How to clean a wheelie bin?

Brentor

Brentor

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Very boring subject but our bins are attracting far too many flies this year. I have a pressure washer but I feel it needs the help of disinfectant. The choice is huge.

Any tips/recommendations?
 
Never had flies going for our wheelie bins...

We have 3 of them:-
Domestic waste but no food stuffs
Recycling
Garden waste

Also, a Food caddy and even that does not get flies.

Perhaps we are just fortunate?

PS the garden bin can whiff if the cuttings start composting.......but we wedge a stick under the lid to keep it ventilated.
 
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Good hose down and then hot water and washing up liquid. Repeat a couple of times and follow up with a spray round of cat litter disinfectant spray (most of the household anti-bac cleaners have perfume that just smells wrong for a bin.....)
 
We wash ours out with some diluted Jeyes fluid every once in a while. Rinse it out with a hose and stand it upside down to drain.
 
gremlin16 said:
we have a chap that comes and does a jet wash/disinfectant every 2 weeks. Smells lovely, if you like that sort of thing.
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We have the same. Washed and very little in terms of maggots and smells.
 
I wash ours out with a solution of bleach or Zoflora and use an old stiff broom to give it a good scrub.

Dave
 
I've never felt the need to do this in all the years they have existed, but I admire the entrepreneurial spirit that sees people set themselves up as bin cleaners and to have created a market for their services.
 
Tringa said:
I wash ours out with a solution of bleach or Zoflora and use an old stiff broom to give it a good scrub.

Dave
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I do similar. For some reason every fortnight there is a smelly liquid residue at the bottom of the bin after emptying. We try to keep liquids out of kitchen waste but it still appears, even though the waste is all in plastic bags.
If they were emptied every week I suspect the smell/fly problem would be less.
 
Bleach, hard yard brush, hose and water. (y)
 
In post #3 I outlined the number and usage of the bins in our area. Of those who have the need to cleanse your bins, is it a single bin for refuse and food waste and another for recycling??? Or what if not that either?
 
Box Brownie said:
In post #3 I outlined the number and usage of the bins in our area. Of those who have the need to cleanse your bins, is it a single bin for refuse and food waste and another for recycling??? Or what if not that either?
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We only have two, garden waste including food waste and domestic waste. Also small recycling bins for recycling. Collected every other week. Recently the garden waste was delayed by 2 weeks due to staffing issues.

The heat and the humidity in the last month has not helped, the flies get in the bins and lay their eggs.

The fact I haven’t cleaned the bins for ages doesn’t help.

I will try the pressure washer and Jeyes and if I fail I will go back to paying for them to be cleaned.
 
I apologised to the binmen where I used to live about the maggots that appeared in the summer
They told me not to worry, they didn't have to open wheelie bins as they were just tipped straight in the truck
mechanically unlike when they had to carry them
Those damn flies are resourceful, they get in to bags no matter how airtight you seal them
 
Brentor said:
We only have two, garden waste including food waste and domestic waste. Also small recycling bins for recycling. Collected every other week. Recently the garden waste was delayed by 2 weeks due to staffing issues.

The heat and the humidity in the last month has not helped, the flies get in the bins and lay their eggs.

The fact I haven’t cleaned the bins for ages doesn’t help.

I will try the pressure washer and Jeyes and if I fail I will go back to paying for them to be cleaned.
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I can see how/why some local authorities will call combine garden & food waste because composting is its 'destination'.

However, it IMO is foodstuffs waste that could give rise to insect activity and for that reason alone I am pleased that our collection keeps kitchen/food waste to its own smaller caddies and it is collected every week.

The other big wheelie bins are alternate weeks and for the recycling bin we only put clean or washed recyclables in it. I heard recently that recycling is literally a mixed bag. Not all sorting plants can separate out food contaminated recyclables......that means if contaminated the whole batch ends up in either landfill or incineration. With the article mentioning horror stories of even used nappies and dog waste in the mix!!! When I hear of such stories i do wonder what goes through folks heads when they chuck those sort of items in the wrong bin???
 
Box Brownie said:
I can see how/why some local authorities will call combine garden & food waste because composting is its 'destination'.

However, it IMO is foodstuffs waste that could give rise to insect activity and for that reason alone I am pleased that our collection keeps kitchen/food waste to its own smaller caddies and it is collected every week.

The other big wheelie bins are alternate weeks and for the recycling bin we only put clean or washed recyclables in it. I heard recently that recycling is literally a mixed bag. Not all sorting plants can separate out food contaminated recyclables......that means if contaminated the whole batch ends up in either landfill or incineration. With the article mentioning horror stories of even used nappies and dog waste in the mix!!! When I hear of such stories i do wonder what goes through folks heads when they chuck those sort of items in the wrong bin???
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A few years ago we had a client that had several recycling plants. The story I heard was that all the input waste, however carefully sorted, was added together and that several plastics were not worth the hassle of recycling.

Hopefully the process is more efficient these days.
 
Box Brownie said:
dog waste in the mix!!! When I hear of such stories i do wonder what goes through folks heads when they chuck those sort of items in the wrong bin???
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I've seen dog walkers put their pooh bags into whatever bin is out rather than take it home/put it in the correct bin.
 
After washing out, turn upside down to dry. Not sure if anyone has already said that.
 
Box Brownie said:
In post #3 I outlined the number and usage of the bins in our area. Of those who have the need to cleanse your bins, is it a single bin for refuse and food waste and another for recycling??? Or what if not that either?
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A few years ago, full size bin for general waste, 1 full size for cardboard and a 1 full size for garden waste. Then smaller ones for cans and glass, electricals etc.

Then the 3 tier trolley bin came in for cardboard, glass, plastic and cans.

Now we have full size for general waste, collected very 3 weeks, full size for garden waste, collected every 3 weeks and charged at £30 per year. Garden waste bin not collected over the winter months.

3 tier trolley collected weekly.
 
Same issue here, we have 3 bins and all 3 stink atm. I flushed them out with floor cleaner a few months back, but as we have a cat and his left overs go into the brown bin , that one now smells like death! The hot weather really didn't help. Weirdly, the recycle bin that never sees any food stuffs is the 2nd smelliest, I guess the stuff going in there like juice/milk cartons will still have dribbles in there and it'll still go off - Gonna give them all a hot rinse soon as they get emptied [main black bin, general waste, just got emptied this morn]
 
We have 4 bins, paper/cardboard, garden/kitchen waste, plastic/cans and a fourth for landfill, glass goes to bottle bank where there are bins for different colours of glass, luckily it’s near to us so I can go once a week with a big bag.
 
Tori_T said:
Get in there and clean it by hand? :p
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That is not far removed from what I frequently do.

When my bin has been emptied I squirt in a very generous dose of washing up liquid followed by undiluted disinfectant then water until it is about 6" deep. Top up with rubbish for the next two weeks and when the binmen empty it the whole lot gets sloshed into the truck ......... job's a good'un !
 
Our recycling wheelie bin has a seperate crate for paper waste. We carefully seperate our paper from other recycling and put it in the crate, so I was dismayed to see our bin men empty the paper crate into the recycling bin before it was tipped into their truck :rolleyes:

I regularly pressure wash our bins, that keeps them clean & they don't smell.
 
arclight said:
That is not far removed from what I frequently do.

When my bin has been emptied I squirt in a very generous dose of washing up liquid followed by undiluted disinfectant then water until it is about 6" deep. Top up with rubbish for the next two weeks and when the binmen empty it the whole lot gets sloshed into the truck ......... job's a good'un !
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They must love you!
 
Brentor said:
They must love you!
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They don't know. The bin gets raised then tipped into the truck and rattled a few times and no one can see what came out of it.
 
Might just try the washing up liquid one. ha ha
 
Wash up liquid and hot water is as good a job as most specific cleaners tbh, get one with disinfectant in the mix.
 
If you're going to pressure wash a wheelie bin, put 6" or so of water in the bottom before starting to blast it...

Don't ask me how I know that the splashback is revolting if you get the angles wrong when blasting an empty bin. :sick:
 
Nod said:
If you're going to pressure wash a wheelie bin, put 6" or so of water in the bottom before starting to blast it...

Don't ask me how I know that the splashback is revolting if you get the angles wrong when blasting an empty bin. :puke:
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I lie the bin down on try not to even look, few blasts, then have a look, do always wear glasses though, I know what you mean.
Spray with some heavy duty disinfectant stops them from smelling.
Paper one is usually spotless on the inside anyway.
 
Put some Jeyes in the bottom a few days ago and used the pressure washer today. I did put some water in to stop splash back mainly successful. Looks and smells a lot better. Will try the same on the other bin next week.
 
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