Recycling bad ideas
Squander Two recently wrote about a bizarre bit of council nonsense: for reasons tenuously connected with recycling, his local council is no longer collecting rubbish every week. Now, my council’s at it too: from April, rubbish will be collected fortnightly rather than weekly, “to encourage recycling”. It’s got sod-all to do with recycling, of course, it’s cost-cutting by a council that’s spent thousands on bizarre red pavement things on some of Scotland’s most pock-marked roads.
What’s really annoying about the move is that I’m already a good little recycler - so much so that I got an extra recycling bin, because I’m just recycling crazy, me. But unfortunately my non-recyclable rubbish fills a dustbin once a week, so under the council’s new wheeze it looks like I’ll have to fill my car with bin bags every second week and drive eight miles to the nearest tip - a completely wasteful journey. But I’m a good little environmentalist so rather than undertake a sixteen-mile round trip to get rid of my rubbish, I think I’ll dump it in a local councillor’s garden. Much more environmentally friendly.
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Comments
Hi Adam. I’m surprised you haven’t been able to find a charity - there’s loads round here, most of whom are quite happy to take stuff that isn’t still in its original packaging.
Jo’s right about adoption, though. I left out a thoroughly knackered sofa and chair for the council to pick up, and it was immediately appropriated by the local neds so they could have somewhere to sit in the local park while drinking their carry-outs.
Sometimes I think those of us who try to recycle things are fighting an uphill battle. I’m currently trying to get rid of a sofa. Slightly scratched by our cat at the edges, but basically perfectly serviceable. I have been totally unable to find a charity to take it away for re-use, as apparently they will only consider furniture in perfect condition (who exactly goes out and buys a brand new sofa and then donates it to charity I wonder?)
So my perfectly usable sofa will end up in a landfill site somewhere.