todayiamadaisy (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
todayiamadaisy) wrote2011-04-12 10:37 am
todayiamadaisy) wrote2011-04-12 10:37 am
Entry tags:
The alien beetles
Help me with my civic duty, f-list!
The City by the Sea's council is considering changing our bins. At the moment, the council provides each house with an 80 litre rubbish bin that is collected weekly and a 240 litre mixed recycling bin (papers, tins, plastics) that is collected fortnightly. The fees for this are in the yearly rates.
I (and I assume, many others) also have a 240 litre green waste bin, for which I pay a private contractor $9 per collection (I have mine collected monthly), which has nothing to do with the council. I put my food scraps in the compost bin and/or the worm farm.
The council has just sent out a survey checking interest in three new bin options. These aren't mutually exclusive; we get a YES/NO vote for each.
Option 1. A weekly organics (green waste & food scraps) collection in a 120 litre bin. This would cost about $100 a year, which is slightly less than I pay for my current green waste collection. On the other hand, I don't generate 120 litres of green waste each week, and I'm happy to support the existing independent contractor. I am leaning towards NO.
Option 2. An annual hard waste collection, for tools, furniture, etc, which would cost $20-$30 per year. Stuff that you'd take to the tip (=rubbish dump), basically. I don't have a lot of hard waste and, if I do, I have access to a trailer to take it to the tip myself; but I know that's not an option for a lot of people. I think maybe YES.
Option 3. A monthly professional bin cleaning service that would cost $72-$144 per year, depending on how many bins a house has. A definite NO.
There is also a comments box, which I have used to suggest daylight collection times. Our bins are currently collected between 9pm and dawn, which means I can be woken up four times each bin night and I'm over that. They have explained before that the collection must be done at night because children are running about during the day and might be squashed; I think it has more to do with the bin men enjoying the higher rate of pay that would apply to night work.
Anyway, what do you think? Do you have genius rubbish collecting schemes that I could suggest?
Last night I saw an advertisement for coverage of the forthcoming royal wedding. On this particular network, the ceremony will be presented by people called 'Fitzy and Wippa'. So that's classy.
I found an old magazine at the back of the cupboard. In it was an advertisement in the form of a travel diary. It was 'the story of two girls who set out to see how much they could get out of one day' fuelled by a glass of Berocca. What they got out of their one day was this:
At dawn, they were in the South Island of New Zealand, where they climbed a mountain. Following that, they flew to Australia, where they went to Uluru and rode camels in the afternoon. They then flew to Thailand, where they went to the night markets in Bangkok. Finally, they went to India to see the Taj Mahal, where the photos showed them standing in sunshine. They finish by writing: WE MADE IT IN ONE DAY.
I have to doubt that. I think they'd be struggling to do just the New Zealand and Australian legs in one day, unless they caught some fortuitously timed flights. Or does 'one day' mean more than twenty-four hours, given that they'd be crossing multiple time zones? Or is it just a reminder of a more innocent time (2004), when international travel didn't involve so much faffing about at the airport?
The City by the Sea's council is considering changing our bins. At the moment, the council provides each house with an 80 litre rubbish bin that is collected weekly and a 240 litre mixed recycling bin (papers, tins, plastics) that is collected fortnightly. The fees for this are in the yearly rates.
I (and I assume, many others) also have a 240 litre green waste bin, for which I pay a private contractor $9 per collection (I have mine collected monthly), which has nothing to do with the council. I put my food scraps in the compost bin and/or the worm farm.
The council has just sent out a survey checking interest in three new bin options. These aren't mutually exclusive; we get a YES/NO vote for each.
Option 1. A weekly organics (green waste & food scraps) collection in a 120 litre bin. This would cost about $100 a year, which is slightly less than I pay for my current green waste collection. On the other hand, I don't generate 120 litres of green waste each week, and I'm happy to support the existing independent contractor. I am leaning towards NO.
Option 2. An annual hard waste collection, for tools, furniture, etc, which would cost $20-$30 per year. Stuff that you'd take to the tip (=rubbish dump), basically. I don't have a lot of hard waste and, if I do, I have access to a trailer to take it to the tip myself; but I know that's not an option for a lot of people. I think maybe YES.
Option 3. A monthly professional bin cleaning service that would cost $72-$144 per year, depending on how many bins a house has. A definite NO.
There is also a comments box, which I have used to suggest daylight collection times. Our bins are currently collected between 9pm and dawn, which means I can be woken up four times each bin night and I'm over that. They have explained before that the collection must be done at night because children are running about during the day and might be squashed; I think it has more to do with the bin men enjoying the higher rate of pay that would apply to night work.
Anyway, what do you think? Do you have genius rubbish collecting schemes that I could suggest?
* * * * *
Last night I saw an advertisement for coverage of the forthcoming royal wedding. On this particular network, the ceremony will be presented by people called 'Fitzy and Wippa'. So that's classy.
* * * * *
I found an old magazine at the back of the cupboard. In it was an advertisement in the form of a travel diary. It was 'the story of two girls who set out to see how much they could get out of one day' fuelled by a glass of Berocca. What they got out of their one day was this:
At dawn, they were in the South Island of New Zealand, where they climbed a mountain. Following that, they flew to Australia, where they went to Uluru and rode camels in the afternoon. They then flew to Thailand, where they went to the night markets in Bangkok. Finally, they went to India to see the Taj Mahal, where the photos showed them standing in sunshine. They finish by writing: WE MADE IT IN ONE DAY.
I have to doubt that. I think they'd be struggling to do just the New Zealand and Australian legs in one day, unless they caught some fortuitously timed flights. Or does 'one day' mean more than twenty-four hours, given that they'd be crossing multiple time zones? Or is it just a reminder of a more innocent time (2004), when international travel didn't involve so much faffing about at the airport?