Skip to main content

THINKING OUTSIDE THE BOX

Submitted by Editor on

I arrived home from work one night in December to find that my blue recycling box, which I’d left on the kerbside earlier that day, had disappeared.

Where had it gone? I suspected that the strong winds were responsible. I looked up and down the street and I even made accusing glances at any boxes lying in neighbours' gardens. Had someone stolen my box? It was nowhere to be seen and the disappearance left me slightly puzzled.
 
Before I go any further, I should add that it wasn’t actually my property. It belonged to Edinburgh City Council and said so on the side. So I did the right thing and ordered a replacement, using alternative methods to recycle during the interim period. But this didn’t help me answer the serious question: Where did the box go?
 

Several weeks later a new box arrived and I got straight down to making my mark on it. If this one were to go missing as well, I wanted to be sure it would turn up. On closer inspection of it, though, I found that Edinburgh had been spelt incorrectly.
 
Well, of course, Edenburgh is just a clever marketing campaign. ‘Let’s make our city Edenburgh’ is how the phrase goes. This is something I agree on, but is this campaign wasted on me? If I’m using my recycling box (or losing it) then I'm already trying to make our city a cleaner place. How many people have read that slogan on one of the red or blue boxes and been persuaded to recycle for the first time?
 
What I’d like to see is more action being taken from the Council to increase the number of households that recycle for the first time. On our row, it seems like ours is the only box placed outside each week. Perhaps the Council should forget the slogans and focus on more persuasion.
  
As for the whereabouts of my old box, who knows where it ended up? I hope that someone somewhere has found it and is now using it. Perhaps it’s being used as a flower tub or has become a home for some local wildlife. If you find it, why not take it in and treat it as your own?
 
Last week I returned home to find that my new recycling box had gone missing. After further investigation it was found 100 yards down the street, even though this time the weather had been calm. Should I suspect foul play? Or is there really a place called Edenburgh to which all these boxes are trying to make their way home?

Do you suffer from gripes and disquiets? Please share them by email spurtle@hotmail.co.uk or Twitter  @theSpurtle or direct to The Left-Handed Tea Drinker 

------------------------

  22h

Your blue box was likely shifted down the st by the rubbishmen. They do this often on my st and stops lots of folk recycling