Communal bins - what rubbish (From St Albans & Harpenden Review)

Communal bins - what rubbish

3:17pm Monday 12th January 2009 in

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WITHOUT sounding all ‘Bah Humbug’, one of the worst things about Christmas is the tidying up afterwards.

Bin collection dates are thrown out of sync and, before you know it, rubbish is blowing around in the streets.

While pottering around in my garage, flattening cardboard and filling up my tenth black bin bag I realised that we are not wholly responsible for the mountains of waste building up across the country – businesses play their part too.

The amount of cardboard used to package children’s toys is incredible. On Boxing Day we had enough cardboard to keep Tony Hart going for years.

I slammed the bin shut and goose-stepped back into the house like a fugitive on the run.

Martin Buhagiar

Yet so much of it is unnecessary as is the plastic. For some reason all toys must be screwed – what fun that makes for on Christmas morning – on to a plastic plate. Why?

With our bins full to overflowing I took most of it to the dump. Our wheelie bin was collected on time but sadly the recycling bin was not – and some say this type of rubbish is a council’s priority.

By early this week it had still had not been collected. Our bin inside – not by colour but by waste - was full of dog food cans, milk cartons and egg boxes, so I had a decision to make.

Take the rubbish to the dump. Now I had already done this several times and by now had worked out that I spent 47 minutes queuing in total for the pleasure. Despite my four–year-old enjoying the ride each time and really getting into splitting the bags and throwing the contents in, I was not going back again, at least not this week.

My second choice was to bag it and place it next to our recycling bin. A good idea in theory - but a plan with many pitfalls: our bags of rubbish are regularly targeted by foxes, forcing me to wander the streets in search of the rubbish I had already painstakingly sorted; our binmen refuse to take ‘bagged refuse’ and finally, but most importantly, my wife says it looks ugly.

So with a heavy heart, I grabbed the indoor bin and headed for the door. I stopped outside, checked nobody was about and opened the lid of our black, empty wheelie bin. I looked over to our outside recyclable bin, still struggling to contain our Christmas load with wrapping paper and boxes on show. I gave it one final push down, but it was not budging.

I glanced over to our neighbours, the coast was clear. I grabbed the bin and, with sweaty palms, tipped it into the wheelie. Being empty the sound sent me into panic as cans, tins and plastic bottles hit the bottom – everybody would know what I was doing.

I slammed the bin shut and goose-stepped back into the house like a fugitive on the run. Back in the kitchen I looked out. Nobody had come out. I had done it.

I attempted to find out why our green bin had not been collected as promised and got no answer or date.

With the credit crunch hitting the private sector of the recycling industry hard I am now wondering if councils will start to change their priorities.

Councils say they want us to get rid of our rubbish wisely but tell us to keep it to a minimum. They want us to think about recycling when we are shopping, but when was the last time you thought about your green bin as you lowered 24 cans of continental lager into your trolley?

And what about the companies?

Is the Government telling them to watch how much cardboard they use when packaging items?

Is this even monitored? If so, who does and what are the results?

Will poorly performing companies face action? Probably not.

Instead, we live in a world where there is talk of communal bins. Muggers up and down the country must be rubbing their hands and rats will not be far behind.

By these bins, any bags of rubbish incorrectly placed or poorly packaged will be left there. So who will clear it? Not the residents - even the person who left it there will claim never to have seen it.

The scheme will begin next week, when the bins will be put in parking spaces. It will be tried out by Brighton & Hove City Council, with one 3,200-litre communal bin for every 40 homes across 500 streets. Brighton & Hove claims that the scheme will save £970,000 over seven years. So council tax will be cut, right? Do not hold your breath.

Apparently councils up and down the country are watching Brighton and Hove.

As far as I am concerned there is only one way for waste to be collected. All rubbish, whether it be household, recyclable, glass or garden (in the summer) should be collected weekly from your driveway. If councils cannot do this, maybe we should go back to one bin and let the m sort the mess out.

• Flicking through the channels on Saturday I was told that my country needed me by Graham Norton.

I continued to watch until I realised this was a reality show aimed at finding an entrant for the Eurovision.

People voting must be out of their minds.

Do they not realise that however good the song, no matter how great the vocal range of the singer is, we will come last because nobody – other than Malta – gives us any points.

Having screened the pointless contest for years, the BBC is fully aware of this but still has no problem charging those viewers who are stupid enough to vote.

So, for the idea of yet another singing competition that is actually more meaningless than any of the others: nil points. Britain’s entry should get used to hearing that phrase.