I've come to this thread late, so just a few responses from me:
>>>it costs them £1100 to empty the truck
Much of that is made up of Landfill Tax which, quite rightly (if we value our environment), is charged on every lorry load delivered to a tip. (Since the tips are operated by private companies they, of course, will also need to include their own overheads and profits within the charges they levy).
>>>So, what am I supposed to do if I have more rubbish that what fits in the one wheelie bin I have?
Almost all councils (possibly all?) DO allow you to leave additional bin bags out alongside wheelie bins but (because collecting and disposing of them costs more than you've paid for through your Council Tax) they only accept special bin bags, which have to be purchased from council offices or from other outlets supplied by the council. In our area they cost 60p each and can be purchased from the local post office or hardware store (as well as from council offices). The cost of purchasing them goes to help fund the charges levied by landfill sites.
>>>If not, what does it cover?
Your local council will send you a statement of where all of the money goes with your council tax bills. The information is also available online. If you choose not to read it, you can hardly complain!
Further, Council Tax goes nowhere near to paying all of the bills incurred by your local council. They also receive income from Business Rates and (very importantly) from Central Government (i.e. from Income Tax, VAT, etc). It's that part of councils' incomes which has already been significantly cut back and will continue to do so over the next few years, resulting in major cuts to services.
Chris