A Waste of Time

Sometimes I wonder where my time goes.  If I've got a project on, or a crisis to face, like a new spreadsheet idea, or a computer that refuses even to start (both actual occurrences in recent weeks), I can grind away at them, and feel satisfied at the end of the day - or, at the very least, feel that I've tried to resolve something.

Then there are weeks like this one.  I declare a - probably unjustified - parallel with mums of children on holiday from school, whose first priority at times like this is to keep the young ones occupied, and preferably amused; meanwhile their own lives are put 'on hold'.  At the start of the week, I had only five 'engagements' on my calendar.  The first one, the prayer breakfast on Monday, evaporated at quite short notice because the leader was away; two others were 'regulars': bell-ringing practice and the midweek church service, and a fourth has now become a fortnightly regular, my turn to help with the drop-in for the homeless and vulnerable of our town.

That leaves only one 'event', which is an afternoon conference that I shall attend tomorrow.  The rest of the week was 'time to fill' and, if I'm honest, I can't see much of achievement that couldn't all be fitted into a single day.  That's not to say that the time has been completely wasted, merely that there's been no visible result.  Some effort has been put into housekeeping, for example, - an oft-neglected pursuit hereabouts - and half a morning was spent making a stew, three-quarters of which has now re-stocked my freezer.

One achievement - if it can be so-described - is to harangue by e-mail my local authority over the provision and maintaining of recycling facilities.  Almost a month ago, I advised them that there wasn't room in one of the bins for further contributions, because of a black bagful of 'the wrong category' of recycling that now filled the bin, and rendered it uncollectable by the regular emptying team.

With my domestic collecting arrangements almost at capacity, yesterday morning I looked round the corner to where stand the four bins - three for general recycling, i.e. tins, cardboard, plastic and glass, and one for paper (so long as it's not brown) - at the far side of the car park.  So far as I could see, the paper bin was exactly as I had described it previously.  Annoyed, I wrote to the Council again, to protest both at the situation I find myself in and at the inadequacy of their response to my earlier notice.

It seems clear to me that four bins such as I have described are inadequate for 27 flats.  I believe that this is the main reason for the bagful of 'other stuff' that had been dumped in the paper bin.  The other reason is that people fail to empty their recycling into the bins, but simply put the bagful in a bin ... any bin! ... or leave it beside the bins because the bins are full.  (The bags, of course, are not collected and simply pile up.)   It's an annoying vicious circle!

The Council's response was not to arrange for the offending black bags to be collected - even at a charge to the householders - nor provide more bins, which would help the problem not to recur.  Instead, a leaflet was delivered to each flat, explaining what items should be placed in which bin.  This is one that has been circulated in the past, and so contains nothing new; it certainly does nothing to relieve the present situation.

Their reply to me explaining what had been done suggested that this was the remedy; they had done what they could.  Their response to my renewed plea yesterday for real action was to point out that any request for collection of the bags has to come from the flats' management company, and meanwhile, I can take my recycling to the public recycling yard a half a mile away.

I pointed out that it's hardly my responsibility to take across the town the recycling for which there is a bin in the yard around the corner.  I've now placed the whole matter with my letting agent, and will await developments.  I fear there may be none, and that I may have to take matters into my own hands ... being very careful to wash them afterwards!