Let’s do this together YOUR COMMUNITY CORNER

It was Earth Day this week, although I have renamed it “What on Earth? Day” because of the number of times that I find myself asking: “What on Earth is that doing in the recycling bin?” while fishing out one of The Dark Lord’s half-eaten sandwiches

It’s not just my daughter who drives me round the bend when it comes to placing unacceptable items in the recycling bin.

I once shared a house with an American called Jenny, and apart from making the most disgusting beetroot soup which was so vinegary it took the lining off the roof of your mouth, she also seemed incapable of reading the list of items for recycling on the inside of the green bin lid.

“Jenny – you’ve put plastic food containers, wine bottles and bubble wrap in the green bin again,” I would sigh, half expecting to find one of her disposable ex-boyfriends in there too.

“Oh really, don’t they take them?” she would trill in a little girl voice that made me want to punch her, and certainly hastened the end of our dual occupancy.

“Not unless they’ve changed their entire policy since the last time they didn’t collect them,” I would smile thinly, while counting down the days till she moved in with her new Aussie boyfriend, who at least knew exactly where to stick his empty tinnies.

Speaking of which, I remember poking around my parents-in-law’s green bin a while back and I was amused to find their drinks tins had all been crushed. I imagined the cans of tonic being poured into the gin, and then grandpa Colin single-handedly crushing them like Popeye.

It was actually more exciting than that, as mum-in-law Sarah revealed: “Oh no, it’s just a habit that we got into when we were stationed in Aden in the 1960s. Milk cartons and cans all had to be crushed so they couldn’t be taken from the recycling and turned into bomb containers!”

Email me at siobhan.mcnally@mirror.co.uk or write to Community Corner, PO Box 791, Winchester SO23 3RP.