Rubbish

So, my local council, Angus, have implemented compulsory kerbside recycling. What does that mean? Well, they've issued everyone with a green wheelie bin and a plastic box along with the usual grey wheelie bin. You must now sort your rubbish into the correct receptacle and put them out for collection on the correct days.

The grey bin will be collected alternate Tuesdays in tandem with the green bin while the box will be collected every Friday. It appears they will rifle through your rubbish first to make sure you've got everything in the right bin. If they find an offending item like a tin can in you grey bin they'll refuse to empty it. I can see a lot of angry letters to the local paper when this all starts next month.

The green bin is for rubbish which can be composted like grass cuttings, plant trimmings, tea bags, coffee grinds, potato peelings etc. but no cooked food or raw meat. The box is for paper (but not cardboard), glass (washed but no lids) cans (washed) plastic bottles (washed but no lids) and newspapers, junk mail (but no envelopes) phone books (but no yellow pages). Paper should be placed in a plastic bag but not in the box!

I'm all for doing my bit for the environment but these rules are just overcomplicating the matter and if a jobsworth starts raking through the rubbish to catch people out they'll cause a lot of ill feeling. Similarly the problem of trying to remember which box/bin is due for collection will I'm sure cause problems particularly among the elderly.

When I lived in Germany we had something similar but even more extreme. Every household had a grey bin, a green bin, a white bin and a brown bin with each one only emptied once a month. Madness.