A dust up with the bin men.

I had a slight dust up with the dustbin men today. Owing to my age you see I am supposedly exempt from all this Wheelie bin malarkey, not that anyone of any age around here wheels their bins anywhere mind you, but because I am over 65 I am supposed to be still using my old bin and be provided with five black bags per fortnight.  A lady from the local authority came to see me when all this ‘wheelie bin’ business and new rules regarding residents sorting the recycling into different containers first came into force.

My Wheelie bin SHOULD have been collected following my grilling interview and subsequent exemption from being expected to push a wheelie bin down the path to the roadside kerb. As you might guess, no one came to collect it so there it stayed in my bin area outside next to my ‘old’ bin.  I have now discovered that this confuses the bin men.  Instead of the authority supplying the bin men with some sort of list of ‘elderly exempt residents who need black bag supplies’ it transpires that the only criteria applied when deciding whether or not to leave some bags is ‘is there a wheelie bin present?’

I found this out today quite by chance. You see on their last visit a fortnight ago, they didn’t leave me any bags so I had to buy some despite the fact that we are told we should only use THEIR blag bags. Strange as it seems, up until then they HAD been leaving me some black bags, usually left hanging over the old bin as they took out my full black bags.  Because of the previous oversight on their part, Technogran was diligently listening for their arrival today and at the first ‘clunk’, loud shouts and the usual cussing and swearing, she quickly scooted downstairs, out the flat and along the path in pursuit of said bin men who had taken her Wheelie bin full of just about everyone else's rubbish to the dustbin wagon to empty.

They have done this trick before, and what would have happened had I not been diligently watching out for them is that I (oldest resident on the block) would have had to then go and fetch it back from the side of the garages where they had left it.  But today I was in hot pursuit of some ‘official’ black bags. 

“You haven’t left me any black bags again!” I stated to bin man as he trundled two wheelie bins from the dustcart to the side of the garages. “I’m over 65, and I should get some black bags left.”

“Which flat are you?” he asked glowering at me as he did so.   I told him the number. “Ahh! You shouldn’t leave a Wheelie bin there! That’s why we don’t leave you any black bags! Leave your Wheelie bin here by the garages then we’ll know your on black bags!”

Hmm. Strange then that since we began this nightmare that is our authorities ‘Recycling Scheme’ and despite a Wheelie bin being stood next to my old bin all this time because no one came to collect it, they have been leaving me some black bags until a fortnight ago isn’t it?

TG 

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