Many domestic refuse collection services in the UK are winding down from weekly to fortnightly, for the first time in my lifetime. Or they are threatening to do so, and it’s not always clear when it may happen. Which I entirely approve of.
Whether the more densely-populated areas such as my own dear Haringey will make the switch and stick with it is going to be interesting, what with the dangers of increased vermin and aroma concerns. But in terms of making what Americans terms a ‘wake-up call’ to the wasteful UK populace, it really seems to be working.
People are visibly recycling more and ditching less. Or rather, they’re purchasing fewer items which cannot be easily recycled. It’s the plastic tubs, carrier bags, fast food cartons, ready meal trays and other plastic food packaging that Haringey Council can’t take away (ho and indeed ho), even though many of these items are themselves marked as recyclable with those cute little symbols. It’s all very well saying there’s special depots to go to to dispose of such materials (eg for the long-term batteries used in electronic devices), but on the whole many people are just going to put everything their council can’t collect automatically into their normal dustbin.
Now that there’s this threat of fortnightly collections, however, people are really starting to enjoy the challenge of reducing their waste. Seeing one’s dustbin liners contain fewer and fewer items feels rather good for the soul. Even neighbourly one-upmanship can be used to do good in this regard; recycling is now seen as a matter of civic pride rather than the hippy-like eccentricity it once was. The curtain-twitchers have become the ‘alternative’ types they once feared.
To be the household on one’s street with the most black bin liners outside its gate is now utterly shameful. Black bags are black marks. This is the secret of real social change. Once you can harness the power of public embarrassment, you can make the English do anything.
Maybe some sort of 21st Century ASBO stocks should be brought back for certain repeat offenders; not to pelt burglars with rotten fruit, but just to embarrass them in public. Perhaps they should be forced to wear a pair of Mickey Mouse ears and nose. Or just dress them like me. There could be a sign above the miscreant’s head saying: “Here is a local criminal. Doesn’t he look gay?”
Maybe that wouldn’t work in the case of the Krays. I haven’t thought it through.
But I digress.
For my own anti-waste part, I’ve reduced my ready meal intake dramatically. I rarely buy them anymore. When you’re made more aware than ever that plastic tubs and trays just take up a landfill site for no good reason, it’s really hard to ever buy them again. And of course, there’s just no style to them. Not even those really nice ones at Marks & Spencer.
Wax-lined drinks cartons have had to go from my life, too. However ‘innocent’ the smoothies within say they are, if your council cannot recycle them in their weekly collection tubs, they’re the work of Satan.
A pressing concern is the recycling of CDRs and old VHS tapes. But thanks to the Web, I’ve now learned you can send away your piles of unsellable CDs to be made into burglar alarm boxes and street lighting:
http://www.london-recycling.co.uk
Here’s a company that will take your old VHS tapes off you for 20p a go:
http://www.tapesuk.co.uk/acatalog/Tape_Disposal.html
That trendy anti-waste shopping bag which people queued up for the other week has come under fire. Its slogan ‘I’m Not A Plastic Bag’ has been parodied as ‘I’m Not A Smug T–t’ by one Brick Lane stall holder who makes her own bags. Of course, to advertise to the world that you’re NOT smug is extremely smug in itself.
The news coverage of such bags will only last so long, and I suspect the irony is that they’ll be put out for recycling themselves in a few months, replaced by some other trendy bag. But what will stay is a general sense of people cutting down on their conspicuous consumption. Good news.
