Welcome to our first Cleanzine broadcast of 2025. I hope that if you, like us, had a break, that it was enjoyable and relaxing and that your batteries are fully recharged.

 

If you’re anything like me though, you can never really get away from work, can you?  A post on a local social media group, for example, caught my eye one night when much-needed sleep was evading me. The book I’m currently reading was downstairs - and rather than fetch it and risk waking the household and disturbing the cats who’d then expect breakfast, I made the mistake of booting up the laptop. I must have been a good hour in when I came across a post in which someone was slating the refuse collectors for not having emptied their recycling bin, which happened to be full to bursting. They thought it had been carelessly missed and were cross because of the knock-on effect this would have, creating an ongoing struggle for the family over the ensuing weeks to cram in the extra cardboard, plastics, tins and paper that tend to accrue with the over-indulgence during Christmas.

 

Someone responded that we’d been notified by the council that the recycling bins wouldn’t be collected that week, because of staff shortages and the need for the staff who were working, to have the statutory time off. The consensus was that it had been a sensible choice, since the non-recyclables would have become smelly if they’d been allowed to fester for a further week.

 

I just had to disagree… My argument was that if a typical person’s recycling bin’s full to bursting and their general waste bin’s fairly empty, rather than find somewhere to store the recyclables which won’t fit into the correct bin until it’s been emptied, they’ll likely just put them into the general waste and be done with it, leading to more waste going to landfill. Surely if the decision had instead been made to hold over the general waste collection until the following week, the residents would have to make a more concerted effort to ensure that anything which could be recycled, was recycled. My comment opened up an interesting discussion, but as it was made in the wee small hours, the responses - and the notifications - came in over two or three days, meaning that I kept thinking about work. 

 

Anyway, happy reading and here’s to an excellent 2025 for us all. I can’t help feeling that it’s going to be a pretty turbulent year, but as is the norm, our industry will be expected to rise to any occasions - and challenges, that come our way. And no doubt, as usual, we’ll do ourselves proud!