The delayed collection service for our recyclable waste from our new tubs has now started.
There is a slight problem - apparently the contractors don't have the right sort of vehicle available, so they are using the wrong sort of vehicle.
Here's a picture of what they are using at the moment.
It is a bit unusual, isn't it? It looks rather like the sort of thing that might be parked in a supermarket car park, so that the enthusiastic public may place their own recycling into the labelled hatches. The hatches, of course, are of small size so the public cannot place their old sofa in the waste paper compartment. Or perhaps local schoolchildren could make a trip to look at it at the County Fair, as part of their Save the Planet project?
Considering that we only have 3 types of waste to go in it, there are a surprising number of hatches - I haven't got close enough to read it yet, but something definitely not right. Miscast.
I've seen it in action a couple of times - around 8am one Monday, a man in a fluorescent pink overall appeared, running alongside the truck, and I watched him put the contents of our Recyclable Paper tub into the rearmost hatch. Because he was rather a short man, he was unable to reach high enough to up-end our paper tub inside the hatch, so he took out the paper and cardboard in handfuls, holding the tub in his other hand, and shoved it in the hatch. From where I was watching I couldn't see what happened to the plastics-and-metals tub, but after they were gone I did observe that they had dropped a fair amount of paper and plastic litter (mostly small items) on the grass verge, which of course I had to clear up. They had also left a quantity of small items in the bottom of each tub - till receipts, the little pop-tops off yogurt drink cartons, stuff like that - if they have to empty the tubs by hand rather than gravity, that's sort of what I would expect.
Not great; I would hesitate to challenge the guys on the job, since I would bet they are not enjoying it much. Never mind, perhaps they'll get the right sort of truck soon, and things will improve.
I tell you what this truck really reminds me of, it's the scene from "Dad's Army" when they converted Jonesy's butcher's van so they could shoot out of the sides. Now that puts a more cheerful aspect on the thing altogether, but I am getting a little fed up with cleaning up after they've gone.
I couldn't find a video clip of Jonesy's van in action, but here's a song from my youth, all about food waste and garbage collection. What could be wrong with that?
They don't like it up 'em! Don't panic!
ReplyDeleteI remember one workplace where the kitchen suddenly sprouted glass bins, non confidential waste paper in addition to the normal rubbish.
Most assiduously sorted their rubbish into these various bins, and no doubt felt very pleased they were recycling and saving the planet.
I happened to mention how good it was to the member of staff who emptied these bins; he proceeded to tell me that as there were no facilities for collection, it all ended up in the general waste bins for landfill......
I'm not sure if it was a naive and inept attempt to be green or a cynical ploy to make staff feel better at helping the planet by a conscientious employer......
Better still was the discovery that the confidential waste was emptied from bins into an open backed lorry.......this of course was when it was discovered on an A road having blown off the back.....
This was made even more ridiculous by the discovery of a huge industrial shredder in the basement that was sitting unused......I understand the contractor was cheaper....can't think why....;-)
Neil
A few years ago I read of a schoolteacher somewhere in Middle England, whose class of 7 years olds were all fired up about the environment, and she contacted the county council to arrange a class visit to see what happened to all the waste the ratepayers were painstakingly sorting out. After some stalling, the council eventually admitted that the whole lot went into landfill, because they didn't have the money to do anything else. That's one of those stories that make your heart ache...
DeleteImpressive. It just needs a sort of folding firing step so that Lonnie Donegan's old man can reach the apertures.
ReplyDeleteThat and a large gas balloon on top, to complete the Jones' van look.
Very true. It also got me wondering if we should read all the signs on the hatches, so we may address our recycling efforts in a more thorough manner. There must be categories of rubbish we haven't thought of.
DeleteOr, to recapture the County Fair theme, perhaps we could attempt to throw our rubbish into the right hatches from our gates as the truck passes - there could even be prizes, and it wouldn't make much more mess. Public buy-in - now you're talking.
Hahaha...great stuff....I really enjoy your "Angry of East Lothian" type posts...most entertaining! As someone famously said about the camel..."It looks like a horse designed by a (local government) committee!
ReplyDeleteI guess the poor old local council have to take the brunt of a lot of frustration - they really do struggle for resources, I realise this. Waste collection is something we come face to face with every week, so it's irritating almost before anything goes wrong with it. The real areas of local authority grief here are connected with road maintenance and keeping the roads useable in bad weather.
DeleteThere is an old joke here (and presumably everywhere else) on a Winter theme, along the lines of what is the difference between Santa Claus and an East Lothian Snowplough/Gritter Truck? The answer is that there are people alive who claim to have seen Santa Claus.
This is all most unfair. Problem in Britain is we get a lot of vanilla and occasional spots of jalapeno. If we lived in Finland, there would be a permanent, fully funded fleet of snowploughs, because life would be impossible without it. Because we don't live in Finland, such a fleet would be used on about a dozen days a year - maybe a dozen and a half - and would be a huge waste of money, as the ratepayers would point out. On the days it snows here, grumpy old beggars like me point out how 3 inches of snow brings everything to a halt, and look how they manage in Finland (etc). Unfair - I admit it - we are comparing very dissimilar situations.
From a more practical viewpoint, I have already started putting the pop-tops from the yogurt drinks into our general waste, so I don't have to clean them up every Monday morning in the lane outside. Since I am not entirely convinced about how thorough the recycling effort is here downstream of our Monday collections, it would not take an awful lot of inconvenience to persuade me to put all the recycling in the general waste. We haven't got to that yet, but it is a possibility.
The council will save money wherever they can. I understand that. In the background, there is always the message, "when the planet does finally pack in, the current County Councillors will no longer be in office". I'd feel better about that if I didn't sometimes have the same sort of thoughts. I'll do my best to support whatever environmental protection measures are current, but a lot of unpaid labour goes into saving the Council money - it would not take a lot of hassle or stupidity to turn me off.
Angry of East Lothian
Yes I totally get it (having originated from Montrose, we did see snow ploughs and gritters quite regularly between December and March although a friend of mine who lived up Glen Esk when he was young used to get weeks off school every winter when he got snowed in! We have exactly the same kind of moaning here in NZ eg why dont Auckland and Wellington have efficient cheap public transport like London or Beijing....as the entire population of NZ is 5m, the answer is pretty obvious, but people still ask it - along with why dont we have four or six lane motorways connecting every 50,000 pop town in the country etc etc!
DeleteI have to admit that when I saw the picture of the truck I did wonder if all the openings just lead to one big space on the inside…
ReplyDeleteBut of course I’m just old and cynical 😁
All the best. Aly
You could be right! No, I think the one big space is later in the process. As far as the design goes, the phrase "Blue Peter Painting Competition" is echoing somewhere.
DeleteThat is… quite the vehicle. Indeed when Matchbox make one, you might want to get it to add to your buses.
DeleteMy Christmas tree is still awaiting pick up. Never been a problem before, just put it out by the bins on the curbside. Curious as to it’s now being there for a couple of weeks, I called the trash company. Apparently now trees need to be ‘bagged up’ before collection. Why? Why would I put a totally biodegradable tree in a plastic bag?
Anyway - good to see you made it through the latest storm, even if not the latest madness!
Not at all. We used to separate recycling into cardboard, plastic… now we have one bin. Following up, it seems one bin means everything ends up contaminated or spoiled, and so goes to the landfill anyway. Sorry, hobby horse
Delete