Throw out these rules for recycling

10:41am Friday 25th July 2008

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By Shuiab Khan »

I used to love the idea of recycling until the little rules and regulations took over.

In the beginning we had to put everything into the green boxes. Life was easy. Life was great.

The green boxes were wonderful until some smart Faz Patel figured out that the boxes were actually too small to hold more than ten bottles and the lids kept blowing off in high wind.

Then they told me I had to put the plastic bottles in the green bin and all the paper into the clear polythene bag. I was all for this method until they changed the rule on me again.

At this point I kind of became a little agitated. They then said I had to put all the recyclables in to the grey bin and not the purple bin.

This rule change kind of threw me for a while. But like all good council-taxpayers I eventually got used to it.

After a while they opted for a new rule change. I was now to put the plastic bottles, glass bottles and paper into one clean see-through bag. No separating, just bang them all into one bag. But it had to be a special kind of bag. Not our bag but their bag.

I got told they won’t pick up the recyclables unless they are in the free clear plastic bags. I hurried to the place where I was told they dish out clear plastic bags for free only to be told they had run out. ‘We never have enough bags here,’ said the free clear plastic bag bloke.

Then, they went one step further. You couldn’t put your bags out on certain days because if you did they might accuse you of dumping the stuff. And you would have to hoard the stuff for two weeks in your kitchen because they were only coming every two weeks.

And if that isn’t enough they are now having a go at the black bin-liners. Apparently you can’t put black bin liners out. They have to be the council’s purple coloured ones. If for some reason they don’t give you enough purple bin liners you can’t make do with the black ones because if you do the bin men will ignore them.

Now, I am all for saving the planet but I must admit I hate recycling. I hate the fact that despite wanting to do the right thing I am in essence breaking some rule or other.

The moment they started making little issues out of a big issue I kind of lost confidence in the whole system.