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Thursday, 27 January 2011

Things I still don't get about Australia - No 32

An observation inspired by Nannyknowsbest, who notes that some councils are going to start rationing bin bags.
I see that some of Nanny's insubordinate and disobedient councils are ignoring Uncle Eric Pickles's recent request to resume weekly waste collection, and are instead implementing plans to ration bin bag collections to around 50-100 sacks per household per year.

It seems that around 180 or our "respected" local councils are looking into this plan, already being enforced in Broxbourne.

In Broxbourne families get one bag a week for general waste, a bag a fortnight for plastic bottles, a box for recycling and a green wheelie bin every two weeks for food and green waste.
I may have mentioned this before (oh, alright, I definitely have mentioned it) but refuse collection is a bit better here than where I used to live in the UK. We have a rubbish bin and a recycling bin like we did there but we basically chuck in absolutely anything and everything with a recycling symbol on it wit no sorting needed on our part. As long as you clean any food off it, in it goes. And unlike our old place in Blighty both bins are emptied weekly, and we don't get dragged from our beds by armed bin men in the middle of the night and taken off for re-education if we stick the bins out the previous night. Well, another big difference was made clear to me this week. One of our neighbours a few doors down put his bins out and one of them was so full the lid wasn't shut by at least 8 inches. Did the driver of the collection vehicle complain? Did he leave a fixed penalty notice on the bin? Did he empty some out so the lid shut? Did he refuse to take the refuse? As far as I can tell the answer is no to all of them, though I didn't see the collection take place. I went out and our full bin with the closed lid was still waiting to be emptied, as was the one down the road with the lid open at nearly 45˚. I came back and all the bins in the road were empty.

So what is it about Australian councils, all of whom are committed believers in warble gloaming and the rest of the doom laden planet death tripe trope, that they can make recycling both easy and not at the expense of normal garbage disposal? What is it about British councils that not only does this seem beyond them but they're now talking about rationing the fucking bin bags?

I have two suggestions. First, the EU. And secondly I suspect the councils here may actually give a shit about the place not looking like it's inhabited only by tramps.

Comments (6)

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Your first thought is the correct one - just another example of the absurdity of having a government in Westminster, when the strings are being pulled from abroad...
1 reply · active 734 weeks ago
Mainly EU, but I do think they really don't care much either.
adelaide girl's avatar

adelaide girl · 734 weeks ago

I would say it is because of the heat ,especially at this time of year, leave any food scraps in the bin for a short length of time and it is heaving with maggots as we found out this week. Also people are qiuck to act if they are unhappy , our council did not have a hard rubbish collection this financial year but forgot to tell the tax payers until council elections were being held and they were in caretaker mode. They also blamed the contractors for not having the correct vehicles. one person took matters into their hands and dumped their hard waste in front of a council members house.
1 reply · active less than 1 minute ago
True, it is warmer here. But here in Mellie the seasonal difference is only a couple of degrees. It's certainly capable of getting hot enough in the UK to get stinking, fly blown bins. Seriously I do think it is the influence of the EU there, or at least that's a big part of it.
Again in Adelaide (Elizabeth), there seems to be some strange things going on in the rubbish collection departments. At my father-in-laws place, there are three bins, one each for rubbish, recycling and green (compostible). Rubbish is collected weekly, and the others on alternate fortnights but there is an extra annual charge for the green rubbish. Occasionally there might be a hard rubbish collection but as I don't live in the area I don't know the details.

The interesting thing (for me) is that each bin has a number, address and bar code as well as something like an e-tag. Perhaps like the new credit card system. My understanding is that video cameras will be fitted to the trucks to verify the correct contents of the bins. THEY will then be able to monitor exactly what rubbish you dispose of, how much it weighs and where you live. They can reduce the hydraulic pressure on the trucks so that it can only pick up a predetermined weight so they can control much you can put out.

In the interests of recycling, when the old bins were replaced with the new colour coded ones, the contractors immediately put a hole in the side of the old bins making them absolutely useless to anyone. I just can't see the logic in this activity.

We have one driver in a truck with a hydraulic arm for picking up bins and I would expect this to be the universal arrangement now. A truck, driver and 2 people picking up bins is probably obsolete now. Thats 2 people unemployed but they would thank you for health and safety reasons or perhaps its because they did take too many sickies.

It seems that all goverments quietly put the clamps on society and then start squeezing and when it starts to hurt and you start to notice it will be too late.
1 reply · active 734 weeks ago
They cut holes in the side of all those perfectly serviceable beer coolers? I'd have thought that was practically a hanging offence here. :D

Yeah, the single operator truck with robo-bin-grabber-arm seems to be pretty much universal in all urban areas. Certainly makes collections easier.

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