England - Did you know that only one out of twenty households actually knows which bin to take out first? The bewildering list of complex rules of segregation makes it challenging for household to take care of their trash and throw it properly. This widespread confusion may seem like a simple problem but it could bring about a huge problem not only for a community but for the entire world.
In Wales alone, it was reported that there are about 22 different recycling services available for households. This sheer number of available programs for recycling cause serious confusion among residents. In fact, the people living in the community of Milton Keynes are among those who are extremely confused. Their council for recycling provides five different garbage bags that come in different colors. Each color directs the citizen to fill it with what is assigned to it and nothing more. Pink sacks are for recycled items, black bag for household waste, blue bags for reusable bottles, yellow bags for used batteries and green bags for leftover food. Across 18 councils in England, the garbage collection has been rescheduled to at least three collections every week, with other four days sorting out the trash.
The figures gathered from the Freedom of Information Act show about 1.8 million people who have complaints about their garbage collection system. Most of them have reported that their trash has not been collected for weeks. The experts in waste disposal from the BusinessWaste.co.uk warned that the confusion in the collection schedule of the rubbish could cause serious health hazards among its residents. The survey they conducted including 1,400 households and it showed that more than half of the population got the garbage collection schedule wrong at least once in six months.
"In many places, specific types of bins are only collected once a month. It is not surprising that we may find ourselves with a much bigger problem," said Mark Hall, the agency spokesperson. "The piling up of black bags to already jam-packed bins could be heaven for cats, rats, and foxes. Once the trash from these bags has been spread out on the streets, some garbage collecting agencies would refuse to collect them."
If the confusion of the residents in the segregation of the garbage becomes worse, they might dismiss the concept of separating the non-biodegradable from the biodegradable ones. By then, garbage collection might just get worse. Who is to blame for such complexity?
