I’ve been trying to avoid this, but I don’t think there’s any way around this. I think we have stupid neighbours.
It’s the garbage collection. Granted, it’s not the ideal set-up. For our block of six flats we have:
- A set of six small bins for bottle and can recycling.
- Paper recycling collected from the curb only once a month, so you really need some spare space for a serious pile somewhere if you’re going to bother.
- Three big bins for all the other crap that can’t or won’t get recycled.
But now here comes the masterstroke of logic that probably kept dozens of bureaucrats at the City Of Glen Eira busy giggling into the night. We have another
big bin, also for bottle and can recycling. Nobody knows why. But it has a distinctive red lid so the general garbage collector guy in his truck with the robot arm doesn’t pick it up.
So roaming the streets every Wednesday morning are two sets of bottle and can collectors. Thank goodness merging local councils has made them super lean and efficient.
One or more of our neighbours just can’t fathom this red-lidded bin. Not even after a booklet about it, a special letter, and stickers placed all over the bin saying what should be in it. Every week it shows up on the curb with the other big bins, full of the wrong kind of rubbish.
And every week the collectors ignore it, or add a few more stickers. Hopefully eventually the council will realise what a monumental screw-up they’ve committed by (a) collecting bottles and cans twice every Wednesday, and paper only once a month and (b) entrusting my neighbours with the relatively simple task of putting a particular type of rubbish into a particular bin.
