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How Do You Deal With Your Rabbit Waste?

As we have so much rabbit waste we burn it here. However, someone has complained to the Council, for the second time now. The bonfire is not actually close to any properties, and I really do not believe the bonfires are causing a nuisance, but if we are unable to burn the waste I will have to close the rescue down.

Whoever has complained was obviously working up to it as they had estimated the number of bags we had ready to burn. It is easy to look across our orchard from the lane which goes down the side of our property.

Council 'tips' will not take it as it is 'contaminated' waste, and as there are so many bags the dustbin men would be unable to remove it.

And it would cost in the region of £400 per month to pay someone to come and remove it.

So, how do you deal with your rabbit waste?

Alice
 
Poops go on the garden, and we pay to have ours taken with the refuse, our council charges £1.00 for a garden waste bag, and we use those.

I used to work for a local council, and there was no law against having bonfires, only recommendations that they be done at reasonable times to avoid causing a nuisance. Check with your council what their policy is.

We did used to burn our waste, but the dog has lung disease so we had to stop in case it irritated his lungs.
 
We bag most of ours and the guys from the allotments use loads of it (rabbit waste, not piggy waste), we use some of it on our own allotment, and the rest is taken to the tip.
We have humungous amounts of it too, with around 180 residents being mucked out 2-3 times a week!

Have you got a local allotment group who you could approach?

We also leave some on the front with a sign "free compost" and quite a bit of is taken by the public
 
Ours goes on our compost on the allotment but we have four buns and just about manage with it so for a rescue I can't imagine that would be viable. Could you contact a farm or something? They might like to take it?
 
We can't take ours to the tip either :( We seperate all the hay and poo from the soiled newspapers and it goes to the old man down the road for his allotment. He is a complete god send as like you we would have to close with out him. However he is in his late 70's and we are worrying that he will not be able to keep his allotments for much longer...
 
:wave: hiya Alice, we put ours in our green bin, i know some councils allow this and others dont (would be interesting to find out why:?).
I hope you get some thing sorted. xxx

(sorry for daft post, rich has just pointed out that it wouldnt make a difference as we cant even manage with 4 rabbits and the amount of waste that goes in the green bin:oops:, been a long 12 hour shift:oops:)
 
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I cant believe the differences up and down the country, some councils must think its nuclear waste!

I consider myself very lucky. I can chuck it in my wheelie bin, or take it to the tip.
 
Thanks for your replies.

There are no allotments around here as I live in the country. And to be honest there is plenty of horse dung around for gardens etc, if people want it.

The farms around here have plenty of their own manure from their own animals.

We have over 100 bags a month, and most of the time I am doing the cleaning out myself, I would never have the time to split the rubbish into poos and papers etc.

Alice
 
I pay the council £40 a quater for a wheely bin the same size as my black bin. They collect every friday for me. You can contact the council and ask for a commercial bin under your personal name. I did this and they were fine with it.
 
Do you have a local freecycle group? You could try advertising it as free high quality manure? I think rabbit poop is supposed to be excellent for allotments, and my understanding is that it doesn't need to rot down like horse manure before it is suitable for many uses. Even if it just helps to shift some of it, 'every little helps' as they say...

How often do you have bonfires and at what sort of time of day? Do you have neighbours in all directions and how close are they? Bonfires would have to be pretty severe for the council to do anything, I'd say in over 95% of complaints about nuisances like smoke, noise etc, there isn't anything the council can do other than offer informal advice. They have to be a significant intrusion into someone's life to be able to do anything - for instance if their washing needs to be re-done weekly or if they can't have their windows open on a warm evening because of the smell/smoke. The council has a duty to respond and investigate but just because someone has complained it doesn't necessarily mean that the council can/will do anything, especially if you are reasonable with the inspector and discuss times of day/frequency/location etc.
 
We have over 100 bags a month, and most of the time I am doing the cleaning out myself, I would never have the time to split the rubbish into poos and papers etc.

Alice

I know its really time consuming, as we have around 50 plus bags a month, but it is the only way we can get rid of it.

I really hope you find a solution xx
 
Ours just goes in our bin along with our other waste, but then we only have 2 buns. I think I'll speak to my friend about it - she works in the waste and recycling department - ask if we'd be able to take it the tip if we had loads, and if not, why not :)
 
Do you have a local freecycle group? You could try advertising it as free high quality manure? I think rabbit poop is supposed to be excellent for allotments, and my understanding is that it doesn't need to rot down like horse manure before it is suitable for many uses. Even if it just helps to shift some of it, 'every little helps' as they say...

How often do you have bonfires and at what sort of time of day? Do you have neighbours in all directions and how close are they? Bonfires would have to be pretty severe for the council to do anything, I'd say in over 95% of complaints about nuisances like smoke, noise etc, there isn't anything the council can do other than offer informal advice. They have to be a significant intrusion into someone's life to be able to do anything - for instance if their washing needs to be re-done weekly or if they can't have their windows open on a warm evening because of the smell/smoke. The council has a duty to respond and investigate but just because someone has complained it doesn't necessarily mean that the council can/will do anything, especially if you are reasonable with the inspector and discuss times of day/frequency/location etc.

Thanks Alison, you have helped put it in perspective. It is just worrying me so much, but, you are right, they are not going to shoot me are they!

We really try to be as careful as possible. My father lives closest to the bonfire situation and he never has to close his doors etc, and I do his washing!

I did ask the inspector if she wished to come and visit, but she said she did not have time.

Anyway, I will continue and try to keep things as easy for neighbours as possible.

Alice
 
Ours just goes in our bin along with our other waste, but then we only have 2 buns. I think I'll speak to my friend about it - she works in the waste and recycling department - ask if we'd be able to take it the tip if we had loads, and if not, why not :)

Thanks Emma!
 
I did ask the inspector if she wished to come and visit, but she said she did not have time.

She can't be that bothered about it then, they have a statutory duty to investigate so it sounds as if she's just churned out a standard letter to you on receipt of a complaint. The person who complained has probably been given log sheets to fill in every time that a bonfire bothers them (this is different to them just saying when a bonfire happens - they have to specify how it is affecting their life). If you are able, it might not be a bad idea for you to note down when you are having them too, that way if it does continue as a complaint you can 'compare notes' with the inspector to check that the complainants record is accurate and to try and work out if there is any pattern to the times of bonfire that cause a problem.

If you can find ways to minimise it at all e.g. by getting some of it taken away then that will also help to show that you are doing all that you can to limit your impact.

Most inspectors are pretty reasonable and don't want to take enforcement action so the more you can be reasonable with them, the more they are likely to try and help you find a solution. Hopefully once the complainant realises they are going to have to jump through various hoops to even get on the road to formal action, they won't bother. That's what normally happens, and usually gives the council a good indication that it can't be that bad after all...

Good luck x
 
She can't be that bothered about it then, they have a statutory duty to investigate so it sounds as if she's just churned out a standard letter to you on receipt of a complaint. The person who complained has probably been given log sheets to fill in every time that a bonfire bothers them (this is different to them just saying when a bonfire happens - they have to specify how it is affecting their life). If you are able, it might not be a bad idea for you to note down when you are having them too, that way if it does continue as a complaint you can 'compare notes' with the inspector to check that the complainants record is accurate and to try and work out if there is any pattern to the times of bonfire that cause a problem.

If you can find ways to minimise it at all e.g. by getting some of it taken away then that will also help to show that you are doing all that you can to limit your impact.

Most inspectors are pretty reasonable and don't want to take enforcement action so the more you can be reasonable with them, the more they are likely to try and help you find a solution. Hopefully once the complainant realises they are going to have to jump through various hoops to even get on the road to formal action, they won't bother. That's what normally happens, and usually gives the council a good indication that it can't be that bad after all...

Good luck x

Having worked in a local council in the housing department and having had many complaints about bonfires I can say that really you have nothing to worry about. It's not illegal to have a bonfire. :)
 
You should go sit with marshmallows, a guitar and Brownies (The children...not the baked goods)!! :lol::lol:

Can't stop the kiddies having fun!! ;)
 
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