The Great Recycling fiasco!!

Welwyn and Hatfield Council have got into the recycling game, we have all been issued with Wheelie bins (Yippee!!!) The problem is I have a bit of a love hate relationship with the refuge collection operatives. They seem to forget about the collection bit and I frequently get missed. I really can't believe that it happens so often. I live in a small street with just 7 houses, In the past they have driven down the road, taken the bins from the right side of the road but forgotten us on the left. I was beginning to take it personally. Since the wheelie bins have arrived we are now faced with a near 'krypton factor ' sorting activity every time you want to throw something away. Woe betide anyone who accidentally puts paper where the plastic should be because you will find yourself with an unemptied bin and an attractive swing label telling you of the crime against recycling that you have committed. The real problem that we have is the volume of plastics that have to be recycled. There are 4 of us and I have found myself sitting trying to compress my packaging to get it all in the container. So on a Thursday evening you will find me slaving over my plastics bin......

The problem is that by a Thursday there is about 3cms of space left and a whole load of plastic to get in it. If the bin goes out and the lid is not shut they will not collect it. So all week we have been shoving it down with a broom and a mop, but no room calls for drastic measures.....

So take a two litre empty pop bottle.....

Fine a stick like implement in my case a long handled wood spoon is perfect. Then using your implement of choice, stuff all the plastic packaging you can find into the bottle.

Around half an hour later you find yourself with a plastic bottle stuffed with plastic waste packaging. For good measure you can them put the bottle in a regular bottle squasher to reduce it to half the size.

All that is left of the huge bin full of recycling is........

This little pile of plastic. The problem is I am not sure that secretly stuffing pop bottles with plastic is allowed, there may be some poor worker at the other end tasked with unstuffing my Master piece, so to make sure that my bin is collected I carefully bury the bottle half way down the bin. Shhhhhh don't tell anyone!!!!