Fuss About Nothing?

Photo Copyright: Maggie May

Although I'm not the most patient of people, I think I am reasonable and try and see things through others' point of view even if I do fail at times.

However, my patience is now running very thin.

There has been a bit of a saga going on here for the last month concerning our household and the City Council. Maybe it is not the City Council's fault but they gave a contract to a firm who deals with our garden waste and all the other things that we now have to recycle.

I'd like to add that I am a keen recycler and fully support all recycling.

So what is the fuss about?

I pay the Council a sum of money every year for a green bin and the chance to have this emptied every week, providing I put it out on the pavement by 7 am on collection day.

The green bin is for garden waste, leaves and plants, small branches, weeds and grass cuttings etc. Among the other things that are on the list for collection in this bin is small animal bedding, providing they are not meat eaters and this includes rabbits.

I have had the rabbits for two years and there has never been any problem with the Council picking up my green bin contents........ until now, that is.

The problem began a month ago when my bin was not collected. I do struggle with getting the bin out because of my hip and spinal problems not to mention my sore wrists that are arthritic.

Well it is worth the effort to get the bin emptied. I have a small garden and cannot now cope with compost bins because it is all too heavy for me.

If the bin isn't emptied, then I have to struggle to get it in and out of the garden several times until the next collection date, while the bin gets heavier with more things being added.

The first time I complained by phone, I was told that my bin hadn't been emptied because I'd not paid my yearly subscrition. I was a bit surprised by this and went to the bank to find out if there was a problem. They said everything was fine and that they'd rung the Council for me and the money was going through by Direct Debit as it always had done. I was told it was an Council administration error.

However, the Council insisted that I hadn't paid and when I pointed out that my next door neighbour's waste bin hadn't been collected either, the girl I was speaking to told me that whole streets were on the fiddle and that they were clamping down on all the people who had green bins but were not paying.

I thought this was a terrible thing to say to someone who had always paid and I guessed the neighbour hadn't got into arrears either. I think the street had been missed out by the collectors.

The woman said it was my word against hers but because I was making a fuss they would send someone round to empty my bin. I asked them to empty the neighbour's bin too as it was out on the street next to mine.

My husband was painting the front door when the lorry came round on a different day from normal, especially to empty my bin. They told him I was not on the list of people who had paid so they shouldn't really be doing it. They didn't empty my neighbour's bin although it was on the pavement by mine.

When I learned about this I rang to complain about my neighbour's bin and to give them the details of my payment from the Bank Statement that I had found.

I asked why they'd left my neighbour's bin when it was out on the street next door to mine?

They told me the neighbour hadn't actually complained. I asked if they thought this was a complete waste of public money to have to keep coming back to empty bins several times when it could be done in one visit.

I was assured that everything would be collected the next week.

I shouldn't have been surprised when I realised my bin had not been emptied on collection day the following week. I was told, when I rang to complain, that I hadn't paid, so the Council couldn't collect. I reminded them of my Direct Debit details, told them of my health problems and the fact that I found the bins difficult even when they were not so full and although they seemed empathetic about that, they still insisted that it was because I hadn't paid.

However, they would phone through to admin and try and get me taken off the *black list*.

The next week I put my green waste bin out with a sinking heart because I didn't have high hopes of it being emptied. I was rather shocked to hear from my husband that next door's bin had been emptied but mine hadn't. The lorry had come but not taken my bin contents. Instead they had slapped a note on it to say it contained things that they couldn't handle.

I rang up again.

"Oh...... you mean there are animal faeces in the green bin? Well no wonder they wouldn't pick up."

I explained that the rabbits' droppings in their bedding didn't exactly come under the heading of smelly faeces. (Though technically they were faeces). I asked if they would go and check if there were new rules that said they wouldn't take rabbit's bedding/droppings anymore. They came back and told me that no, rabbits' droppings and bedding were considered alright for recycling and that perhaps the collectors thought I'd put in cat faeces.

I think a two year old would be able to know the difference between rabbit droppings and cat faeces and I asked them how the drivers could be enlightened about it. After a long think, the rather polite man I was speaking to asked if I could put a note on my bin saying that it was rabbit bedding and nothing to do with cats. The man was very apologetic and said he was writing quite a severe complaint to the drivers.

I did tell them that every time the bin is not emptied on collection day, I was going to complain and ask them to come out and empty my bin on another day. This is what they are obliged to do if the bin gets over looked.

So if you are all wondering why your Council tax bills are so high, then maybe this has something to do with it.

I am not getting too excited about my bin getting emptied on collection day. Maybe I will never get it emptied again.

Would you be annoyed if you were paying for a service that was not being done?

Any suggestions, if they continue to miss out my bin?

The Environment and Bags

Hosted by Cecily and MamaGeek

As many of you know, I am very much into recycling and saving things.

Harry and I have both taken large things to the city tip and smaller unwanted items get taken to Charity shops.

I am still putting out my clippings from my garden shrubs for the Council to pick up weekly and that seems an endless task. By the time the honeysuckle on one side of the garden has been brought under control, it is time to prevent the shrubs on the other side from taking over. Never mind, I do not begrudge the Council from taking my cuttings and turning them into compost to be sold, even though I pay for the bin hire. No I think that is a very good thing to do.

I am still saving all the paper and separating it from card. The aluminium is still going to Church to sponsor a girl in Bangladesh and I still tend to pick up cans in the street for recycling when I see them cluttering up our local area.

I sort out glass and tin for the kerbside collection and I take plastic to recycling points. Now we can take plastic bottles and plastic bags to the same point and also even silver lined milk cartons too.

I've mentioned before that it is all rather time consuming but I don't mind in the least.

I am sometimes concerned when I read that things that have been carefully separated and recycled have been seen to be squashed back together only to be sent to China or another faraway country, in containers for disposal there. Other news bulletins have proclaimed that recycled things do end up in landfill sites either here or in distant lands, but I give the Council the benefit of the doubt, thinking to myself that it is all worthwhile and the majority of recycled stuff does go to where it is supposed to.

The latest thing is to try and get rid of the use of plastic bags. They are horrible things and take years to break down and animals get their heads stuck in them and suffocate or chew them up and die. Many shops are now asking if you can manage without a bag and some even charge for plastic bags and this seems to be a very sensible idea.

I cannot resist the temptation to buy a cheap cotton bag from a charity shop or supermarket to help a cause and to save the planet and have more than the collection in the photograph. So please tell me why I inevitably get to the shops and forget to pick up the bags before I set out? Thus leaving me bag-less!

Might it be better to give out paper carriers with our goods, like they did when I was young, even if there was a small cost? Of course that was in the days before plastic bags were invented.

Photostory Friday is hosted by Cicely and MamaGeek. Why not pop over and see some really good posts?

Do You Believe In Miracles?

Hosted by Cecily and MamaGeek

It wasn't long ago that I wrote a post The Empty Box explaining that I had been presented by our city council with a voucher that was worth a good deal of money because of my long service working for them.

I had bought a gold bracelet, worth far more than I would ever be able to afford normally.

I explained my horror of finding it gone from my wrist and not knowing where or when I had lost it. I wrote about the possibilities of who would have found it and what they might be thinking. 

I told about all the hard work I had done in the special school where I had worked for years lifting heavy children and spoiling my back. Of all the s**t I had cleaned up over the years and then all the crates of sandwich boxes that I had lifted, causing further back injury and all the freezing days I have worked in the playground all for nothing! I wrote that I doubted that I would ever get the bracelet back and that I had come to the conclusion that it was only a material thing that was not worth fretting over. I had never had it before and hadn't got it now. I was resigned to that fact. It had been lost for over four months before I felt I could post about it. 

Well. Do you believe in miracles?

Just before Christmas, I searched a small top drawer in a chest in my bedroom. I was actually looking for something else. I saw a small flash of gold. I pulled out my bracelet. I was dumbfounded. The bracelet was fastened, so I must have taken it off. I definitely knew that I wouldn't have put it in that drawer though. I usually either kept the bracelet on or kept it in its box in a locked cabinet. 

After careful reflection, I realized that I had on occasion put it on top of that chest of drawers while I had a shower. The drawer must have been partly open and something must have knocked it into the drawer. The most likely explanation must be that my dressing gown that is kept on a hook on the door very near to the chest, must have been taken down, swooshing against the top of the chest of drawers and knocking the bracelet inside, unknown to me. The drawer must have been shut later and the bracelet forgotten about. Either that or.......... I must be going stark raving mad!

Photostory Friday is hosted by Cicely and MamaGeek.

The Empty Box

Hosted by Cecily and MamaGeek

A couple of years ago, I was stunned to receive a letter form our county council informing me that I was being awarded a substantial sum of money for long service in my place of work and that I could go to a shop and choose something to the value quoted in the letter. I could then show them the voucher and take the goods home.

Well, strike me down. All that work in the special school over the years, cleaning up sh*t and all those kids I had lifted onto changing tables at great detriment to my back, the crates of sandwich boxes that I lifted and carried.............. now being recognized. I couldn't believe it!

I read on, I couldn't have the gift in cash and I had to spend the voucher in one shop.

I gave the matter great thought and eventually decided to get something that I would never think of buying for myself. Something I would not normally be able to afford. An indulgence!

I chose a gold bracelet in two colours of gold. White gold and yellow gold, sort of entwined around each other in a kind of plait. The bracelet had a good clasp that looked secure. The bill came to just over £300, more than I would ever pay for a bracelet.

Well, I showed it off and wore it on special occasions. I kept it in its posh box that had come from a posh shop.

Last summer holiday, I was having all that worry with my sick son in law and had planned to go and see him. However it was the start of the school holiday and I decided to wear the bracelet for the duration and felt it would be safer than leaving it in the house, in case we were burgled.

The day before I was due to go away, I noticed that the bracelet had gone. To my horror, I realized that I hadn't seen it since the day I put it on. That was three weeks before! I would normally have taken it off for showers and things but because I was not used to wearing it, I'd forgotten that I'd even put it on.

I searched the whole house. I searched the garden. I tried to think what I had done that first day of the holiday. I'd gone shopping and I just hoped that it wouldn't have been found by some druggie who would sell it cheaply for his next fix, or some kids who might have just tossed it about without realizing how valuable it was. 

Then I realized there was a possibility that I had accidentally thrown it in the council garden waste bin along with all the twigs and branches that I had chopped back around that time. The thought that I had given the bracelet inadvertently back to the council was very ironic but was a distinct possibility. I could imagine some one opening a bag of compost that the council had sold to them, made with my leftovers and the look of surprise when they pulled out their bounty. It was a sickening thought.

Of course it could be nearer to home. It might be under the soil somewhere or at the bottom of my mini pond. In fact it could be anywhere. If only I knew where and when I lost it, I might have had a chance of getting it back.

I didn't even get a photo of the bracelet. All I have left is the empty box.

It has taken me all this time to blog about the loss. I was too gutted at the time it happened and had felt very sorry for myself. Everything had seemed to be going wrong in my family.

However, in the end, I began to realize that it was only a material possession and not flesh and blood. I never had the bracelet before, and I haven't got it now. I am exactly where I was before I received that letter.

The council might have reclaimed their gift through the compost or it might be on the wrist of some lucky person. I only hope that person stops to think who might have lost it, though I doubt it. They probably thought it was owned by a very rich person who didn't deserve to have it in the first place!

I keep hoping it will turn up, though I doubt it.

This story was told for Photostory Friday hosted by Cicely and MamaGeek.

With apologies for the uninteresting photo!