Wednesday 11 November 2009

What rubbish!


It's council clean-up in our street this week. It's great to get rid of all those odd and bods that have been cluttering up the place. I also like the excitement of people wandering around picking through others' rubbish to find their own treasure. We have people who are so organised they have trucks and scouters out with mobile phones. Even if people are profiting from it, it's better than all the refuse ending up at the tip.

For council clean-ups we've been told to have all items on the kerb by 4.30pm Sunday. It's now 7.30am Wednesday and it still hasn't been collected. Now I understand the council (which is run by the Greens in our area) is hoping that others will collect items and are giving them as much time as they think necessary, but it's getting ridiculous!

Besides the fact that our street looks like a rubbish dump, I now have to do some serious preparation every time we leave the house. I need to distract the girls so they don't see all their old toys on the footpath and a screaming match starts. I also need to distract them from picking through other people's garbage - old lawn mowers, rusty bed springs and fridges aren't the best playthings for toddlers. Lil-lil keeps asking why her things are on the footpath and I'm running out of answers. Telling her the truth - "They're broken toys, darling. The man is going to collect them and take them to the dump" brings howls of "They're not broken! I love them!". Which makes a quick trip to the shop for milk impossible.

You learn a lot about your neighbours in council clean-up time. There are those that never put anything out and there is the house that puts out a small city each and every time. There are those who shameless go through your stuff in broad daylight while you're out gardening in the front yard and those who sneak out after dark with a torch (you still see them anyway).

I'm not much of a greenie, I admit ( more of a shade of teal or turquoise) but could those magical people from the council please come and wave their wand and make my rubbish vanish?

4 comments:

  1. Our stuff finally got collected yesterday, after spending two days languishing on the kerb. We were getting mightily annoyed and considering ringing the council and then the truck showed up.

    I don't mind people in the street grabbing our discarded odds and sods but I strangely object to the professional scavengers. The ones that drive around slowly like predators and chop cords off old electrical appliances creep me out. I actually held off throwing out our broken VCR until the truck showed up!
    Thankfully, I didn't have to explain the broken toys to P but the next one may see me start.

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  2. How was the movie?

    Our council is very good - we can actually phone or go on the Internet to order a pick-up - of either general rubbish or green waste, up to 6 per year, up to a trailer load at a time. Absolutely fantastic. They ALWAYS come on bin day, and never miss a call out, which happens when they do those mass pick-ups!

    I hate the mass-pick up too, all the people trying to find treasure from someones trash. ergh.

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  3. I want to live in your area Katy!
    The movie was so-so. I wouldn't rush out and see it. A bit of a disappointment really.

    Sarah - the truck finally came! Only three days later...

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