A mum ran outside to speak to binmen after watching her overfull bin get rejected during collection
Abigail Nicholson Content Editor
10:26, 25 Mar 2026Updated 10:27, 25 Mar 2026
The woman watched as her bin collection was refused(Image: martinrlee via Getty Images)
A mum challenged a binman in the street after witnessing her bin being left unemptied over a single item. Bins can be an extremely divisive subject, particularly when they’re only collected fortnightly.
There are several reasons why refuse collectors might leave your bin unemptied, including incorrect items being disposed of, bins being overfilled or not being positioned in the right spot for collection.
Steph Johnson, known online as ScouseBirdBlogs, was peering out of her window as refuse collectors approached her bin, knowing it was “over full” following some gardening work over the weekend.
However, when the lorry hoisted up the bin, something prevented the rubbish from being emptied, and the worker returned the full bin to the kerbside.
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She said: “The bins are getting collected as we speak and I’ve just been watching out the window, because my bin’s over full because I have been doing the garden this weekend.
“He took my bin, went to empty it into the thing and because there was like a little trellis-y thing on top of it, it didn’t empty into the truck so he brought it back full.
“I was like oh no, we’re not having that I can’t go two weeks without a bin.”
Steph dashed outside and spoke to the binman, who said “I can’t empty it love, it’s all stuck”.
Steph said: “I went well just take that off the top. He took it again and he emptied it and it was fine.
“You know what probably didn’t help I’ve lost my wild deodorants, like the refillable one, and [I] couldn’t find it anywhere this morning and I just emptied my bin in my dressing room the night before.
“I thought ‘have I just in my fuzzy headed state just put it in the bin’. So as the bin man was pulling in and I actually went down and started rifling through my bin.
“So he probably saw me doing that, as well and two seconds later you know I come running out the house.”
New bin changes you need to be aware of
The “Simpler Recycling” regulations will come into force from March 31, and every local council in England will be required to collect four separate types of waste individually. Typically, this means households will have four different bins or containers for various kinds of rubbish, though some areas may already have such arrangements in place.
Waste collectors will be required to collect food and garden waste, paper and card, other dry recyclable materials such as glass and plastic and non-recyclable waste that can’t be processed. Instead, this will be sent to landfill or utilised for energy recovery.
Although the change will affect councils across England, not every household will experience significant differences straight away. Some local authorities already operate recycling schemes that broadly match the new requirements, meaning residents in these locations may notice little change. This is why it’s always essential to check your council’s guidelines and see what the regulations are in your area, and how they may alter. One thing residents need to understand is that food and garden waste must be separated when the scheme begins, which will end the common practice of mixing them in the same bin.