Invasion of the Bottle Snatchers

[BENIDORM]

Our not so sleepy anymore village seems to have been invaded by more brightly coloured bins to recycle our empty bottles, cardboard , paper, plastics, unwanted clothing and shoes... destined for Africa.....Shoes for Africa ,I thought, and it conjured up visions of Masai warriors wearing brightly coloured trainers.

I remember when the first containers arrived overnight, and old Paco down the road stood in front of one of them, eyeing it up suspiciously, and I suspect he was waiting for it to say'Take me to your Leader'...

Now , don't get me wrong, I am really all for recycling, but now there are so many containers everywhere, that they make the village look untidy. Most of the problems are caused because some of the containers are not emptied often enough, and people don't fold or collapse their boxes , cans and plastic bottles properly.
Another problem is the siting of the offending containers, usually at a road junction, or the end of the road, making it difficult for drivers..
I'm not really moaning, I think that it is great, that at least some effort is now being made to recycle, instead of valuable resources being discarded, and often in the countryside.....
What do you think ?

[julian]

personally I think i could put up with what you call the village looking untidy because of a bin that can help people in third world countries, try visiting those countries, and then come back and look at the bin, maybe it won´t upset you so much then.

[BENIDORM]

Julian,
I'm not against the bins collecting clothing for Third World countries,provided that's what truly happens to them, and I have been involved with that side of the business, so could tell you some inside secrets..I have also travelled the world extensively, so I am well aware of poverty..
What I am trying to point out is the untidy way that some of the recycling bins for paper, plastics are left..It doesn't take much effort to flatten cardboard , plastic bottles, cans etc.

Most of the 'villages' are making great efforts to improve roads etc, and it doesn't help when rubbish is 'blowing' around everywhere.
I hope that clarifies my point..

[princess peach]

we had two recycling bins left at the bottom of our urb..all of a sudden everyone thought it would be great to "dump"all unwanted household junk there too..
we had mirrors,headboards,black sacks full of rubbish..the whole works...
the bins only stayed there a few weeks,and then disappeared as quick as they arrived..

[karandjon]

We knew someone who emptied these recycled bins, where we used to live near Motril. He told us that all the separate bins were taken to the same place as the green bins for dumping and would continue to for the forseeable future. I asked why then, they bothered putting the bins out in the first place and he said it was because they wanted to educate people to use them first, before they set the contracts up!!!

This was over a year ago, so whether things have changed.....

[pete_l]

possibly a silly question, but are you sure these are charitable donations?

You've probably heard stories about companies in the UK stuffing plastic bags through people's letterboxes with cleverly worded pleas that make it sound like you're giving to a non-profit organisation, whereas in fact they sell the stuff you give them.

Could theser magically appearing bins be anything like that - does the mayor's brother run a collection company?

[BENIDORM]

I am aware that most of the clothing collecting bins in Spain and UK are collected by private companies, who pay a percentage to the charity named on the bin.
I don't really have a problem with that, I consider that whatever can be recycled is better than filling a land fill site and wasting valuable resources.

I was aware , as Karen mentioned, that much of the sorted materials, in particular paper and plastics, was being dumped anyway, but I think most areas now have active processing plants and warehousing.

Collection and sorting of recycled materials is very labour intensive and with high transport costs, so I personally feel that they are all doing a good job.

My only real 'gripe' is about where the bins are sited and the mess that they create,a problem which could be easily rectified with a little consideration from the public.

[safeashouses]

My only real 'gripe' is about where the bins are sited and the mess that they create, a problem which could be easily rectified with a little consideration from the public.

I agree, we have some of the new style bins (stainless steel with flip lids and raisable underground collection skips) in our village. Some in a square surrounded by 5 restaurants and a shop, more immediately in front of the church. A better idea than the open wheelie bins until something won't fit in and then it's left at the side. Then others come along, assume it's full and don't even attempt to dispose of their rubbish properly. Thankfully the rubbish is collected frequently, especially when you get large items like broken furniture and electrical goods piling up.

Regarding recycling in the UK, until collection is standardised it won't work. My mums recycling bin is blue and you can put paper, cans and any clean plastic (with the exception of carrier bags) into it, the ordinary rubbish bin is green. A few miles away, my green paper bin is too big and recycling box too small and accepts cans and plastic bottles only.

I don't care where my discarded textiles go just as long as it's not into landfill and instead hopefully does somebody some good.

[BENIDORM]

As far as rubbish collections go, I think the system is excellent in Spain, apart from being disturbed occasionally by the after midnight 'bin wagons',I don't think that you can beat the service given.
In our village they very rarely leave anything behind, even cleaning up spillages ! Certainly better and cheaper than most areas of Spain.

[JAKE M]

Totally agree on recycling but to have (in our case), large wheelie bins at the entrance to the village isn't too pretty.

I prefer the natural selection method used for furniture disposal. we've put old bedside cabinets and a small table full of woodworm at the collection point and it's "gone" inside an hour. the cardboard packaging for new furniture was picked up late one evening and as the old fellow passed our door, he thanked us (they always know who disposed of what) because he was painting his room and wood be using this as a drip catcher!