your rant of the day
Aug. 20th, 2010 12:33 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kat_lairI'm in an irritable mood this morning. Observe the recycling fail across the board:
1. When I move in I ask my landlord about recycling. He own the house and deals with the normal bins, surely he should know? He says there was no recycling (WRONG INFORMATION) and proceeded to rant about how it's a waste of time anyway and he hated dealing with the extra bins (ANTIPATHY).
2. Fine. I check the council website, see there's a recycling bin collection for my address and ring council to ask for bins. Individual bins are then delivered. (WRONG DECISION BASED ON NOT CHECKING PROPERLY).
3. A couple of weeks later the brown bin (glass, plastic bottles, tins) is not collected. I ring and complain. Council's environmental services takes my details and assures me it will collected. (YET ANOTHER FAILURE TO PROPERLY CHECK INFORMATION).
4. The next day the brown bin still isn't collected. I ring again. Same thing happens as above. (INABILITY TO CHECK DETAILS AND INFORM ME APPROPRIATELY CONTINUES) Finally the bin is collected the following day.
5. A week later by blue bin isn't collected. I ring and complain. I'm told that actually I'm not supposed to have individual bins, because there's a communal recycling site. 'No there isn't' I say. We play the game of 'Oh, yes there is!' 'Oh, no there isn't!' for a while. The site where the communal recycling is supposed to be, has no recycling bins. They should have been there since December when the 'street voted to have communal recycling'. I've lived here for a month and haven't seen any. So even assuming that the bins where there in the first place and disappeared the night before I moved in, there are two massive points of failure here: 1) COUNCIL EMPLOYEES DOING THE COLLECTION FAILING TO NOTICE/CARE/REPLACE THE BINS. 2) PEOPLE LIVING HERE FAILING TO NOTICE/CARE/NOTIFY THE COUNCIL.
6. End result: Council is taking away my individual bins and bringing in 'new' communal ones. By Tuesday. I'm willing to bet a lot that by Wednesday morning I'll be on the phone to them again about this.
On further note: I really hate generalisations and I know there are a lot of environmentally conscious people here who care and make the effort etc. but there are days when I just want to scream and shout at everyone in Britain for BEING SUCH APATHETIC, LAZY, SELFISH ASSHOLES. The 'can't be bothered' attitude some people have to things like recycling or anything remotely like being environmentally conscious really pisses me off. I don't consider myself even particularly gung-ho about the issue; I just do little things, like try to use environmentally friendly products, avoid packaging, recycle, buy produce that's in season/locally sourced/fairtrade when I can, turn off electric appliances when I don't use them etc.. And you know what, I know for a fact that there are people who either sneer at me and think I'm crazy or who look at me patronisingly and think 'aww isn't she a cute little eco-warrior'. I don't even know which is worse but I kind of want to punch both groups in the kidneys some days. Because you know what? In Finland all that is the fucking norm, it's what I grew up with. The informal social control about things like recycling is very tight in Finland. Or maybe I should say that it exists there. Here... not so much. The last place I lived in, probably less than 20% of people in the street actually used the communal recycling. At my current place no one clearly was too bothered when the recycling bins vanished (if they were delivered in the first place). My mum was visiting last week, and when I mentioned how little people recycle around here (my area), she was horrified and called it 'uncivilised'. When walking around town, around here, even Heaton Park, she repeatedly expressed disgust at the amount of litter on the ground and the attitude that portrays (dirty, selfish, uncaring, no pride in surroundings). She's gone home now and when people ask what she thought of Manchester/England, she'll stay 'great place, but so much litter, and imagine: not everyone recycles!' This is the picture of Britain that's being passed on. It might not be objectively true or even fair, but it is the impression one can very easily get. I've seen parents toss away empty drinks bottles in the middle of the street with their kids watching (social learning, look it up fuckwits). Once, I saw someone cleaning the inside of their car where it was parked just outside their front door. Instead of gathering the rubbish and taking it to the house (the distance of at least three steps), they unceremoniously dumped it onto the street and left it there. And these are not extraordinary occurrences, but everyday behaviour. I just... it frustrates me so much. Literally to tears sometime. THINK ABOUT SOMETHING ELSE BESIDES YOUR OWN ASS SOMETIMES PEOPLE.
Sigh. Just needed to get that out of my system. Rant over for now.
1. When I move in I ask my landlord about recycling. He own the house and deals with the normal bins, surely he should know? He says there was no recycling (WRONG INFORMATION) and proceeded to rant about how it's a waste of time anyway and he hated dealing with the extra bins (ANTIPATHY).
2. Fine. I check the council website, see there's a recycling bin collection for my address and ring council to ask for bins. Individual bins are then delivered. (WRONG DECISION BASED ON NOT CHECKING PROPERLY).
3. A couple of weeks later the brown bin (glass, plastic bottles, tins) is not collected. I ring and complain. Council's environmental services takes my details and assures me it will collected. (YET ANOTHER FAILURE TO PROPERLY CHECK INFORMATION).
4. The next day the brown bin still isn't collected. I ring again. Same thing happens as above. (INABILITY TO CHECK DETAILS AND INFORM ME APPROPRIATELY CONTINUES) Finally the bin is collected the following day.
5. A week later by blue bin isn't collected. I ring and complain. I'm told that actually I'm not supposed to have individual bins, because there's a communal recycling site. 'No there isn't' I say. We play the game of 'Oh, yes there is!' 'Oh, no there isn't!' for a while. The site where the communal recycling is supposed to be, has no recycling bins. They should have been there since December when the 'street voted to have communal recycling'. I've lived here for a month and haven't seen any. So even assuming that the bins where there in the first place and disappeared the night before I moved in, there are two massive points of failure here: 1) COUNCIL EMPLOYEES DOING THE COLLECTION FAILING TO NOTICE/CARE/REPLACE THE BINS. 2) PEOPLE LIVING HERE FAILING TO NOTICE/CARE/NOTIFY THE COUNCIL.
6. End result: Council is taking away my individual bins and bringing in 'new' communal ones. By Tuesday. I'm willing to bet a lot that by Wednesday morning I'll be on the phone to them again about this.
On further note: I really hate generalisations and I know there are a lot of environmentally conscious people here who care and make the effort etc. but there are days when I just want to scream and shout at everyone in Britain for BEING SUCH APATHETIC, LAZY, SELFISH ASSHOLES. The 'can't be bothered' attitude some people have to things like recycling or anything remotely like being environmentally conscious really pisses me off. I don't consider myself even particularly gung-ho about the issue; I just do little things, like try to use environmentally friendly products, avoid packaging, recycle, buy produce that's in season/locally sourced/fairtrade when I can, turn off electric appliances when I don't use them etc.. And you know what, I know for a fact that there are people who either sneer at me and think I'm crazy or who look at me patronisingly and think 'aww isn't she a cute little eco-warrior'. I don't even know which is worse but I kind of want to punch both groups in the kidneys some days. Because you know what? In Finland all that is the fucking norm, it's what I grew up with. The informal social control about things like recycling is very tight in Finland. Or maybe I should say that it exists there. Here... not so much. The last place I lived in, probably less than 20% of people in the street actually used the communal recycling. At my current place no one clearly was too bothered when the recycling bins vanished (if they were delivered in the first place). My mum was visiting last week, and when I mentioned how little people recycle around here (my area), she was horrified and called it 'uncivilised'. When walking around town, around here, even Heaton Park, she repeatedly expressed disgust at the amount of litter on the ground and the attitude that portrays (dirty, selfish, uncaring, no pride in surroundings). She's gone home now and when people ask what she thought of Manchester/England, she'll stay 'great place, but so much litter, and imagine: not everyone recycles!' This is the picture of Britain that's being passed on. It might not be objectively true or even fair, but it is the impression one can very easily get. I've seen parents toss away empty drinks bottles in the middle of the street with their kids watching (social learning, look it up fuckwits). Once, I saw someone cleaning the inside of their car where it was parked just outside their front door. Instead of gathering the rubbish and taking it to the house (the distance of at least three steps), they unceremoniously dumped it onto the street and left it there. And these are not extraordinary occurrences, but everyday behaviour. I just... it frustrates me so much. Literally to tears sometime. THINK ABOUT SOMETHING ELSE BESIDES YOUR OWN ASS SOMETIMES PEOPLE.
Sigh. Just needed to get that out of my system. Rant over for now.
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no subject
on 2010-08-20 12:17 pm (UTC)no subject
on 2010-08-20 01:17 pm (UTC)no subject
on 2010-08-20 12:33 pm (UTC)no subject
on 2010-08-20 01:22 pm (UTC)no subject
on 2010-08-20 03:02 pm (UTC)Most people I know here won't even bother to recycle aluminum - and you get money for that!
I honestly lose respect for people when I find that out about them- because I am the laziest, worst housekeeper you will ever meet but I never throw aluminum cans away! It's a no brainer.
I'm a multi-media artist too and I love to recycle stuff for art and crafts- I never throw away paper-the trash is kind of a goldmine for me :DD
no subject
on 2010-08-20 04:44 pm (UTC)obviously i meant TPTB, i don't know what the extra P did there... the Poncy Powers That Be?
no subject
on 2010-08-20 02:08 pm (UTC)Also, re: dropping rubbish on the ground, people are stupid and lazy :/
no subject
on 2010-08-20 04:48 pm (UTC)One of these days you will find a news article on the paper that says 'woman goes berserk, attacks litterer' and the deranged looking person in the picture is me.
no subject
on 2010-08-20 06:59 pm (UTC)I shall look forward to your five minutes of violent fame :D
no subject
on 2010-08-21 11:23 am (UTC)Remember to recycle the newspaper after you've read the story! :D
no subject
on 2010-08-20 03:05 pm (UTC)Now that I have them, I LOVE them. Especialy since we go through so many sodas - within the week our bin is completely full. >.< Probably not good, but I'm glad they're being recycled.
no subject
on 2010-08-20 04:58 pm (UTC)Recycling is better than not recycling, but obviously curbing the amount of materials used in the first place is better than recycling. Reduce and reuse, then recycle...
no subject
on 2010-08-20 03:38 pm (UTC)>_<
I feel for you.
no subject
on 2010-08-20 05:00 pm (UTC)no subject
on 2010-08-20 06:09 pm (UTC)no subject
on 2010-08-20 07:00 pm (UTC)no subject
on 2010-08-20 08:45 pm (UTC)I really hope those communal recycling bins actually arrive.
no subject
on 2010-08-21 11:19 am (UTC)no subject
on 2010-08-21 03:29 am (UTC)You are amazing and I hope you don't feel discouraged by this :( Every person like you doing their bit, letting people know the public WANTS to recycle, helps!
no subject
on 2010-08-21 11:21 am (UTC)But yes, I totally feel your rant. I shall try to keep doing small things and ranting about it to people. Change starts small, right?
no subject
on 2010-08-21 05:46 pm (UTC)*pats you gently and offers camomile tea*
You will lke Portugal when you come over - virtually no litter and everything gets recycled. Like Finland?
no subject
on 2010-08-21 06:28 pm (UTC)I'm pretty sure I'll love Portugal just from your descriptions and photos :)
no subject
on 2010-08-22 10:37 am (UTC)no subject
on 2010-09-01 06:47 pm (UTC)I was quite avid about figuring out low-packaging, local-provided stuff and such until I got sick, and since then I've kind of let it slip a bit, but not through a lack of wanting to. There is no recycling program in place for West Gorton - though with the new build they plan to implement one, finally - but I never drop litter, I reuse packaging, newspapers, and carrier bags wherever I can, and it disgusts me to see other people dropping litter in the street and generally being horrible about it. I've often wished I could get hold of one of those litter-picking spikes to take around with me. So I can honestly say I think I know how you feel about this one! *squish*
no subject
on 2010-09-03 07:54 am (UTC)