More Rubbish About Rubbish

On the ninth of October last, I wrote an article about rubbish. Unfortunately I feel I have to make some further points more strongly, because the Local Authorities in conjunction with the Government are still intending to further charge us for collecting our rubbish. They are using the current, excessive amounts being put out for collection as a case in point, without due regard that during the Christmas period people were given large quantities of packaging, which inevitably had to be disposed of, and that there was also a change in the collection routine.

When a fair proportion of the population is spending in excess of its income, it is not surprising that it is overbuying. During the same period I was given several items of hardware for my computer. I discovered the large size of the boxes in which these articles came and the miniscule amount of information in book form. The boxes were half the size of a cornflake packet, containing in one case, a very small Life-cam, with next to no information, a CD, and a small package of wiring. This was not an isolated case, it seemed to be commercial policy.

With the spending boom, of which we are told we are unique in Europe, coupled with, one assumes, a general marketing assumption that the bigger the packet, the bigger the sales, the amount of rubbish will continue to rise. We have arrived at the absurd point concerning the wrapping and packaging, where the box is more important than the contents. How often does one by a pie in a huge box, only to find that the pie itself, in yet another box, is much smaller than anticipated – a disappointment all round.

It therefore seems only logical, that a tax should be placed upon the suppliers of the goods to cover the increase in waste disposal rather than on the individual who has no say in the matter. The proposed system of the extra costing of waste disposal is a very cumbersome and unwieldy one, open to all manner of abuse. I urge anyone who feels as strongly as I do, to address this matter to a wider audience such as MPs and newspapers, because not only will we all suffer from this injustice, but once the system is underway they’ll discover that it doesn’t work like so many current attempts at policy, and then have to change it after spending millions on bins with chips in them.