It's about time rubbish bag vigilantism was kicked back into councils backside.
Recycling should be encouraged, for it is right thing to do, not forced on people. You'll generally find, that for stuff that solely relies on quality and willingness of participation providing incentive is always better than threats. In some countries that incentive is shifted onto primary littering element - the manufacturer. If clear bottle, scrap tin metal, glass jar, what-have-you has value, then manufacturer is to buy it back from people, plus organize collection in all of their retail points for discount tokens/school vouchers, in exchange for tax rebates. Suddenly recycling makes sense to everyone. It's no longer a chore forced by bureaucrat. It's a common sense. You don't see people littering streets with coins, they will stop littering streets with beer cans if said beer can has value. Or if they do, there will be plenty of volunteers to pick them up extra pronto.
The whole "lid not closing" thing is just complete lack of imagination. It's like charging for internet transfer/volume. Only idiot in accounting can come up with something like this. We don't control amount of rubbish handed to us. The only way you could impose any litter limits on me is if I - the recipient of goods - could impose packaging limits on Tesco, spam limits on Royal Mail and garden growth limits on God. If my lid doesn't close, it doesn't mean that I am overly wasteful, it only means your limits are unrealistic for the amount of rubbish I am forced to pass on. I did not CREATE the rubbish, did not multiply it, did not manufacture it in my spare time - it was handed to me, and I hand it over to you, what else can I do?
And that brings me to the last point. Rubbish collection is not free affair. One could argue, that after paying for policing and parish, it is the only real service provided by council for the £1200-1500 average fee. I know council doesn't see it that way, but in reality that's what it is - I, as a citizen, don't get much more from council for my money. So when councils propose "we'll collect it fortnightly, you have limit of one bin and your lid has to close" I have only two things to say back
1. I elected you to SERVE US, not RULE US. Now, me and my fellow citizens need you to do us the service we elected you for and organize pick up of ALL our rubbish. This isn't negotiable, that's what you are called - public servant, that's your job - public serving - if you don't do your job, we, the public, have no use for you. Rubbish. All of it. NOW. Do it and STFU or GTFO.
2. If the volume is a problem and you only contracted one waste lorry - fine - me and my hommies, we'll organize it ourselves. 20 houses on the street, 1200 council bill a year. I'm sure I'll find someone to pop in once a week to pick our trash. But you don't get a penny from us this year. Deal?
