8th October 2008

In a place called Beavais in Picardie, horses have replaced bin lorries as part of an experiment by rubbish company Sita France. Unfortunate name I would have thought. Anyway, as well as the economic and environmental advantages of the experiment, it is also a way of saving abandoned horses. A spokesman for the animal charity Equiterra which provide the horses said recently: 'It has gone really well. People don't normally stop and chat with the people who collect the rubbish but it has proved very popular with the town.' Well, yes. Everywhere else no-one really talks to binmen other than that old song via the late Lonnie Donegan: 'Have you missed me?' says an old lady rushing up with her bin bag. 'No - jump up on the cart'. At the top of our lane there is the usual assortment of coloured recycling bins where everyone is supposed to sort out their rubbish before depositing it in the correct container. And woe betide anyone who gets it wrong, by putting glass into the plastics bin, for example. 'Don't see the point', said him indoors the other day after coming back from his daily trip up the lane. 'Why not', said I innocently. 'Saw the rubbish removals truck this morning. The men jumped out, quickly cleared all three containers of their contents and dumped the lot wholesale into the back of their truck'. 'No!' 'Oh yes', said he. So, what was the point of all this recycling message then? To some things, there are no answers, so comme d'habitude I put it into my mental DB file. What's DB? Disbuggerment. Trouble is, here in France, my DB file is getter larger and larger. Oh well, c'est la vie.