Recycling wars

You wouldn't think that recycling could cause so many rows would you? In our house the battle of the rubbish bin happens every Tuesday and today was particularly bad with both of us shutting the other out of the house. However I caught the front door just before it slammed and he had the foresight (irritating though that was it impressed me) to make sure his key was in his dressing gown pocket.

I had spent a good 3 days of my holiday clearing up the huge piles of black sacks that had been stored at the end of the garden waiting for him to take them to the tip or merely put them out for the dustman.I had never been to the council refuse dump before and going there, taking car fulls of rubbish and seeing how it all worked was a revelation to me and in a slightly sad way empowered me to sort the rubbish out myself. I sweated in that heat and struggled to move all those stinking and heavy bags of rubbish but I did it and with each load felt triumphant. I promised myself that the end of the garden would never be that mess again.

I devised a system, rubbish in the bin in a plastic bag and reclycled stuff in the white recycle bag. That way on a Tuesday we just lift the rubbish bag out of the dustbin and put it outside with the recycled bags....now what could be simpler? Except HE ....He still goes down there on a Tuesday morning prior to the dustman coming and starts sorting out the rubbish. SORTING IT OUT AGAIN!!!! He puts some of it in another bag as he says that can be recycled but the recycled men won't collect this type of recycling so HE'LL take it to the tip later....which we all know he won't because he didn't before hence the huge piles that were left there for years and years. So I put the rubbish back out for the dustman inside another bag and while I am doing this he tries to shut me out in my night clothes at 7.15 in the morning, but I am too quick and catch the door. 'hmpf' and I give a triumphant smile at him.

Later he goes out and re sorts the rubbish and I slam the door shut on him...laughing to myself that he wasn't as quick as me but it turns out he has his key. I see the black bags on the stairs and its on the tip of my tongue to tell him that should I find those bags either in the garden or the shed I will tip them all over his bed. But I stop myself and console myself with the thought that if I do find them I'll take them to the tip and put them in the bay that says 'Non recyclable' as some kind of silly revenge

Pathetic eh?