wheelie bin water butt?

[salome2001]

Just wondering if anyone has tried this. Our council is about to replace our big wheelie bins with small ones (and another recycling box), so I was wondering if it would be possible to convert a wheelie bin into a water butt- drill a hole for a tap (£4 or so from B&Q/Wilko), cut a hole in the top for downpipe...???

Might not be the cleanest water, but could it be any worse than comfrey tea???

[snakeshack]

sounds great could use it to brew comfrey tea or even make a wormery

[Potstubsdustbins]

I don't foresee any problems with your idea the surfaces are reasonably flat so making a water tight joint for the tap should be easy.

You might want to consider removing the wheels as the thing will be very heavy when full. 62.5lbs or approx 28.5 kilos to the cubic foot.

Colin

[salome2001]

I wasn't planning on using it in a mobile way, just sticking it on blocks like a regular butt, I am figuring it would be around the 200L mark. Although now I think of it, maybe the smaller bin would make a good butt to wheel around the plot... might have to call the council and tell them they missed delivering my new bin..

[katholicos]

I never have our brown bin emptied as i compost everything that would go into it, for use in my garden. I drilled a few holes at the bottom of my large brown bin and use it for composting. Lst year i used it in combination with my bokashi system. Once the bokashi had fermented for a couple of weeks i would put it into the brown bin and then add some soil on top and any veg peelings etc. i left the whole lot to rot down over winter and recently topped off a couple of my raised beds with the finished compost. I found that it having a hinged lid worked really well to prevent access by rodents etc. i did first toy with the idea of turning it into an extra water butt, but decided i have enough already. I can't think of any reason not to use it for a water but. The only difficulty i can foresee is when you want to attach the tap fitting, you will probably have to improvise to be able to reach in far enough toward the bottom of the wheelie bin, to put on and tighten the bolt bit IYSWIM.

Noveletta over.

[Jason Cartwright]

sounds great could use it to brew comfrey tea or even make a wormery

I've been looking at the spare wheelie bin i got and thought about turning it into a wormery or growing potatos in it.
How would i make a wormery out of it?
Been thinking of breeding worms for fishing.

Thanks

J

[zazen999]

My lottie neighbour uses one for a water butt, he pumps water from the well, and has a collection of water butts, wheelie bins etc that he fills up in one go and this lasts weeks.

[rana]

I used one temporarily last year to store rain water and noticed that the weight eventually caused the sides to bulge. I am not sure the large wheelie bins are strong enough to be filled with water for long periods......

Water butts are round for a good reason..............

[di]

I've got one, it's half buried to stop it toppling or bulging. I just dunk my watering can in when I need water....don't think I've ever got right to the bottom

You've made me think, the lottie neighbour that's leaving has four on her plot...full of rubbish unfortunately. I might take a couple for water but wonder also, if I could get the bottoms cut off the other two if they could become Daleks.

[salome2001]

daleks... now there's a thought....
(although my immediate need really is water butts....)

[Snadger]

I have a redundant wheelie bin in my shed. It holds five 20Kg bags of chicken pellets and mixed corn I keep for chicken food, and up til now is vermin proof!
As has already been mentioned, it may be a bit floppy for a water butt?

[lottie dolly]

we have 1,its very useful for putting things in,like hose pipe,any spare connection bits,what you please,some peeps on our site use 1 to wheel the mulch ext from the heap to their plots,

[di]

I came up with a new, for me, idea of storing water. I've got so much cardboard along my beds, to weigh it down I've filled loads of buckets with water to weigh it down, with the added benefit of being where I'll need it when it comes to watering. Also handy to pop the odd bit of couch or bindweed root that I find whilst planting. I'm guessing I'm going to have to think of something to sit on them to stop them from going green?

[mothhawk]

When I started using daleks, I used my garden waste bin as a water butt until the rental period was up (our council rent GW bins at £12 p.a.) then the council took it back. I used a length of hosepipe as a siphon to get the water out. It might be an idea to check that the council don't want your bin back before cutting holes in it.

They are a saleable commodity, after all, if the number of thefts is anything to go by.

[LauraS]

When I started using daleks, I used my garden waste bin as a water butt until the rental period was up (our council rent GW bins at £12 p.a.) then the council took it back. I used a length of hosepipe as a siphon to get the water out. It might be an idea to check that the council don't want your bin back before cutting holes in it.

They are a saleable commodity, after all, if the number of thefts is anything to go by.

That's a good point. 'My' bins remain the property of the council, it says so somewhere. Your council may want to collect them up and sell them on.