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Waste wars: how Britain became obsessed with bins
Telegraph (UK) ^ | 22 Feb 2009 | Paul Kendall

Posted on 02/24/2009 6:46:25 PM PST by Lorianne

Across Britain, a war is being waged over the stuff we throw away. On one side are local councils, who are under orders to cut the amount of waste they send to landfill sites, and on the other are residents who are bearing the brunt of convoluted rules about what they can and cannot put in their bins.

Suddenly, householders are being threatened with a whole panoply of fines – not only for littering, but for putting too much rubbish in their wheelie bins, daring to leave their bins on the street at the wrong time of day or – the cardinal sin – throwing waste into the "wrong" type of bin. These days, a householder must know whether a tea bag is considered to be "food" or "non-recyclable".

What's more, councils have caused uproar by cutting the frequency with which they collect the bins – from once a week to once every other week. Faced with the prospect of mounting piles of rubbish, residents will have no choice but to recycle more of their waste. Or so the reasoning goes.

But it isn't as simple as that. In a film, to be shown on March 2, Channel 4 has tracked down people on the frontline of the "bin wars" and uncovered a whole host of normally mild-mannered citizens who have transformed themselves into resistance fighters.

(Excerpt) Read more at telegraph.co.uk ...


TOPICS: Foreign Affairs; United Kingdom
KEYWORDS: envirowhackos
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And we thought our priorities are screwed up ....
1 posted on 02/24/2009 6:46:26 PM PST by Lorianne
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To: Lorianne

It sounds like living is England now is like living under a National Home Owner’s Association.


2 posted on 02/24/2009 6:48:16 PM PST by beaversmom
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To: Lorianne

Britain just needs to “bin” their whole society and start over again.


3 posted on 02/24/2009 6:51:45 PM PST by Redcitizen (The Death Star is the ultimate in peacekeeping.)
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To: Lorianne

Alan Price

Your Obama brown shirt is ready anytime you decide to emigrate.


4 posted on 02/24/2009 6:52:48 PM PST by listenhillary (Rahm Emmanuel slip - A crisis is a terrible thing to waste.)
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To: Lorianne

I’ve seen a full length documentary on it. England is having sorted waste bins shoved down their throats by the EU.


5 posted on 02/24/2009 6:54:38 PM PST by SpaceBar
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To: Lorianne

It is sad to see a society with such a proud history willingly take themselves into the sunset...and watch a new Dark Ages coming straight at us.


6 posted on 02/24/2009 6:54:40 PM PST by BobL (Drop a comment: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2180357/posts)
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To: Lorianne

“Slouching Towards Humiliation”


7 posted on 02/24/2009 6:56:45 PM PST by The Duke (I have met the enemy, and he is named 'Apathy'!)
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To: Lorianne

I have friends in England and I’ve been there many times.

England is one of the most overly “controlled” places on the planet. “Traffic controls”, cameras everywhere, pettiness everywhere over stupid trivial laws.

PC gone mad, coming to a town and country near you soon with the self-righteous Obambimaniacs. Fascism in an designer suit. No brown shirts, quite yet, but they’re on order.


8 posted on 02/24/2009 6:56:50 PM PST by garyhope (It's world war IV, right here, right now courtesy of Islam. VRWC. TWP.)
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To: Lorianne

This is a weird anal obsession of the liberal kind. Lots of those recyclables cannot be recycled at any price


9 posted on 02/24/2009 6:58:33 PM PST by dennisw (Archimedes--- Give me a place to stand, and I will move the Earth)
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To: Lorianne
On one side are local councils, who are under orders to cut the amount of waste ...

Can someone explain the council system to me? It sounds like to defunct Soviet system because

soviet = council

10 posted on 02/24/2009 7:03:32 PM PST by Spirochete
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To: garyhope

Tightly controlled - but your chances of getting mugged are higher in London that New York.


11 posted on 02/24/2009 7:10:48 PM PST by tbw2 (Freeper sci-fi - "Humanity's Edge" - on amazon.com)
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To: Spirochete

I think they are like our counties.


12 posted on 02/24/2009 7:34:58 PM PST by Lorianne
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To: Lorianne
These days, a householder must know whether a tea bag is considered to be "food" or "non-recyclable".

Neither. Either toss it in the harbor, or mail it to Parliament

13 posted on 02/24/2009 7:51:13 PM PST by ApplegateRanch (If Liberalism doesn't kill me, I'll live 'till I die!)
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To: tbw2
I know.

I meant tightly controlled for the law abiding subjects, not the criminals.

England is more dangerous than America now. More burglaries and home invasions and jail time if you defend yourself against the criminals.

Bizarre and backwards. PC’ness gone amuck.

Socialist fascism oppressing the normal.

14 posted on 02/24/2009 8:04:16 PM PST by garyhope (It's world war IV, right here, right now courtesy of Islam. VRWC. TWP.)
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To: garyhope
England is more dangerous than America now.

Why does this remind me of A Clockwork Orange?

15 posted on 02/24/2009 8:22:34 PM PST by cayuga (Rulers:Charles I (1649), Louis XVI (1793) Maximillian I (1867) and Barack I (20??))
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To: tbw2
Tightly controlled - but your chances of getting mugged are higher in London that New York.

That's because everything in Airstrip One is illegal except crime.

16 posted on 02/24/2009 8:28:44 PM PST by BlazingArizona
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To: Lorianne

This place sounds just like King County, Washington—remind me never to visit.


17 posted on 02/24/2009 11:00:27 PM PST by j-damn
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To: Lorianne; All
http://www.freedominion.com.pa/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?p=1320574#1320574

I'm reminded of a tale from that Island I grew up on, off the coast...

Back in the mid-nineties, the County Commissioners ( yes, we called them “Commissars,” with much the same disdain towards them the wards of the former Soviet Union showed towards theirs... ) decided, in their infinite wisdom and power to levy fines and taxes, to “introduce recycling to the Island...”

Heretofore, the garbage trucks came to your house or business one a week, but in the Name of the Great God “ecology,” henceforth you would gather up your wet trash ( garbage ), your dry trash ( papers ), and all that good stuff that was worth money ( aluminum cans ), and hie yourself to the old Air National Guard Armory at the airport in the center of the Island.

There, you would separate this stinking pile into groups that went into color-coded bins, to be moved by those formerly convenient Garbage Trucks, to the mainland, where these offerings would be laid upon the Altar of the Great God Ecology, and be “recycled...”

And all in the land were self-righteous and smug, that They Were Doing A Good Thing, For The Environment...”

Now there's a little background you need to know--

1)- that the county had, formerly, only one designated landfill, where trash was hauled, on Cate Road, and it was a vasty, and smelly pit, filled with the detritus of the multitudes of The Island, the other islands, and the mainland, where a bulldozer labored day and night to bury the stuff.

2)- many who live in this area are old, or disabled, or retired, and lugging, and separating this “stuff” was a mighty task-- I well remember seeing the lines of seniors, some on canes or in walkers, struggling to get their trash out of cars, across the parking lot, and in to the correct bins.
And yes, there were fines and penalties if, Woe! You put the wrong trash in the wrong colored bin...

3)- but some- my own Evil Right-Wing Self included-- viewed all this “with great suspicion” ( to quote the Sage Winnie Ther Poo... ) and wonder if we really were Doing The Right Thing for the Great God of Ecology, or were we just being jerked around by a pile of self-righteous bureaucrats...

Well, Lo! One day a reporter happened to act on this suspicion, and actually followed the line of garbage trucks making the pilgrimage to the Great God's Altar, and what did he find?

The same pit...

The same bulldozer...

And all that carefully and painfully separated trash...

going in to the same borrow pit. Just like it always had.

No recycling...

Yes, he took pictures and wrote a story, and yes, every sitting Commissar lost his/her seat in the next election.

18 posted on 02/25/2009 2:37:50 AM PST by backhoe (All across America, the Lights are going out...)
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To: Spirochete
Can someone explain the council system to me?

Council is the generic term for the various forms of elected local government in Britain. In large parts of the country, outside the cities, there's a two-tier system - the County Council and the District Council, each of which has a different set of responsibilities. The larger towns and cities have 'unitary' councils, which do everything. All are funded by a combination of central government grant and council tax - essentially a local property tax. There are different systems in Scotland. The general trend over the last twenty years or so has been to reduce the powers of these local authorities (particularly in areas such as education) at the expense of more centralised control by the national government.

19 posted on 02/25/2009 4:04:56 AM PST by Winniesboy
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To: Winniesboy
Council is the generic term for the various forms of elected local government in Britain. In large parts of the country, outside the cities, there's a two-tier system - the County Council and the District Council, each of which has a different set of responsibilities.

Does this predate the Soviet's usage of the term?

20 posted on 02/25/2009 9:28:54 AM PST by Spirochete
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