Rubbish - how often it should be collected and a much better alternative - the SUN?

Question

As usual here in England with our typical minimalist and mean attiude towards things - the national debate at the moment that everyone is getting all fired up about is whether or not we should have rubbish collections once or twice a week! Plllllleeeease for crying out loud - where is our imagination and vision not to mention innovation. I always thought necessity was the mother of invention!

For a start - doesn't common sense dictate that from purely health reasons, it should d**n well be picked up as quickly as possible - I don't care if it is in strong plastic wheely bins - tell that to the people of Anchorage, Alaska - they've got humping great grizzly bears to contend with - what chance do you think a wheely bin has against a bloody bear. Here in the UK we're not quite so extreme with our wildlife, but foxes all over the country and house martins as well in some parts of our wet little islands don't have a problem with wheely bins either I can assure you!

Answer 1

Not going to go into long details but I get the gist of what you're saying.

I see advantages and disadvantages to have fortnightly collections as opposed to weekly ones, no real advantage either way.  I would like to see a reduction in Council Tax bills if they're only going to collect once a fortnight (can't see that happening).

As for firing rubbish into space.  Each person in the UK produces something like a ton and a half of rubbish each year.  At current costs of transporting material into space that would cost the best part of 40 million to get rid of.

Using electromagnetic rocket propulsion could dramatically reduce costs, if costs fell to just one thousandth of what they are now it's still £40,000 a year per person - not practical.

Much better to recycle. We have 6 bins, five of which are for recyclables and this accounts for nearly everything we chuck out.

Answer 2

I read your rant. Oh dear.

Firstly, house martins are small birds. They cant lift wheely bin lids. You must be a townie...

I know situations vary from area to area, so can only speak from experience. We have 3 wheely bins. General waste, green waste (garden and kitchen waste) and recyclable waste (certain plastics, metal, paper, cardboard). We have fortnightly collections. The only real problem is the green bin gets a bit ripe in summer. When they start to allow compostable plastic bags that will cure that problem.

The scheme promotes recycling. End of.

Firing rubbish into the sun? It has my vote, only if you go with the first (and only) load.

Answer 3

Way too expensive, no matter what technology you use.

Rocket exhausts in this quantity would cause enough global warming to fry the Earth to a crisp.

Way too dangerous, rockets occasionally crash.