‘Serious concerns’ about wheelie bins

Dorothy Berry, of Airfield, writes:

I have serious concerns about this whole wheelie bin issue.

Send your letters to bctletters@caxton.co.za.

These can be divided into two categories.

Firstly, why are these not being delivered to those of us who are not in a position to collect them?

Would it be so very difficult for the municipality to go from house to house leaving one at each?

I surely cannot be the only person unable to collect?

I am 76, live on my own and have no family and no transport.

Does the municipality seriously suppose that people in my position will hobble along to a collection depot which may be two or three miles from their home and then hobble back pulling a heavy wheelie bin?

My latest municipal account?

With the postal services as they are, the chances are that I will not have received the latest one.

Also, what is to prevent people who want more than one bin from sending two (or more) different family members to collect them?

Secondly, back in the ’70s, our refuse collection was reduced from three times weekly, then twice weekly and a few years thereafter to once weekly, at which time we were advised that the black bag system would be put into place, but that we would be allowed up to six black bags per week and that these could also contain soft garden rubbish.

Only two full black bags will fit into a wheelie bin, so unless people purchase extra bins some will be seriously inconvenienced.

I have passed places where picking up from their pavement trees has resulted in piles of 20 to 30 full black bags awaiting collection. Pavement trees belong to the municipality, we may not even prune them back ourselves, and yet a few years ago the municipality informed us that the care and maintenance of pavements was henceforth the home-owner’s responsibility.

Now we are told that it is against the by-laws to put garden refuse into the bins.

So what are we supposed to do with all this?

I, personally, will not put these leaves and acorns on my compost heap, too acid, and in any case all the oak trees are infected with a horrible black fungus which I have no intention of introducing to my garden.

So, the only alternative I see is either to burn them in the gutters (oops, open fires against the by-laws, too) or just leave them to blow away in due course.

Our rates have increased over the years, but our service delivery in many respects has decreased, a little bit at a time admittedly, but nonetheless we’re getting much less “bang for our buck” than we did in the past.

Methinks it’s time we got our fellow-citizens to teach us how to toyi-toyi – it’s maybe the mildest way of protesting!