I got a few chuckles out of this story from Britain. In order to assess Sussex residents’ food wasting habits, the district council sorted 30 homes’ trash. The problem, alas, was that they didn’t tell people.
This “intrusive” (according to a local politician 
making a meal out of the affair) act angered some Sussexites. I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but nothing really changed here. You put out your trash and it was removed.
The Sussex council didn’t warn residents of the move because it didn’t want to alter their wasting behavior.
The residents’ concern is that sensitive documents could have been revealed, to which I say: If you’re that afraid of identity theft, why are you not shredding these documents? Brighton University’s Waste and Energy Research Group was in charge of sorting the waste. They sound pretty reliable. Heck, they even have a Web site.
What I really enjoyed was how the tabloid Daily Express kicked up the sensationalism and added a dash of fear-mongering about new trash taxes. The headline “Spies Check Bins to See if Families are Wasting Food” says it all.
In that article, Shadow Local Government Secretary Eric Pickles said: “This is yet more evidence if any was needed of the march of bin brother.” Oh, brother–talk about a bad line.
I’m hopelessly biased here, but what do you think of this trash tumult?
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