New collection times are just rubbish

FRIDAY is the day of the weekly rubbish and fortnightly recycling collections for our household; except when Friday happens to be Christmas Day. Thus on 1.1.21 two weeks worth of rubbish will go away.

Each week we keep our rubbish in a black bag inside an 80-litre dustbin to avoid attacks by vermin and there is just room for it when full even after carefully separating out the recyclables. So, until 1.1.21. we shall have to find somewhere to safely store a second black bag of rubbish; not easy in our limited accommodation when the extra recyclables also need space.

However, householders in Cornwall and perhaps other parts of the South West will have to prepare for the proposed fortnightly collections of rubbish and weekly of recyclables; then what will households with limited storage space do to securely retain that extra bag of rubbish?

The object is said to be that by such an arrangement taxpayers will be encouraged to recycle more items rather than putting them in the rubbish. That seems to be a rather blunt instrument to try to alter attitudes and habits. A more vigorous education programme might have been more amenable.

With landfill sites for rubbish in Cornwall now closed one must assume that the controversial incinerator is in full continuous use, perhaps even generating some electricity. I wonder how the operator disposes of the resulting ash – landfill?

Peter J Malindine Illogan, Cornwall