Dear Croydon Council
I wonder whether you have ever been on the rounds with your refuse collectors and re-cyclers? It’s all speed and no quality. It’s like some kind of waste race. Usain Bolt has nothing on the speed with which your refuse people zoom up the roads, into and out of each path, bang, crash, chuck, whack, and hey presto there’s a wake of rubbish to mark their passing.
Do you tell them that they must be back at the depot by midday or they will lose their jobs? Or they won’t get a Christmas bonus or something? They pelt along the roads, half-emptying bins, often missing recycling boxes if they are out of their eye-line as they lope along trying to beat Roger Bannister’s four minute mile!
Is it efficient? Well I’m not advocating that these guys (and are there any bin-women or only bin-men?) slouch and dally on their rounds, but too much haste means that the quality of the job is compromised. Going out into the street after they’ve been past is like stepping into a refuse Tsunami. Bins blocking the path, lids open, waste strewn over the pavement. Hurricane Croydon has swept through again, leaving in its wake the sad trail of its passing.
And if you ever try to ask a question, they have no time to reply- it’s on and on to the next house, the next street. “Can I put waxed cardboard from fruit juice containers in the paper recycling bin” is met with either a blank stare, a shake of the head, or a “wassup again??”
Who is responsible for setting refuse collectors targets- I assume they must have them because everyone else seems to these days. Is it to make sure that everything is collected in a proper and timely fashion and that the paths and roads are left clean? It would seem not. Get the job done as shoddily as possible and get back to the depot to change and go home?
There’s an old Yorkshire expression “Where there’s muck there’s brass”. It would seem that there’s quick brass to be made in Croydon’s muck, and we the homeowners and council tax payers are paying for it. Please get your refuse people to slow down a bit and leave the various bins and boxes tidy and empty before moving on. Perhaps a refuse inspector or something? Otherwise when the little old lady up the road comes out and breaks her leg falling over a misplaced box, she’ll be suing you for compensation. And in that way we all lose. Croydon Council, please think about it!
