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Balderdasha's 2021 litter picking thread

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    #76
    Only every two weeks?!

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      #77
      Originally posted by Sporting View Post
      Only every two weeks?!
      Yes, they alternate between collecting our general waste and our recyclables. Food waste is collected every week. Garden waste is also every two weeks and you have to pay an extra 40 quid for that service.

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        #78
        Same in Ireland, it's the general bin on Tuesday and the recycling and compost bill the following week, and you have to pay. Fly tipping is endemic.

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          #79
          Originally posted by Sporting View Post
          Only every two weeks?!
          Same here in the Netherlands.

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            #80
            Originally posted by Balderdasha View Post
            They alternate between collecting our general waste and our recyclables. Food waste is collected every week. Garden waste is also every two weeks and you have to pay an extra 40 quid for that service.
            Exactly the same in Harrow. Except that it's seventy-five pounds a year for the garden waste.

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              #81
              Ours are emptied twice a day.

              City collects several times a week.

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                #82
                Trash every week. Recycling every other week. No green waste collection here except leaves in autumn because there are just so many leaves. I always found it a dead giveaway that municipalities pretend to "encourage" recycling yet pick up non-recycled crap more frequently that recyclables.

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                  #83
                  It is so easy to assume that there would be a massive consensus about looking after the planet - especially around issues like climate change. However, when I walk or drive around our little fringe suburb the huge amount of rubbish dumped by people sadly leads me to completely understand why action on climate change is so slow. Many people don't give a fuck about where they live.
                  Last edited by Uncle Ethan; 18-01-2021, 03:56.

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                    #84
                    Recycling, food and the rest collected every week on the same day here. Garden waste also weekly and it's a paid-for service as is collection of bulky items which are picked up by arrangement. I could survive easily with a weekly recycling collection and the rest every three weeks as that's how long it takes to fill a single bin bag.

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                      #85
                      Our street bins;

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                        #86
                        Just a small bag picked today on a quick walk in the park. Strangest find was a baby's dummy. The layby near the shop didn't have as much junk as usual. I hope that if I clear it completely, drivers will be too ashamed to mess it up again.

                        Total litter picking expeditions to date: 13
                        Total bags of rubbish collected to date: 17
                        Money found to date: GBP 1.02.

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                          #87
                          Not strange to find a dummy is it? Kids drop them all the time.

                          Mrs Thistle once told me a story about seeing a baby drop their dummy on the floor of the bus. It rolled down the aisle of the bus. Then the mum retrieved it, put it in her mouth to clean it, and then put it in her baby's mouth.

                          I had dry heaves for ages after she told me that.

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                            #88
                            I guess not that strange, but it's the first one I've found this year, whereas I find bottles and cans and crisp packets and disposable face masks all the time. Maybe "notable" rather than "strange".

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                              #89
                              Originally posted by Patrick Thistle View Post
                              Not strange to find a dummy is it? Kids drop them all the time.

                              Mrs Thistle once told me a story about seeing a baby drop their dummy on the floor of the bus. It rolled down the aisle of the bus. Then the mum retrieved it, put it in her mouth to clean it, and then put it in her baby's mouth.

                              I had dry heaves for ages after she told me that.
                              None of us ever had one after my Dad saw the same thing happen.

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                                #90
                                Incredibly wet outside. Half the park is now a pond (I think it's a flood plain). Took the kids out in their wellies and litter picked while they splashed about. Found a sparkly blue hair bobble. Managed to fish a can out of the river (I can only get stuff near the edge. Maybe I should invest in some waders as there are more cans in the middle of the river that I can't reach).

                                Total litter picking expeditions to date: 14
                                Total bags of rubbish collected to date: 18
                                Money found to date: GBP 1.02.

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                                  #91
                                  The recycling bins were collected this morning, which usually means some bits and pieces have fallen out of the bins. A large tin foil baking tray had made its way to our front lawn, there was the packaging from a Waitrose bramley apple pie and two big plastic spoons. Easily gathered a bag on the way to the park for the kids to have scooter races.

                                  Total litter picking expeditions to date: 15
                                  Total bags of rubbish collected to date: 19
                                  Money found to date: GBP 1.02.

                                  Comment


                                    #92
                                    Good weather so I took the kids out for a full hour to some nature meadows nearby. They helped me spot litter under the bushes as they can see things from a lower angle than I can. Unusual finds included: an orange high-vis jacket under a tree, another full bag of mouldy bread, a road sign that someone had just shoved to the side of the pavement and half covered in dirt (too big to move today, I might go back to sort it out another day). We filled three bags today.

                                    Total litter picking expeditions to date: 16
                                    Total bags of rubbish collected to date: 22
                                    Money found to date: GBP 1.02.

                                    Comment


                                      #93
                                      One thing that happens quite a bit in my neighborhood is people leaving things on the curb with the intention/hope that somebody else will want them and take them away. Often they have 'FREE'* signs on them, often they don't. There's a lamp that's been on the corner a half-block down for two weeks now, somebody's lain it down on the grass, which feels a bit like it's lying in state as I pass it on my daily dog walks.

                                      A half-block in the other direction of the lamp, somebody left a pair of shoes on the corner, which a few days later, were followed by an additional pair of work boots about 20 feet up the street. I can't imagine that it was the same person returning, so probably a second person saw the first shoes, then figured it was a done thing and left their boots there. A day after the boots were left there, two unopened cans of White Claw were left across the sidewalk from them. (White Claw is a "hard" seltzer, so fizzy water with booze in.) A day after that, somebody had taken the full cans of White Claw and put them inside in the boots, where they remained for 4 days or so.

                                      Yesterday, I was walking the dog about a half-block ahead of two abuelitas** out for their morning constitutional. While my dog paused to eat grass from a particular lawn that he favors, I saw them stop at the boots. "Ah", I thought, "they might know somebody who could use a free pair of boots and that pair did appear to be in decent shape, even if they're a bit waterlogged from the recent rains." Instead, with palpable glee, they verified that the White Claws were intact and stashed them in their string backpacks before heading on their way.

                                      * - A friend of mine's approach to this gambit is to have something you would be happy for somebody else to take for free, then put it on the curb with a sign saying "$20 O.B.O" and then somebody will be sure to just take it.

                                      ** - Spanish for grandmother. Richmond has a majority population of working-class folks of Meso-American extraction, so you see a lot of these ladies about, especially in terms of providing child care for families where both parents work. When Hillary Clinton was running for president in 2016, there was a real effort by her social media team to paint her as your "abuelita". Can you imagine Hillary running a business out of a hand-pushed tamale cart?

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                                        #94
                                        Abuelita is an informal way to say gran. Abuela is the dictionary way.

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                                          #95
                                          Litter picking in the snow doesn't work very well. There's so much light shining off everything that the silvery wrappers don't stand out as much. Still found enough to fill a small bag. A Costa coffee cup next to the crumbled remains of a snowman, as if the hot drink was what caused him to melt. Red plastic shards at the bottom of a hill, presumably having snapped off a sled.

                                          Total litter picking expeditions to date: 17
                                          Total bags of rubbish collected to date: 23
                                          Money found to date: GBP 1.02.

                                          Comment


                                            #96
                                            Two litter picking expeditions in one day.

                                            One trip to the park with the kids at lunchtime, where the snow has now melted and I could collect all the detritus that was hiding underneath it. Found a couple of hair bobbles and a red hair clip with yellow flowers. It doesn't matter how many hair bobbles and clips I buy for my daughter, within a week or two they've all disappeared again.

                                            Second trip was after work when I walked into town to collect a prescription from the pharmacy. That route takes me past a section with billboards where people seem to take down the old adverts and then just stuff them in a hedge. Managed to pull one large disintegrating poster and some sacking out from behind some railings. One huge canvas advert is too big for me to move on my own.

                                            Total litter picking expeditions to date: 19
                                            Total bags of rubbish collected to date: 25
                                            Money found to date: GBP 1.02.

                                            Comment


                                              #97
                                              I've been in a foul mood. I basically cried all Friday evening and then slept all day Saturday. My long-suffering husband sent me out for a walk by myself today to see if that improved things. I took the opportunity to do some more "extreme" litter picking, i.e. that I consider not safe to do with the kids in tow. I went inside all the big blackberry bushes and hauled all the cans and wrappers out from there. Then, with my wellies on, I went round the back of one of the ponds and pulled about 30 cans and bottles out of the reeds (they've been bugging me for a while). I also picked another bag from round the park while talking to a friend on the phone and another bag from the layby near the shop (my theory that no-one would litter there if I kept it clear is so far not working, it was filthy again).

                                              Am feeling slightly less awful now.
                                              ​​​​​​
                                              Total litter picking expeditions to date: 20
                                              Total bags of rubbish collected to date: 29
                                              Money found to date: GBP 1.02.

                                              Comment


                                                #98
                                                Took the kids out to the flooded park. My son particularly likes spotting rubbish for me. We found a half-disintegrated football which he declared to be our "most unusual find ever"! (He doesn't have a long memory).

                                                Total litter picking expeditions to date: 21
                                                Total bags of rubbish collected to date: 30
                                                Money found to date: GBP 1.02.

                                                Comment


                                                  #99
                                                  I also find a lot of diabetic needle wrappers. I only know what they are because one of the mum's I'm friends with has to inject herself several times a day. That's got to suck. The only time I had to have daily infections was after my caesareans. I had to have anti-blood clotting injections in my stomach a couple of times a day for a couple of weeks. Both times I wimped out and made my husband do it.

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                                                    Originally posted by Balderdasha View Post
                                                    The only time I had to have daily infections was after my caesareans.
                                                    Um. This typo made me wince.

                                                    Are they safety needles because I think those get given out at needle exchanges now. (They are also used by people who need insulin if they aren't using pens with built in needle cartridges.)

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