My father moved up to the bright lights of East Anglia from Hertfordshire a couple of months ago and he is still confused.
This state is not due to his age (he is in his 80s) but the recycling and waste collection rules of his new local council.
After 50 years living in the same town he was pretty au fait with what could and couldn’t be left outside the house on the pre-designated day and time and what had to be taken to the local “tip”.
He knew exactly what went into which large (black or blue) bin, the small green bin and the black rectangular box.
Simples
really? Oh no it isn’t. In his naivety he assumed, perhaps understandably, that
his new local council would have the same rules as his previous spender of
council tax.Sorry, dad, but you can’t put your glass into a box outside the house – it has to be taken to a bottle bank (either at a local village hall or a council waste site).
And your old newspapers cannot go in the brown bin anymore – that’s basically for potato peelings only.
And your general household waste can’t be put in plastic bags on the pavement – it still has to go into plastic bags but these must be put inside the bin. Now, what colour bin is that?
The whole situation is pretty bonkers. How difficult would it be for the UK, or England at least, to have a joined-up recycling and waste policy?
Then the black bin would be for general household waste, the brown bin for compostable materials and the blue bin for recyclable materials e.g. paper, card, plastics and glass.
I guess there is a reason why West Suffolk Council has a different policy to Breckland and, for that matter, East Herts to North Herts. But could someone please explain it to me?
