I was on the bus early on Sunday morning nebbing in to the conversation between the two old women sitting in front of me. They were discussing the state of Edinburgh's bin collection - the communal bin in the photo above is the one at the front door of my tenement. According to one of the women, it's the same all over the city, "even in Marchmont!"
I'm happy to be corrected here, but I don't think the bins have been emptied since before Christmas. Certainly not this year. The rubbish is not only piling up next to the bins but is blowing around the streets. The foxes and Nazi Seagulls From Hell must think it's...well, Christmas.
So anyway, back to the conversation that I shouldn't have been listening to. One of the women turned to her companion and told her that she had noticed the recycling bins were still getting emptied. "Well," she said, "I've been looking at absolutely everything I throw away to see if it can go in the recycling".
Ah, it fair warmed the heart to hear that!
When the binmen went on strike last year, Edinburgh's recycling rates shot up. I expect the same will happen this month.
3 comments:
It's odd though that the recycling bins are getting emptied. Perhaps this is a deliberate ploy and as you say over Christmas the strike did increase recycling rates.
even better actually if the reduce and reuse mindsets were to take hold, that would be really revolutionary....
I think there would have to be a fundamental shift in society for reduce and reuse to take hold, not just amongst consumers but manufacturers too.
It'll be hard to break the "planned obsolescence" thinking behind some products.
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