So a man has been convicted of overfilling a wheelie bin by four inches. The world is truly going mad. I do not know how near his recycling facilities are, but think about people like myself who live in the countryside and would have to drive over fifty miles round-trip to recycle things like aluminium cans. Fortunately, Argyll and Bute Council are still providing weekly uplift of ordinary rubbish and fortnightly uplift for paper. Most villages have bottle banks within easy access, so we are doing our bit. But it seems stupid to criminalise someone for such a small misdemeanor.
As for the comments of the recycling gurus in the story – do they think of the carbon footprint and stress levels involved in all this trauma?
I followed the link to read the article. That doesn’t make any sense, criminalizing the man. Here we are huge recyclers and our disposal company provides three separate bins: 1) regular garbage (I love that you say “rubbish”), 2) lawn and garden debris (“If it grows, it goes”), and 3) commingled recycled items including paper, cans (no metal scraps), plastics.
If we overfill any of these bins we are simply charged a bit extra in the next month’s bill. It works very well. What a shame it wasn’t so for the man in this story.
I wrote about Earth Day in my blog post today.
Checked the clip showing the man and family filling their bins – lots and lots of large fizzy drink bottles which they did not flatten in any way. Similar large quantities of drinks cans and empty tins. If they had taken a moment with each item before putting them in their bins they would not have had this problem. But then – I know rather too much about Waste Management!
Yes I can see there is room for improvement. I certainly do my best, but hate to think I may have to face driving round town in amongst traffic jams and roadworks to find empty recycling bins.
That is crazy! We are moving our way northward and have noticed that on this continent recycling is non-existent in many parts of the south. Ontario is much more into it than any state we have been in so far. When I think of the population of the U.S. that makes my efforts at home seem puny. But I will persevere and do my part as best I can.
Check out Dougal’s blog for re-cycling!
Every little helps, Sheila, that is what I keep telling myself.