Here’s the situation - on bin day, I put out my bins with the draghandle facing outwards, because in my mind that means all the bin man has to do is grab the handle. My neighbour however, contends that it is more appropriate to have the bin lid facing outwards as some bin men like to check what’s in the bin before they drag it to the truck. I’ve never seen a bin man do this. To me, their way means extra work for the bin man but my neighbour says its my way that causes extra work.

In the grand scheme of things I doubt the bin men give a fuck which way round the bins are but I’m interested in what you all think. Handle facing out or lid facing out?

  • @[email protected]
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    11 year ago

    American here: we have a big “this side faces street” on the side opposite the handle. We also have trucks with hydraulic arms that lift the bins up, so the two things might be related: the bin has to be in a certain orientation so the arm can grab it easily.

    You could always call the service and ask. I’m guessing they don’t care about which way the handle faces as much as they care about things like overfilling or lots of liquid in the bin.

    • LerajeOP
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      41 year ago

      Yeah it’s the same process here - when the bin reaches the lorry it has to face ‘lid first’ then it’s lifted and emptied automatically. It’s the process of the guys getting the bin from the end of the drive to the lorry I’m more concerned with. It just feels more helpful to have the handle facing out so the bin men can just grab it and pull. My neighbours method feels like more work for them they’d have to turn it round first, then pull it to the lorry.

      • Hogger85b
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        1 year ago

        As far as I am aware I don’t think we have any lorries the comment was about. All ours are still wheeled from the kerb to the back of the truck by a human operator on foot that then pushes the button that then lifts the bin, they are then unhooked by a human and wheeled back at least out the road.

        In the US (especially hot area) you put your bin a set distance from the sidewalk…no cars are parked on the street, the truck crawls along the curb and a robot arms grabs a correctly orientated bin using a camera, lifts it and return it to the sidewalk all requiring only the driver in his air conditioned cab.

        • LerajeOP
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          11 year ago

          Damn…thats equal parts impressive and horrifying.