International Law

Mam...it's the dustbin men

By John Hirst

As a child I remember seeing the dustbin men come into the yard once a week and hump the galvinized metal dustbin on their back and tip the contents into the back of the dustbin lorry. Their job was rubbish collection. If there was other rubbish in bags or boxes next to the dustbin they would take this too. On one occasion I had left my bike resting up against the dustbin and this was collected and thrown in the back of the dustbin lorry. My foster father chased them down the road to retrieve the bike.

Where I live now, the dustbin men (or whatever they call them these days) still come once a week for collection. However, the dustbin is now a wheelie and made of plastic and must be placed outside the property boundary. If the lid is not closed because it is overfilled they will not remove it and empty it. I don't have a problem with this because mine does not get overfull. But, next door there are flats and foreigners living there and the dustbin is regularly overflowing and left and bags accumulate so there is more mess after the bin men have been. And I have seen the same picture in other streets when I take the dog for a walk.

I am aware that overfilling the dustbin is an issue. However, I would hardly call it the crime of the century to overfill a dustbin. This case sounds like a load of rubbish.

Full post as published by prisonlawinsideout on April 22, 2008 (boomark / email).