Bin Day

Bin day is one of those small but vital rhythms of home life. Whether it’s the fortnightly recycling or the weekly garden waste, missing a collection is a headache nobody needs. Cuppi helps you stay one step ahead of the bin lorry, so you never have to peer out the window to see which bins the neighbours have put out.

Understanding your bin profiles: On the Bin Day home screen, your collections are shown as cards. Each one includes:

• The name and council (if set).
• The upcoming collection date.
• A countdown circle that changes colour as the day approaches: 🟢 Green means you have time, 🟡 Orange means it's coming up, and 🔴 Red means it's nearly time to get the bins to the kerb.
• Material icons so you can see at a glance exactly what needs to go out.

Managing your reminders:

• Notifications: Cuppi will automatically send you a reminder at 6:00 pm the evening before your collection. Currently, these reminders are set to this time to ensure you have the whole evening to get the bins out.
• Deleting a profile: If your council changes their system or you no longer need a specific schedule, tap the Bin Day card, scroll to the very bottom, and tap Delete this schedule. This will remove the reminders and data from all household devices.

Things to consider

• Cuppi Pro: To keep our app independent, users on the Free or Trial tier can manage one Bin Day profile. If your home has complex collections (like separate food, garden, and glass days), a Cuppi Pro subscription allows you to organise up to seven different profiles.
• Holiday Changes: Council dates often shift during Bank Holidays. It's a good idea to check your local council's site via the in-app browser during these times and adjust your "Next Date" if needed.

There are two convenient ways to search for your local Council within the Bin Day tool:

• Option A: When you are setting up a brand-new Bin Day schedule.
• Option B: When you tap on an existing Bin Day card to bring up the Edit view.

In both cases, you will find a dedicated Search bar section (which may already display information you have previously entered).

Depending on which option you are using, the app behaves slightly differently once you search for and select your local authority:

• With Option A (New Setup): Cuppi will display a direct, internal button that allows you to jump cleanly to the official council bin day website as you configure your reminders.
• With Option B (Editing): The app will ask if you want to launch their official website directly in Safari (or whichever default mobile browser you use on your iPhone).

🇬🇧 Note on Availability: Please remember that for the time being, only councils located in England are supported in our database.

We’ve made creating a Bin Day schedule in Cuppi incredibly straightforward, thanks to our built-in England council directory search.

1. Open the App: Tap Bin Day on the Apps page.
2. Start a New Schedule: Tap the + sign in the top-right corner. If this is your first time setting one up, you can also tap the Create Bin Day button in the middle of the page.
3. Find Your Council: Our guided setup will help you enter your details, starting with the Council website search. Simply type your local Council’s name to find it. If your council isn't showing up yet, you can leave it blank to save for later or skip this step entirely.
4. Configure Your Collection: On the Collection page, give your schedule a clear name (e.g., Paper & Glass, General Waste, or Recycling). Select your next collection date using the calendar, set the frequency (e.g., every 14 days), and choose the materials that belong in this specific run.
5. Pick Your Bin Style: Now for the fun bit! You can choose between three different sizes—small, medium, or large (with even more coming in future updates). You can also add a custom sticker to match your real-world bins if you like.
6. Customise Your Colours: On the next two pages, pick the look for your bin by choosing separate colours for the lid and the base. You can toggle between Colours or B&W (Black and White). If you choose a colour, you can also adjust the shade slider to make it lighter or darker.
7. Confirm & Save: On the final page, Cuppi will display a quick preview of all your details to confirm everything looks right before saving the schedule and setting your notifications.

We make every effort to keep our Council database meticulously up to date. However, local authorities can change their websites or launch new URLs at any time, which can occasionally cause older links to stop working.

If you encounter a link that doesn't work, you can easily let us know by tapping Report directly underneath the search bar. We will look into it right away and update the directory as needed.

There are also rare occasions when we cannot provide this convenience feature due to external circumstances - such as a council temporarily shutting down its online portal or changing its internal systems. If this happens, please head directly to the official GOV.UK website to search for your local bin collection dates manually.

1. Open Bin Days from the Apps page.
2. Tap on the specific Bin Day card you want to change.
3. You can edit any of the information displayed on this page.
4. After making your changes, tap Save in the top-right corner to commit them, or Cancel if you wish to discard your adjustments.

To update your Bin design:

1. Tap directly on the Bin graphic in the top section of the screen.
2. This opens the Bin Designer tool, where you can modify the style, choose new base and lid colours, or update your stickers.
3. When you are finished customising, tap Save to confirm your design, or tap Cancel to discard the changes.
4. Finally, make sure to tap the main Save button in the top-right corner of the collection screen once more to finalise your overall Bin Day update and lock in your new look.

At the moment, temporary or one-off holiday collection schedules cannot be configured within the app. Your Bin Day notifications will continue to follow the fixed frequency (e.g., every 14 days) you originally set up.

If your local council alters their schedule for a bank holiday or a special collection, we suggest temporarily editing the Next Collection Date on your bin card (or simply create a new temporary collection) to match the new holiday date. Once that special run is complete, you can adjust it back to your regular routine.

🛠️ What we're doing: We are actively working on a flexible solution for one-off schedule overrides and holiday changes. You will see an update about this patch on your Home Feed as soon as it becomes available!

1. Open Bin Day from the Apps page.
2. Tap on the specific bin day card you want to remove.
3. Scroll all the way to the bottom of the page and tap the Delete this schedule button.
4. Confirm the deletion. Please be advised that this action is permanent and cannot be undone.

By default, Cuppi automatically schedules your reminders to fire the evening before your scheduled collection day.

While the day itself is fixed to ensure you have plenty of time to get the bins out, you can fully customise the exact time you are nudged. If you don't make any changes, Cuppi will notify you at our default time of 6:00 pm.

To adjust this to a time that better suits your evening routine, simply navigate to the Settings cog icon within the Bin Day module and adjust the time picker to your preference.

If your collection reminders aren't coming through, it is usually down to an iOS system override or slot limitations. Please walk through these troubleshooting steps to get them back on track:

1. Check Global App Permissions

First, make sure Cuppi has permission to send you alerts at the system level. Navigate to Settings > Notifications within the app. If you see a warning message stating that notifications are disabled on the iOS level, tap the iOS Notification Settings button to jump into your iPhone's main settings and turn them back on.

2. Verify the Bin Day Toggle

Next, ensure that Bin Day alerts are explicitly turned on. You can check this toggle in two different places:

• Settings > Notifications
• Bin Day > Tap the Settings cog icon

3. Open the App Regularly

• Apple heavily restricts background tasks and notifications if your device battery is low or in Low Power Mode.
• To keep your schedules fresh, make sure to open Cuppi at least once every two weeks. This action prompts the app to automatically refresh and queue up your upcoming schedules in the background. You will also need an active internet connection to sync the latest calendar data if another household member has made changes to the bins.

4. Review Your Total Notification Count

iOS enforces a strict system limit on how many local notifications a single app can schedule in advance (up to 64 slots). If you track a large number of birthdays with multiple reminders enabled, or if you have multiple daily pet medication alerts running concurrently, you may be hitting this threshold and taking up available slots.

🛠️ What we're doing: We are actively working on a more streamlined notification delivery system that automatically prioritises high-priority schedules (like time-sensitive bin collections and medications) to prevent slot exhaustion.

Anyone in the household with Adult or Owner permissions can freely create, edit, or delete Bin Day schedules.

Members with Child permissions have read-only access. They can view the collection calendar and check which bins need to go out, but they are strictly restricted from making any changes or deleting existing schedules.

Yes, all changes sync immediately across your household. Everyone will see the updated schedules, and they will be eligible to receive the exact same notifications.

However, there is one important step to keep in mind: other household members must open the Cuppi app at least once after a schedule has been updated or newly added. Opening the app allows Cuppi to run its automated background checks and generate the precise local notification schedules on their specific devices.