Yesterday, driving my daughter to school, I was reminded of a pet peeve.

It was rubbish pick-up day.

And house after house had piles of tiny plastic bags of rubbish strewn at the curb … some had dozens of little bags. In one neighborhood, a dog was leaving a trail of strewn litter as he worked himself down the street looking for delicacies.

What a gross scene! One wonders where these people store all this crap till they spew it on their front lawns. How many trips must it have taken to get all this mess of bags to the curb? Would you want to sit next to these folks at a restaurant?

But the questions this practice raises about the sensibilities of those cheapies who can’t bear to pay a few dollars for a rubbish can aren’t the only questions.

No doubt many of these same people damn the Council for wasting their rates dollars, or complain about nonproductive Council employees. But then turn around and make unnecessary work for the crews — paid for by rates — who must come around and gather up all these mounds of rubbish. Maybe they’d like the rubbish crews to come into their homes and empty the ashtrays, scrub the floors and clean the toilets and cat litter boxes too?!

Not exactly an issue on the scale of global warming or even land use on the Heretaunga Plains. But, c’mon people, show a little class! OK, how about just some courtesy to your neighbors?

Were I the Council, I’d say stick it in a can, or stick it … somewhere else! We’re not paying our rubbish crews to do household hygiene.

Tom

Share



Join the Conversation

2 Comments

  1. Hi Tom,

    I usually enjoy your well-informed salvos but, in this case, you are way off target. In fact, given your usual stance on “green” issues, this one could be described as a “blue on blue”, or “friendly fire” incident.

    Clearly you do not live in the urban areas of the Hastings District. What you have identified as piles of rubbish dumped at the kerbside by “cheapies who can’t bear to pay a few dollars for a rubbish can” are, in fact, the recyclables put out in separate bags by good citizens who have carefully sorted them into categories ( paper, plastics, glass and cans) as requested by the HDC. The Council rubbish truck takes only the general household rubbish tied up in the orange sacks sold for that purpose and is followed by the recycling truck, which collects all those bags you complain about.

    I agree the process is unsightly and can turn a bit messy with weather or stray dogs, however it does help both the economy and the ecology !

    Remember the cardinal rule for hunters : Ensure you have properly identified your target before firing.

  2. God bless the recyclers. But this process is really ill-conceived. Whoever came up with it should be recycled.

Leave a comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *