For years now I have been pointing out to the council (East Renfrewshire) that this is a residential area that people move to to get their kids into decent schools and as such most families around here have kids. Kids drink a lot of milk, water, diluting juice, coke, fanta etc all of which come in large plastic bottles. They eat a lot of yogurt from plastic cartons. They get dirty outside so use a lot of shampoo, clothing detergents etc which all come in large plastic bottles - so why the hell do they recycle everything except plastic???? Every time I have rung them or emailed them since 2001, they have told me they are 'looking in to the matter, and the service should be available later in the year'.
So this morning I am sitting here with my coffee, when a wee leaflet gets posted through my door by the council telling me their new refuse policy. Excellent, I thought... well until I read the small print - your 110 litre bag will be emptied monthly. 110 litres monthly???? Are they insane? I won't be able to get out my back door for 3 of the 4 weeks for the mountain of milk bottles. Ho hum.
It's fascinating that council's must be the same all over the world. Here in Christchurch, Down Under, our council has been debating for YEARS how to deal with recycling. At the moment we have a small 30 or 40 litre bin for plastics and glass, picked up weekly. Not bad. But our brilliant council's plan? To give each household THREE huge wheelie bins. So can you imagine the carnage at an apartment block with 20 flats? 60 bins waiting outside to be picked up? I can't wait to see that.
Not to mention the corruption that sems to be hovering around the contracts to distribute and pick up the new bins.