Hyde Park. All Excited about Bins

Just in case you have tuned in for the next instalment of the West Park Saga, I am briefly returning to my roots here:

"not my problem anymore"

Went to the Community Forum at Woodsley Road Community Centre this evening. Got all excited about bins. If you read the papers you'd think it's all about how your own bins get forgotten - and once for four weeks running. Here's some pics of Moorland Avenue to that effect:

nicely lined up even after 4 weeks

But now I have met a dedicated [in both senses of the word] environmental officer with some ideas re bins and their collections.  Chris explained the different approaches to refuse collections that he and his department were experimenting with.

And now this is exciting.

I get really depressed when I hear the familiar clink of glass on inside of bin. There's a student house not a million miles, and after you've been kept awake by the imbibing bit, get irritated by the weeing in the streets, then you find the glass empties are destined for landfill.

"What pavement?"

Well, I'm thinking: it's the 21st century; recycling has been around awhile; there's bottle banks everywhere; we have a Green MP in this country. This lot must have spent ages at school, and  got 3 good A levels to get the redbrick that is Leeds University or the 60s concrete that is the Met. Were they too busy in the library to put out the rubbish? Did they all have servants for the after-dinner side of life? I do hope they are not doing economics and going to be the MPs of the future.

Well irritation is one thing. But how to educate the already over-educated? Round our table at Woodsley the ideas ran from information to prosecution. Someone suggested parking fines for bins left on the pavements [love that one]; another suggestion was making examples of a few. The maximum fine for not putting bins back off the street is £75.  I'm up for that one too.

What's really important here is not a few do-gooding locals and their war on people who don't recycle, but really the future of the planet. If you don't go to the bottle bank half a mile down the road to do your bit, then whatever else don't you do?