I just need to vent this as it gets under my skin and there is not a thing I can do about.
When did the weekly rubbish collection become such an ordeal and when did the collectors become so concerned about occ health and safety and just
being downright judgemental. My uncle was a bin man and he would be livid.
I guess some background, we have 5 different collections, 1 for paper/cardboard, 1 for green waste, 1 for Glass, 1 for platics and cans and 1 for
regular rubbish. Now I am all up for recycling, hell why not that part isn't too hard. However it does create a myriad of rules that you have to
comply with regarding what goes into each bin, which again isn't all that hard to comply with but you do tend to learn the hard way by not having your
bin collected, something the bin men seem to take delight in. For instance if you put a finished bog roll in the cardboard bin and it has the tinyest
bit of white tissue left on the roll they will not take your bin, they won't accept food boxes even if the box had no food in it, they just assume
there was and leave it. Heaven forbid you put the wrong type of plastic in the plastic bin, not only do they not take it but you then get a pretty red
sticker, which I would imagine after a few of these stickers would result in a fine or having your collection cut off and makies these little people
feel important. But again it is easy enough to comply with and is not the most annoying part.
I guess it is not the bin mens fault they are only doing there job and the rules come down to whatever your local council says they are. And the
rules our local council have seem determined by greed and greed alone and this is where it gets annoying. For instance they do provide households a
large wheelie bin for both the paper and the green waste which is fine but they not only don't offer one for your actual rubbish they don't allow for
you to even use one. Basically you just put your rubbish bags out in a heap.
And you can't just use any garbage bag either, you have to use the specific council made bag stated for your area one for rubbish and one for cans,
which you can only buy at 2 places in the area. Run out of bags and use a normal hefty bag and they will leave it behind but take the other two
council ones. These bags are also conveniently designed so they are smaller than regular bags meaning you have to purchase more of them and that they
are useless for fitting around the rim of most bin holders. Also they seem designed to tear at the point where you tie it and of course a torn bag
means that it will not be collected. And keeping with the torn bag theme this area has a significant cat issue and if they cats get to the bags
overnight and tear them, then the bag does not get collected.
So I was sick of having my bin bags getting raided and thought I would buy a couple of plastic garbage cans with a lid for the bags, this was perfect
it kept the animals out great but come garbage day when I put the bins out with the lids off so they could see the bags they would not take them. I
was told that they are not allowed to handle non council approved hardware.
I nearly lost the plot, surely it is safer, cleaner and easier for them to pick a can up by the handles than to toss those crappy built bags
around.
Then there is the glass collection, now it's great that I only have one issue with these guys and thats the fact they destroy which ever
container/crate I use to to put the bottles out in. Sure you are in a rush and throw stuff around, I understand, but how come when I throw the same
objects around they never break on me? How much force do they need to use to break it when I can't replicate the same.
And then it dawned on me.
You can buy from the council a specifically desgined plastic box, which I have seen and it is just the same as the type of box we use but has the
councils logo on it.
So anyway, at least now I think I have everything under control even if I am still a bit dirty on the blatant profiteering from what should be a free
public service and the fact that organizing my weekly rubbish takes more time than it needs to. Oh and whenever they put a notice in the letter box I
can't understand it, even though this nation has 2 official language they use the one I can't understand, but agin that's no big deal either.
I nearly forgot but this one is quite normal really, they never come the same time 2 weeks in a row.
So that's my rant, I know nobody cares but I needed to get that off my chest.
Still it is not as bad as a colleague of mine whos local council have told her she can only put the bags out an hour before they are supposed to come,
if she puts it out when she leaves for work or all night she will be fined. In the end she hired a houskeeper to come around and do some small things
to make sure someone was home when the bins get collected. She didn't need a housekeeper though.
I'm sure others have similar issues.
-end rant-
edit: How old do I sound, I'm turning into my grandparents.
Next week those darn kids and there rock music
edit on 31-10-2010 by pazcat because: add