Rubbish

It is good the the government have ordered councils who abandoned weekly rubbish collections to reinstate them.

Encouraged by the last government, some councils cut their rubbish collections to one a fortnight despite widespread public condemnation of a system that demonstrably encouraged vermin. Fortunately, our local council was not one that tinkered with rubbish collections though it did organise fortnightly collections for recyclables, a system that has worked very well.

This coalition government has made some good progress in many areas, but so far seems not to have zeroed in on the one factor that impacts on rubbish collections. And that is the unconscionable amount of packaging that covers almost everything we buy. Why does some fruit, for example, have not only to be supplied in plastic ‘egg’ boxes but then covered in cling film?

The number of rubbish sacks my household put out for collection are far outnumbered by the sacks of recyclable materials we put out on the roadside. And a brief look along our road shows that pretty much the same applies to most households.

It’s time to deal with unnecessary packaging. That would do much to help councils and their waste collections.
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Thanks!

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Our council collects kitchen waste one week and everything the following week. In the alternate weeks they collect the kitchen waste as well as pink sacks containing recyclables as well as emptying a yellow box containing bottles and glass. For some months in the year they also collect garden green waste. It is a very efficient system.

Yesterday was our rubbish collection day and, given that the road we live in was covered in ice and snow along with parked cars, we had doubts that the ‘bin men’ would come by.

But they did, and so kitchen waste and the mounting collection of sacks that had been stored in the garage for a few weeks along with the box containing the evidence of Christmas and New Year good cheer were all cleared away.

So I give credit to the unsung trash collectors of Castle Point Borough Council for a job very well done in difficult conditions. Thanks!
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