Black bin day
We have two bins, a brown one for garden waste, and a black bin for household, non-recyclable rubbish. Each is emptied fortnightly, though that may change. The trend to fewer collections is increasing. This week Tuesday is black bin day. Kitchen waste is collected every week.
It’s a
relief when the rubbish leaves the house – that makes it sound as though it travels
out under its own speed – if only!
For perhaps one or two days we can relax before the inevitable build-up resumes.
Refuse collectors have a smelly, unpleasant job, even with machines that lift the bins to empty them. Manoeuvring huge bin lorries along narrow streets, between badly-parked cars, or along rutted lanes is not a task for the faint-hearted. Out in all weathers, boiling in summer, wet and cold in winter, the men work week in, week out. I’ve never noticed any women doing the job, but I’m sure there must be some. (On looking it up, I found that women are increasingly involved in ’waste management,’ though still under-represented.)
We certainly notice if the dustmen go on strike. Over-filled bags split and deposit their contents on pavements. Rats are attracted, though it’s foxes that spread wrappers and containers far and wide.
The clanking, clanging progress along the road and the beeping of a reversing lorry all welcome the day. The men work efficiently and quickly, ferrying the bins from kerb-side to dust cart, and returning them, empty, to their starting point.
We should appreciate our bin men more than we do. Life would be far less comfortable without their service.
Without the bin men (and women), we'd well and truly drown in our own rubbish. Of course one can try and buy things that have less packaging, but plastic, cardboard, glass and metal probably make up more weight in an average weekly food shopping than the actual food stuff.
ReplyDeleteHere, we have five different bins: brown for organic (kitchen) waste, blue for glass, green for paper and cardboard, yellow for plastic and black for anything that doesn't fit into either of the four other categories. It is a puzzling system when you're not familiar with it, and the family in the attic flat above mine haven't yet mastered the art of correct rubbish sorting. They fled from a different country and came to live here a couple of years ago.
When it's just me during the week, there isn't enough rubbish to make it worthwile taking it downstairs to the bins. But when O.K. is here for the weekend and I make nearly all our meals at home, most of it from scratch, the kitchen bin fills up very quickly.
We have a hardworking bin lady working alongside the men.
ReplyDeleteIn the old days I just to have a tray of orange squash and cold water ready for them, now they keep on trucking without stopping.
I salute them.
ReplyDeleteMany thousands of women are involved in ’waste management’ as they process soiled nappies. I myself am involved in "waist management" through administering weight loss reduction injections.