I’ve bin thinking: Why not take other people’s rubbish?
Iwas rifling around on Neighbourly the other day, catching up on what was happening in my ’hood, and one post caught my attention.
A man who lives a few streets away had discovered that someone was sneaking extra rubbish into his bins at night after he had pushed them out to the kerb to be ready for earlymorning collection. He wanted to warn his neighbours that this was happening so we could take steps to protect ourselves.
And a lot of people immediately weighed in.
This was un-neighbourly behaviour of the highest order, many opined. He should start getting up at 4am to take his bins to the kerb, someone helpfully suggested. Feasibly such behaviour was a breach of bylaws, thundered one commentator who I suspect is not – and I’m going out on a limb here – actually a lawyer.
Others said they had experienced this nightmare themselves. More than one shared they had removed the offending rubbish from their bin, rummaged through it and found something such as a bill which identified the original owner and deposited said rubbish on that person’s front lawn.
One man said he had removed from his rubbish bin a black bag of his neighbour’s ‘‘food scraps and duck bones’’ (the detail brings it to life for me), put it aside for a few days and then, when it was good and smelly, left it in the offender’s letterbox.
But despite all the noise and vitriol, no one weighed in with my own opinion: which is that
Provided it’s the right rubbish in the right bin, I don’t even mind if they don’t ask.
everyone needed to calm the duck down.
I live in a small household of two, avoid packaging as much as I can and compost organic waste on my property. And I am telling you that because #virtuesignalling, but also because that combination of factors means I rarely, if ever, fill up the whole wheelie bin.
And when my half-empty bin is at the kerb, I am completely fine with one of my neighbours adding any excess of rubbish they have that week before the collection, provided the lid still closes fully.
Now, before you all flood the comment section with your thoughtful and constructive feedback, can I say that I am not OK with someone putting rubbish in the ‘‘wrong’’ bin.
In Auckland, where I live, there is a bin for rubbish and a bin for recycling. I know some other centres also offer a kerbside organic waste pickup.
Let us agree that putting bottles in the green waste bin, or rubbish with your carefully sorted recycling is unacceptable (not to mention highly inconsiderate and a potential health and safety risk to the staff who eventually have to remove any non-recyclables from my recycling, by hand, at the sorting plant).
I am also not OK about someone coming on to my property to put rubbish in my bin (because it is trespassing); or putting any substantial amount of rubbish in my bin after it has been emptied (although if it’s a takeaway coffee cup or a bag of dog poo, feel free. I’d far rather you did that than left it on the street).
And obviously I’d love it if everyone in my street also tried, as we do, to minimise the amount of waste they create by actively reducing, re-using, recycling and composting any organic matter.
But if a neighbour had a larger than usual amount of rubbish one week and asked if they could add a bag or two to my bin, I’d be fine with it.
In fact provided it’s the right rubbish in the right bin, I don’t even mind if they don’t ask. I don’t think it’s that big a deal. And I’d rather – far rather – have a neighbour who did that than one who snuck around at night with bags full of rotten duck.