Green Garbage Crazier!

In its efforts to achieve government recycling targets, Macclesfield Borough Council plans to require its customers to sort their refuse to aid recycling. The categories will be: wood, paper, metals, plastics, glass, textiles, domestic waste, compostable garden refuse and 'general waste'. Each householder will be issued with 2 wheely bins -- a green one for garden refuse and a dark blue one for their general waste. In addition, they will receive a further 7 transparent containers or NWBs (non-wheeled bins), each with a colour-coding stripe, and a schedule of collections to allow them to deploy the right container(s) on the appropriate collection day.
   The use of transparent NWBs; which will be toughened plastic sacks or stackable plastic boxes as appropriate; is intended to assist the work of Macclesfield's Refuse Police. Staff from this department are currently at work in Tytherington, where a pilot recycling scheme is in operation. Their duties include checking a specified number of containers at houses selected at random to ensure that people are putting the right materials into the correct bins, and that tins, bottles, etc. are washed thoroughly before binning. The staff of this department will be increased by 1,200% when the full scheme goes on-line, providing an immediate employment benefit to the borough.
   A future session of the borough council is expected to discuss penalties for persistent offenders who indulge in incorrect binning. Sanctions ranging from on-the-spot fines to an increase in the household's Council Tax have been proposed. More immediately, the council is expected to vote for the removal of all 'speed bumps' and other traffic calming measures to prevent delays to the progress of refuse collection vehicles, which will have to visit each street three to four times per week.
   A further council service, which will be offered when the recycling scheme comes on-line, will be a hotline for colour-blind residents, who are unable to tell one bin from another.