Gotta love skip-dipping!!

[salome2001]

Our allotment association has provided a skip for a week or so so we can all get rid of the rubbish on our plots (quite a few of us inherited a LOT of rubbish when we took them over). So while I was tipping rolls of rotting carpet into it today, I discovered that one of the neighbouring houses (no fences around our site) had dumped rubbish in it as well- a Wilko growbag of compost and a dismantled plastic-covered mini greenhouse.

Well, one man's trash... I dumped the compost on my plot and fished out the poles from the mini greenhouse- most of the poles and connectors are in good nick- should make a nice fruit or veg cage frame.

Nice one.

[singleseeder]

I thought you were going to say that they took the carpet for their house!!

[VirginVegGrower]

Opposite our plot is a skip with ready cleaned bricks. We've had a load with permission for our soon to be honeypot planters...yeay

[hollychap]

oh the joys of skip ratting its got to be my favourite past time i cant walk past one without a quick scan

[salome2001]

I thought you were going to say that they took the carpet for their house!!

no, there's a carpet shop round the corner with overflowing commercial waste bins... easy to get your offcuts from there!

[Jeanied]

I got a wooden venetian blind out of one near me - the guy who was doing up the house was most bemused but readily gave his permission!

[Bren In Pots]

I always thought no skip was complete until it had at least one mattress in it.

[alex-adam]

My neighbour was having some building work done and put a skip outside the house. One morning I noticed a couple of old doors with rather nice brass knobs and fittings in the skip. I asked my neighbour if I could have the fittings.

"Oh, yes of course, I don't know where those doors came from, someone must have dumped them, they were certainly not mine" - was his reply.

I got £30.00 for the knobs and fittings on Ebay ..!

[Two_Sheds]

dumped ... a Wilko growbag of compost and a dismantled plastic-covered mini greenhouse.

I have a real problem with people who would rather put stuff in landfill than give it away free to someone who can use it.

We've never taken anything to the tip, ever. It all goes on eBay for a penny, or on Freegle. We've got rid of broken panes, broken doors, half-used tins of paint, all kinds of tat.

[veggiechicken]

I always thought no skip was complete until it had at least one mattress in it.

A skip for a kip?

[julesapple]

Last summer we took a visit to our local Civic Amenities Centre (the Tip) There was a chap unloading pine doors and BH asked if we could have them and the chap said yes. He was about to put one in the car when one of the Civic Amenity Waste Disposal Operatives told him he couldn't. It was against Council policy, Health & Safety etc. It didn't matter what we said, the guy would not let us take the doors and he wouldn't let the owner of the doors take them home again either - apparently they can't leave the premises once you've unloaded them.

At this point, the guy lost it and demanded to see the manager. He ended up telling the manager that he'd bought the wrong doors to the tip and he put them back into his car. All they could say was it was 'council policy' and 'for your own safety' that you cannot take stuff from the tip. We stopped in the lay-by outside the tip and swapped the doors into our car.

I used to love tip-trips when I was a kid and you could sift through everything and have a good rummage.

Jules

[Mikey]

There are a few little hitlers on tip sites.

Ours has a large green roundabout in the middle, anything you don't want but is in good working order can be left there and taken by anyone. Including staff.

[singleseeder]

I like the system used in some countries where there is a specific day you can put unwanted items on the pavement for others to take for free. After that the council comes along and clears what is left.

There is a similar system in the lanes of the West End of Newcastle. Unofficial though. Stuff is chucked into the lanes, people scavange, then the council clears up because they have no option. Rather a 'chicken and egg' situation though. I'd like to see them try it in Jesmond

[salome2001]

I lived in inner city Sydney, in a high-student area, and it was readily accepted that anything on the pavement or in the back lane was fair game. One week I watched an old stereo go from one end of the lane to the other as it was purlioned and discarded...

[binley100]

The house on the end from us had their skip nicked .........complete with rubbish .....
Our tip is like one huge recycling centre you have to put things in the right place ....so it pays to know how to load your car so you can drop off things in order as you drive past the bays . We were tipping building rubble and the guy next to us was tipping wood , and tipped his pasting table our way