Unintended Consequences are Unforeseen

… by public sector hectors at any rate.

My recycling, yesterday.

Who’d have thunk that fortnightly collections augmented with stupid rules would cause this?:

Householders who burn their rubbish at home are now the main source of dioxin poisons in the environment, an inquiry has found.

Back-garden bonfires of domestic waste account for nearly a fifth of the cancer-causing dioxins that are pumped into the atmosphere and seep into the ground, it discovered.

The findings follow deepening concern about the spread of rubbish-burning by
householders whose waste is no longer collected by binmen.

Burning and fly-tipping have become an alternative for many families facing fortnightly
collections, compulsory recycling, and heavy fines for putting out too much rubbish or trying to get round restrictive wheelie bin rules.

ORLY? Well at least the Tories are quick to point the finger on this.

Tory communities spokesman Caroline Spelman said: ‘Weekly rubbish collections were introduced because of the harm to the environment from fly-tipping and backyard burning. Yet the lessons of the past have been forgotten.

‘Labour’s bin bully policies have slashed back proper bin collections. Now Labour ministers have conspired to cover up the serious threat to public health their policies have caused.’

However, as documented here, in December 2009:

A cash-strapped council that recently made 30 staff redundant has spent almost £100,000 employing two ‘bin police’ to make sure residents are recycling. The so-called ‘waste advisors’ will visit households to check that all recyclable material is going in the right bins.

Councillors and residents are fuming over what they call a gross waste of money.

The Taxpayers Alliance has lashed out at the Tory-controlled Test Valley Borough Council in Hampshire, saying that employing ‘more busy bodies to inspect people’s bins’ was the last priority for local taxpayers. A spokesman said: ‘As well as being sick to death with draconian council officers, local residents need lower taxes to help them through the recession. ‘If the council has any spare money it should give it back to local people.’

In the meantime, a po-faced cyclist working at DEFRA says:

‘It is an offence for householders to dispose of their waste in a manner likely to cause pollution of the environment and human health, such as by burning.

‘Domestic waste should be disposed of via the proper routes provided by the local authority.’

Everything is an offence now, don’t you see?? Fuck them all. Just give us back our mixed weekly collections, you self-serving twats.

AJ