Life in a tip

If you've picked up the Lancashire Evening Post today you'll know that I've pinched their front page headline for the title of my blog today.

Now that's not just because I'm into those 'witty' kind of headlines (as you will have probably noticed) but because the article that accompanies it in the LEP today is related to something I was ranting about just a couple of weeks ago.

So, a couple weeks ago, I posted a blog entitled 'what a load of rubbish' and it was all about how Lancashire is suffering a shortage of wheelie bins causing people to either share their wheelie bins or even just dump their bin bags in the garden (providing they use no more than 3 bing bags a week). Well, you'd think this was bad enough, but there's more to the rubbish crisis, and it's right in the middle of Lancashire, in Preton, where I live.

Basically, there's been a lot of fly tipping going on across Preston, and the change in bin collections to just once a fortnight has been blamed for it all. The Lancashire Evening Post said that there have been 14,000 incidents of fly tipping over the last 2 years causing £650,000 worth of clean-up costs. The LEP also said that illegal rubbish dumping in Preston has risen by 29% in the past year. That's just over £30,000 of the city's taxpayers money on cleaning it all up in the past year too.

I myself have felt the wrath of fornightly bin collections, incorporating the ol' sitting on the bin lid trick to get 2 weeks worth of rubbish between three people into a space that just about handles one. The premise that they use the week they don't appear to take the rubbish is to pick up recycling stil hasn't been proven in my household - as every time we've put it out, no ones bothered to take it.


What's more, Counciller John Swindells, counciller for the University ward was quoted in the LEP saying "In some areas, particularly around student accommodation, they are not recycling. People just seem to think we will pick anything up that they bother to throw out." Well, i'm afraid John, in my case, that isn't true I don't seem to think you'll pick a single thing up that I bother to throw out, I've had my wheelie bin swiped twice and I can't get rid of eight empty 1 litre bottles of Diet Coke to save my life! Throw me a bone here!

Poeple are also peeved that all this fly tipping is going on and no one is taking the wrap for it. There hasn't been a single prosecution for it in the last two years! There needs to be something done, and a good start would be the weekly bin collections starting up again.

Have a look at this website www.weeklywaste.com to find out about the cause to bring back weekly bin collections!!