now she is furious with me."
The man was left wondering why it was "so wrong to put regular rubbish into somebody else's red-top bin if they aren't using it." He finished the post by penning: "She's now sitting at her front window guarding her bin so I'm getting the feeling I've really broken some sacred rule of suburbia bin law. Is she overreacting or did I really do something wrong?"
One Redditor clearly stated the rules for the newbie in bullet points so he'd understand. They said: "The rules are:
Never ever overflow a neighbour bin. The bin needs to close WELL after the adventure
Never put too early. It needs to be really close to truck time!
Don't put the wrong type/use the wrong bin. Don't put recycling in red. Don't put food in red (if your council has food recycling)
Don't get caught. As others said, the cover of darkness is great. You got caught, so don't try again with that neighbour. Even better if you can plead to have mistakenly put it there (as in, your bin is side by side with other bins)
Never, never put anything in a bin after the truck came and cleaned it. That's completely unacceptable."
Others said never to put "smelly rubbish" such as "nappies" and "dog poop" into a neighbour's bin, as that is also considered disrespectful.
Someone added: "Bonus tip: if you don't have the opportunity to get to know your neighbours, if you happen to be the first one home after the truck has been, take your neighbour's bin in once in a while. People are much less likely to give a s**t about trivial things (like you putting some overflow in their bins) with a little kindness shown here and there."
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Another joked: "You outed yourself as a non-recycler, it's gonna take years of gifted baked Christmas goods to recover from this faux pas. Credit for flattening your cardboard box so there is some coming back from it."