Normally I like to start every Tuesday with pictures of the reclaimed food I was able to pick up from Mr. Produce Guy over the previous week. However this week we were out of town on our usual pick up day {we let Mr. Produce Guy we’d be gone ahead of time}. No pick up, means no free produce, for us or our chickens. So today I thought I would talk about something else instead. Trash.
Back in 2006 when our {whole} family took our first trip to London we noticed that every night as shops closed their doors they would set their trash on the street in front of their shops.
Here in America everything goes into dumpsters or trash cans, so we thought it was both rather odd {and charming at the same time}. Charming? Garbage can be charming?
Well sort of.
If you look closely at the bags in some of the pictures are marked for recycling. Which made me wonder, do Londoner’s BUY specific bags to toss their trash? Does the city give them the bags?
How much does trash collection cost in the UK vs the States?
Clearly this picture of trash was taken outside of a small hotel because it’s filled with shopping bags. Either that or it was payday and the owners of the trash went on a major shopping spree.
Is it weird that I found this fascinating enough to take pictures?
Am I off my rocker?
Did some well dressed man give me a strange look when he opened the door to his home and found some strange American taking a picture of his recyclables?
Um… YES! I actually thought The Girl was going to faint.
I thought it was hilarious, The Girl found it mortifying, and the man just closed his door on me. Whatever. One man’s trash, is another man treasure, and I had to make sure he wasn’t throwing out any treasures.
Thank you people of London for making my day. Even if all you did was throw out your trash.
~Mavis
Lisa says
You’re lucky the sanitary workers weren’t on strike this weekend. I have a girlfriend who lives in London and she says that happens regularly. Oddly enough, they do the same thing in NYC… the trash on the street no the striking. I remember that from our trip there. Large piles of trash on the sidewalk at night. The trash collectors go around at night and pick them up. The garbage truck drivers drive like Indy car drivers. And I thought NYC taxi drivers were bad.
Mavis says
Ha! Maybe I need to take a trip to NYC to investigate. 🙂
Kimberly Clark from Harmony twp says
I love construction trash! Great treasures there.
Ajlin says
The big dangers in going through trash, bedbugs and roaches, food which really is spoiled.
Just please don’t do it.
Sakura says
This has nothing to do with trash but I had to tell you. As I drove my 8 yo son to school today we were talking about Education and what do you want to do when you grow up etc. Then the topic of money came up and we discussed the need for money to take care of yourself and your family. So I asked him how would you get groceries if you didn’t have money to buy them, his answer was,”I would barter for it.” He rattled off a half a dozen items he new how to make with the things he already had, this would give him items to barter with.
I was so surprised because we’ve never discussed bartering with him, even at 8 my son is a genius!
Mavis says
Awesome! 🙂
Erin says
Obviously you weren’t in the far east end… I lived there for two years and the largely Pakistani population would through food out directly on the ground by the trees. Their rationing? It keeps the rats out if the houses and on the streets. Yuck. I hated it. Fortunately London employs a large amount of street sweepers- their only job is to do just that… Once every other week the streets would be super clean.
Ann T. says
You are so funny, I would of loved to have seen a picture of The Girl with that shock look. So fun to make lasting memories that will bring a laugh years from now.
Judy N. says
Mavis your hysterically Funny!! and yes its weird to snap shots of trash..but who cares! Also Was wondering how old The Girl and The boy are? I would give anything to see “The Girls look of mortification..LOL
When you coming back to the States? Hurry we miss you and your Garden shots!!
Mavis says
We are home and I’m diving into new projects already. Who needs sleep, right? Monkey Boy and the Girl and old teenagers. 🙂
Looby says
where I used to live (scotland) the council gave us recycling bags – purple for paper and cans, clear for… something else… There were 25 on a roll and collection was every 2 weeks. First roll of the year was free (so one bag per collection) second you paid a bit for (not much and the fine for throwing out stuff that could be recycled was greater). Where I now live (wales but still UK!) we have coloured boxes – 4 in total – for various things to be collected in. One is a compost bin which we’re given little green bags and a mini kitchen bin for! When you get to the end of the roll the last bag is a tag to attach to your bin to ask the collectors for more! The system works except when its windy and you have to go and retrieve your empty boxes from the neighbours garden and apologies profusely for damaging their rose bush with a red ‘can’ bin!
Mavis says
How often do they pick up your trash in Scotland? Here it’s once a week and the recycling containers are my larger than the standard trash can.
Looby says
every two weeks – it was recycling one week, land fill the next, but i was forever getting confused and putting out the wrong thing! In Wales its recycling every week and land fill every 2 weeks.
Birgit says
If this is the same system that they have in Germany (and that I also saw in Austria), it’s not trash but recycling. This is how it works for my mom in Germany: The city trash collection provides you with a roll of special color-coded bags for different recyclables, and if you don’t take care and put the wrong stuff in, they won’t take it come recycling pickup day- that’s why the bags are transparent! (There’s a schedule for different kinds of recyclables- it’s your responsibility to separate them right). Or if you put recyclables into the household trash can (which is MUCH smaller than anything here in the US, and they only get picked up every two weeks so as to “encourage” separating your trash) instead of the bags, they will leave it too, simple as that.
You may be interested in this site (in German) that is sort of a Google egg map for reclaimed food dumpster diving in Europe
http://foodsharing.de/
About: (in English)
http://my.news.yahoo.com/german-bin-divers-connected-wage-war-food-waste-140644910.html
Mavis says
Thanks for the information Brigit. I think it’s really interesting. 🙂
Nicki says
We don’t pay extra for trash collection that I know of in Brussels but I know people in other cities in Belgium have to pay per bag of trash put out (which is why when they drive into Brussels for work or whatever, they bring their trash with them and leave it where ever looks good). We have to buy special bags for all trash and recycling – white for normal garbage (picked up twice a week), blue for plastics, cans, etc, and yellow for paper (blue and yellow alternate pick ups). Using other bags (black or grey) means that you will get a fine. There are also glass recycling bins all over the city. Some communes have a special day where you can put all the large stuff that you want to get rid of (beds, mattresses, furniture, wood, metal, etc.) out on the sidewalk and the garbage men will come pick it up. We do not live in a part of the city that does that but we can call the garbage men and make an appointment for large pick ups and they will come get it (1st meter cubed is free and then there is a not terribly expensive charge per meter cubed after that).
All of which reminds me that I forgot to put the trash out this morning. 🙂
Mavis says
Thanks Nicki, it’s interesting to know how the different cities operate. And, Brussels is AWESOME! 🙂
PAM says
LMAO! you just made my day! thanks!
Marie says
Please, please, please share how you collected enough frequent flyer miles for this trip? Do u pay your mortgage with your credit card? If you don’t spend lots online or in stores, how do you accumulate miles? We want to travel too!
Mavis says
Okay, I will next week. 🙂
Nichole says
Mavis – you are cray cray.