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?
Comments
8 responses to “Trash Snatched!!”
I hear this all the time about people bellyaching over their garbage being “private.”
I would be more concerned about identity thieves digging around in the dumpsters and cans at night than the district council simply surveying the contents of the cans. Shredding is a must, regardless of such “bin surveys.”
I have also seen such ridiculous things as someone coming out of their house/business screaming at dumpster divers who are picking up the perfectly good stereo system or washing machine they have set at the curb for disposal. Let’s see – they’d rather see that item landfilled/incinerated than for someone to make something good from it? How is that?
I had a roommate who got angry when I would dig through the trash can in order to separate the recyclable bottles and cans that he would throw in there despite the four months that I had been telling him to put them in the correct bin. He was concerned when he saw that I had moved some other waste – the 185 copies of Fox News’ article on “The reason we need to stay in Iraq” that he had printed and then just thrown away – into the recycling containers. I had never met anyone who had such an ideological opposition to any type of conservation of any resource… I was never able to figure out why, other than “That’s the way I was brought up!”
I’m just glad that someone takes away my trash for me. As long as I never see it again, I would not be offended by a research project examining it.
cjohnson, how dare you deprive our landfills. As penance, print out 100 more articles to give to the landfill.
Don’t they realize that once it’s on the curb it’s public, at least that’s how it works in the US. I admit most of my knowledge of criminal investigations comes from CSI, but I was under the impression that the powers that be could look through your trash without a warrant, so looking to see you much food you wasted is pretty benign.
On a different note, I’ve been reading your blog since it was feature in the NY Times but didn’t realize until today that you’re in NC too. Now anytime you mention waste at an unnamed store I can usually guess which one you’re talking about…
Um, when they put their trash out normally, the governmentally funded trash people take it away, right? In this case, the government still took away the trash. They just looked at it before throwing it away.
Molly, that and Law and Order are pretty much the extent of my education on criminal investigations too. =P
I have heard of some municipalities giving each house one garbage bag for waste, and one for the municipal compost. and they weren’t allowed to put out more than that one garbage bag of waste…a neat idea!
Hi,
I live in Sussex UK, though NOT in the area covered by the council in question. I was just pleased that some people realised that the while they pay the council to remove their waste, they realised that it is STILL their waste, whooo… amazing.
OK all those that complained, just think, all that stuff locked in landfill is STILL YOURS! There ain’t no place called ‘away’. I looked for it but without any luck yet.
We got our waste down to 8oz recently… anyone want to check through it, be our guest
This compulsion idea is bad. Gary Corkhill, with a family of 6, got a criminal record for having his bin slightly ajar (it was required to be closed). What is required is to have all the facilities for home food waste collection and home recycling in place in every council area. When this is done the remaining waste, mostly plastic packaging, can be collected every 2 weeks with plenty of space in each bin.
This is an example of the “blame game”, where councils blame householders for the council’s dithering.
John.