Wednesday 24 May 2006

Recycle Rant...

This is something that's been building for a while, so here goes!

*Rant mode on*

This morning, I went for a walk around the block, and being mid-week, it's recycling box collection time, so every household has their recycling boxes placed outside, waiting to be emptied. However, me being nosey leads to the following rant!
It can be quite interesting to see the variety of things people consume in a week and it never fails to amaze me how many bottles of wine some people can conceivably consume in presumably one week, but it's far more entertaining *cough* infuriating just seeing how STUPID and IBECILIC most people actually are...

*Dogga takes several deep breaths*

Now, it's NOT hard to recycle your rubbish, one would presume, and this is the reason why...
A. The Council provided every household with two 100% recycled plastic boxes.
B. One of these boxes is black for paper, the other green for glass, plastic and metal.
C. The Council collects these boxes once a week from the front of your abode.
D. The Council provided an easy to understand, 'what to' and 'what not to' put in the recycle boxes. Careful; Here comes the science bit:

So, here's the plastic section's yes and nos. Now this concept is obviously faaaaaaar too much for most households to comprehend, as they stick the most ridiculous things into their recycle boxes, rendering the recycling process completely inefficient. Or they stick rubbish in their normal bin, when it could be recycled... AAAGGGHHH... Grrr... Lets see it go into landfill shall we, and as I do not live near a landfill sight, the rubbish I'm responsible for must obviously magically disappear if I pop it into my wheelie bin and the nice men come and take it away so the waste can be used by knomes to house themselves. Grrr... How convenient! Or if I pop it into a bin that's not in my home, it will also magically get dealt with too... Nooo, where possible, try and recycle it or take it home to do so!

I saw several plastic Easter egg inserts with foil inside the plastic insert. AAAGGGHHH, that plastic is NOT recyclable (it has a number 7 in a triangle embossed on it) and how do you expect the foil to get out of the plastic? Recycle fairies perhaps, tending to your struggling intellectual needs and sorting it out for you? *Breathe Dogga breathe*

The best thing I saw was a large used bottle of Branston Pickle, complete with metal lid still attached and full of pickle leftovers. OMG... Somebody hold Dogga back here. FFS... I mean come on... Grrr... So who is going to separate the metal from the glass here? And what about the rancid rotting food debris eh? Oh, that doesn't matter, I'll just pop it in the recycle box and sleep easily at night, in the knowledge I've done the right enviromentally friendly thing and somebody else will sort it out? I mean, perhaps they thought they where doing the right thing, as the Council will obviuosly be rinsing this bottle out and retuning it to Cross & Blackwell to be refilled with pickle again, plus they have the lid with it too, making it even more handy!!! Grrr... Nooo, put it in the normal rubbish bin if your not going to do it right you pathetic excuse for a decent human being. AAAGGGHHH...

*Dogga takes a few more deep breaths, as blood pressure rises rapidly*

The main one, as seen above, is 'No Bottle Tops'. This is mainly because they are made out of a different material E.G. NOT HDPE or PET 1 or 2, thus contaminating the recycling process and it also stops the bottle from being crushed easily, thus taking up unnecessary room with just air. However, the amount of bottles (like 90%) in people's recycle bins that still have the caps on is unbelievable! Duhhhh... Grrr... Insert tongue behind bottom lip and push really, really, really hard! *Dogga takes a deep breath*

Grrr... and these are the people who immediately complain when a local site is suggested for an incineration plant!

If everyone just tried a little bit and did it correctly, it would make a huge difference! If only people didn't have such an 'ahh whatever, just stick it in' approach to recycling, when it couldn't be made any simpler for them. I'm not talking about going really over-the-top here or being incredibly anal about this, it's just people's arrogance towards it that winds me up and how blasé they are about something that IS important and DOES make a difference and a solution HAS been provided for them in the most convenient and easiest of ways.

*Dogga counts backwards from 10 to keep calm - Rant mode off*

Today, I'm Most Angry About: See above!

Grrr-O-Meter Rating: 9/10

6 comments:

b o o said...

aww baby stay calm *kiss*

Kayla said...

Nice rant!
What gets my Grrr going is a particular friend who drinks canned Cokes like there will be no tomorrow...and doesn't recycle because "it's just too much trouble"

(pssst..it's HNT...where's the beef??)

Anonymous said...

Excellent rant Dogga. Round of applause! Er, you mean there aren't recycle fairies where you live? We've got recycle fairies AND dumped fridge-freezer/widescreen TV/sofa/mattress fairies. As I understand it they are employed by the council who are too scared to tell the posh rich people who live at the end of our street that it's not ok to just hurl your stuff out the front door when you are bored with it. Grrr indeed!

Dakota said...

I know how you feel. This gets me mad from time to time too. These days it is so easy to recycle most of your stuff and still some people can’t be bothered. It’s almost like it’s too much trouble to think about were you put certain garbage.
If everybody tried a just a little bit harder, our environment would improve immensely.

Phil said...

Stu:
Thank you Stu and LOL @ your archive! Don't even begin to start me on how to correctly stack the boxes! :)

Boo:
I'm calm now Boo, but with a Boo [*kiss*], I'm officially calmed! x

Kayla:
It feels good to vent het up ranting like this! Thanks for reading.
Glad you associate. HNT? Is it? Oh yeah! ;->

Kees:
Amazing, is it not? Good to see you’re with me on this one Kees, but no fair... You get all the recycle fairies and then some. :-x

Dakota:
"Hear, hear"
*Dogga nods approvingly*


THANKS ALL FOR READING MY RANT. I FEEL A WHOLE LOT BETTER FOR GETTING THAT LOT OUT TO THE WORLD!

Phil said...

Kayla:
HNT entry is up!!! ;-)

If you want more pics, just send me an e-mail!