Con or conundrum?

What have the following items in common?

• a cardboard box containing unused rolls of wall-paper;
• a broken wicker basket;
• a sack of shredded letter paper;
• a discarded zippered shopping bag;
• rolled foam-plastic camping pallets.

Yep: neither the regular refuse nor the recycling service of Haringey will take them.

Every week there is a ritual. Malcolm collects and sorts the waste, and leaves it out for the weekly collection. In the cold light of dawn the refuse truck collects the contents of the wheelie-bin, usually resulting in it being thrown back down the driveway on its side. There is a lull until later, often much later, the recycling truck comes for the rest. And then begins a selection process, which results in the left-over of either party remaining where Malcolm left it, or (more often) scattered more widely as it was discarded.

Malcolm then has to refill the wheelie bin with the residue, to be collected a week later, or remove it himself to the recycling centre across the Borough. The later option, involving an unnecessary car journey, seems to defeat the whole object.

Clearly there is a mismatch between the Borough's stated aims, the operatives' implementation and Malcolm's understanding thereof. What's to be done? Sphere: Related Content