Ecologist (April 2006)
Very, very interesting. But, of course, most of you knew all this anyway. 
Really just wanted to bookmark it for myself. 
What a great idea!
I think this is long overdue, and I shall be putting one in the truck for those cross country off roading trips, where the only loos are dry stone walls or scanty shrubs!
Complaints
But only to the council this time. Actually, I’m not a complainer (might have gotten further with the builders if I had been!), but they’re doing this pilot scheme which means we will have two wheely bins. One black, for regular rubbish, and one green, for garden waste and thin cardboard. Which is all well and good, until you get to the bit where it tells you they’ll be collected fortnightly.
The whole idea is to encourage recycling, waste reduction and conscientious consumption. Which is great, if you’re a regular household with two working adults, two school kids, a new house on one of the estates with a stamp sized garden, ready meals in the freezer and alternate meals out of a tin.
If you’re a family of five that cooks from scratch and composts all your own garden waste, you’re faced with an altogether different dynamic. Our black bin is normally full each week. So is the recycling box (paper, glass, tins). We have no garden waste to put in the green bin. James takes the cardboard to work as he’s got a skip for it that goes to a recycling plant - and he can take thick box cardboard as well as the cereal packet kind.
So what on earth do they think they’re going to achieve by only collecting our black bin once a fortnight? Seems to me, nothing but a health hazard.
I rang them up - a big fat envelope full of information on what we can put in our green bin and what we can’t, written in several different ways, in different fonts and colours (just to get your attention), plus big A5 stickers foryou to put on your bins just to make sure you know what you’re putting in which bin, landed on the mat about the same time as they dropped the bin off. I read through, noting the offer of a free Bokashi bin to certain households, and picked up the phone.
Surprisingly, I got right through, and had a very nice chat with a very friendly girl on the other end, who was probably relieved to find herself talking to someone who wasn’t shouting at her or complaining. 
I explained that I was a bit concerned, that we composted everything, didn’t buy lots of prepack tinned food, that we recycled most things anyway, and our black bin was still full at the end of a week. And then I mentioned having a baby in nappies, albeit cloth in the day and that I didn’t think having nappies in a black bin for a fortnight in August was really an acceptable health risk. She agreed with me, and took all my details, saying someone from Community First (whoever they may be) would be in touch to discuss my concerns and to see what could be arranged, as she was of the opnion that I had some valid points.
Half an hour later, someone phoned back to say that they’d be delivering me a Bokashi bin in a couple of weeks. One result, anyway. (Edited to add, thanks for the link Tim)
Thank the gods
For some good news!
For those of you who have been completely bored to tears by the whole builders saga (and who wouldn’t be - it’s pretty much a year since it all began - they started digging the footings this time last year on the day we left for Kessingland), there is light at the end of the tunnel! A small snippet of good news, some actual advancement on useless Bodge Lowther and his hapless cohorts.
Shortly after James’ mum’s death, I advised our useless builder that it would probably be condusive to his continuing good health if he were to stay away from us (meaning James) or he may or may not end up bearing the brunt of James’ irritation at the whole situation. The lad showed a surprising level of self-preservation, and we didn’t hear a peep from him for several weeks. So then we wrote him a letter. Something along the lines of ‘you’re pretty damn useless, you’ve had the best part of a year, three written warnings etc etc. So you are now fired and you owe us £5000 so we can get the bodged bits fixed and the undone bits done.”
He phoned, we told him we were getting quotes and the bit about £5k had just been to grab his attention.
We let him stew for the best part of 3 weeks.
James phoned him on Wednesday and told him the good news - that it would only be £3750 to finish all the bodged bits off. He ummed and awwwed and said he’d have a chat with his dad and get back to us.
This afternoon, James got a text, saying “just to check the figure was 3750, should be able to get a cheque to you next week, hope that’s ok, regards, Bodge”
Halle-bloody-lujia! There was me, all braced to go into battle with the online claims thingy, gearing up to argue the case… and he caved in. I have a funny feeling it was his old man giving him a severe bollocking that did the trick, kind of “you screwed up, you pay up”. Of course, I’m not going to celebrate until the cheque is actually in the bank and cleared, but I’m allowed a small glass of fizzy pop in anticipation.
So, our new builder, who has quoted in writing (!), will start mid August, and finish by end August. 2 weeks, he reckons. If he does, I might be tempted to kiss him. Poor chap.
