Wednesday, June 24, 2009

Those of you

who have been kind enough to have stuck with me over several years of blogging may recall that I got myself into all sorts of nasty brown stuff when I wrote about a certain ex-friend who works for a company that distributes what we will refer to here as Portable Rubbish Disposal Units. Therefore I have thought long and hard about whether to mention this, and find I am unable to resist.

What does it say about the madness that is Middle England when on the first day of this 'campaign' before the morning was out they had had over 300 comments about said Portable Rubbish Disposal Units? Mind you - it is all quite shocking. Do you know that some poor women are forced to push their PRDU's over a distance of literally YARDS from the backs of their houses to enable those nasty smelly council disposal men to empty them? (Not quite on the same scale as walking miles to fetch the water is it?)

Councils are apparently 'ignoring protests, petitions and marches' in their haste to issue households with these monstrosities. What? Run that past me again? Protest, petitions and marches? WHO in their right mind bothers to take part in an anti- PRDU march? Does anyone know of one that has been organised as I would have to go along - it sounds hilarious.

If you feel life is probably too short to bother with the entire article (or indeed to go on an anti - PRDU march) I will just highlight this particular gem for you:

Politicians and celebrities are joining the fight. Shadow Local Government Minister Bob Neill said: 'Households up and down the country are being hit by the curse of PDRU's - an obsession of bin bureaucrats. Obsessed bin bureaucrats! They sound like fun people. I want to meet one of them too! (Are we really shortly to be electing a government made up of people who genuinely believe in the existance of obsessed bin bureacrats?)

But here is in fairness a good point: And without plastic bins, (Richmond) locals are free to enjoy their front gardens or walk down the pavement without bumping into a bin. Though having acknowledged in true liberal fashion that that is such a good point I would mention that I have the things (two of them) but still find that as a general rule I am capable of walking down the pavement without bumping into one - but then may be I tend to do that old fashioned thing of looking where I am going? I also manage to feel fairly free to enjoy my front garden.....except for that sodding bindweed of course.

Anyway, how about a campaign for the return of the good old days when we used black bin bags? They were great weren't they, especially when they tended to spilt sending rubbish blowing about all over the road. Our local rats will be joining this campaign forthwith.


(Please don't mention W.B's here! google is all powerful - and don't I have good reaosn to know it!)

11 comments:

menopausaloldbag (MOB) said...

Ah the good old bin debate! Set to run and run and run!

J.J said...

Yorkshire Pudding said...
I wish they would give me two more w.b's and then come and collect our tin/plastics and our glass. This would save me fortnightly journeys to a recycling centre. But what about all those many people who don't have access to cars?
Recently I have felt quite proud to discover that in seven days we sometimes put absolutely nothing in our main general w.b's. By the way, what brown stuff were you talking about? Toffee? Coffee? Soil?

6:15 PM

J.J said...

Oh I think so don't you MOB? Madness - sheer madness!

YP - apologies for altering your comment. I have to confess to being totally paranoid about the W.B words appearing here as it really did get me in masses of - erh - shit since you ask!

Brilliant to go seven days recycling every thing btw... good one.

trousers said...

I strongly recommend reading this, if you haven't already: it was in the Guardian last Sunday, and gives a beautifully acerbic take on the whole thing.

JoeinVegas said...

Even here the city wants us to have three bins, one greens one recycle one trash. Now we have three recycle boxes and sort it ourselves, but if we go to one then we get fortnight pickup instead of twice a week. Imaging a full trash bin after two weeks in 40c weather.

Karen said...

I live in a terrace and as such have very little space to keep a wb, and the lorry to empty said bins can't fit down our back lane, only the standard kind that collects bags can. The council can't make you wheel a bin through your house so therefore I still put out bags. Iam restricted to two per week though as we recycle paper, glass, metal, plastic and cardboard.

Lisa Rullsenberg said...

We're lucky: we live in a house with a garden, so have our own compost bin (not effectively used but hey: we try) as well as the trash bin (fortnightly collections) and recycle bin (alternate fortnightly collections).

This works fine for us, BUT I do appreciate that when you live in less spacious environs (flats, shared houses etc) these arrangements may not suit.

Still, the protests sem very good fun indeed. Where do we sign up?!

J.J said...

Thanks for the link Trousers - hilarious!

Joe - I don't want to imagine that trash bin everso vividly - yuk!!!

Karen - what does amaze me is the way some people seem to truly resent being asked to recycle their rubbish - what on earth is their problem with that?

Lisa - I can just see the two of us battling with the riot police over our right not to have a PRDU in our front yard!

naldo said...

The Daily Mail, like Jeremy Clarkson, is like a parody/personification of every idea i despise on this island.

They would be hilarious if they weren't taken seriousloy by millions of erm....ordinary people.

jay said...

We have had three - actually, in our case four - wheelie bins for years now. And yes they are a *bleep* nuisance if you happen to walk along the road after dark on the day before a bin collection. People cannot be bothered to park them properly and so yes, I have walked into them, or been forced into the road to walk around them - and no, with two bum shoulders I cannot move them, and neither can my blind friend who walks with a guide dog, or the little old partially sighted lady I found wrapped round a lamp-post last year at nearly 11pm, poor soul.

And yes, they are only collected fortnightly which means they really do stink to high heaven in the summer.

Having said all of that, I think it's right that we should be dividing our rubbish into household (bury or burn), recyclable, and compostable garden waste. I just wish there was a more sensible way to do it. You see, we're very lucky. We have a large tarmacked area at the front of our house. If you have no outside property, where the heck are you supposed to store them?

J.J said...

Naldo - I understand your hesitation to call DM readers 'ordinary people'. The commentators on their website give me nightmares!

Jay - I guess it doesn't help when you get inconsiderate neighbours. Where people don't have outside areas I think they usually have communal bins for the general waste and recycling.