Glass collection story

Adrian from Papamoa Beach

Every second Tuesday morning a contractor goes up, then a couple of hours later, down Dickson Road emptying the blue bins Council has supplied for recycling of bottles and other glass products. Well as I drove out my driveway near where Longview Drive branches off, to visit the Plaza I noticed my next door neighbour had a very full blue container that had not been collected. He had had his extended family over for a big get together over the weekend. I thought, "Oh well it is over-full after all."
Being s good neighbour (I hope) I then thought when I returned I would put half of his bottles into my own blue bin, then take both across the road so when the contractor returned he could take both bins and empty the now not-over-filled containers. We take our own glass re-cycling to the Te Maunga recycling ourselves weekly, hence my blue-bin is always empty.

As I drove west down Dickson Road I counted twelve bins that had not been collected as these had bottles visible to a greater or lesser degree above the top of the blue containers. One a few door away had just one bottle showing above the edge by no more than 40 mm. Otherwise it was half empty I nearly drove home to get my camera to record it. Others of the twelve left were really full .

When I drove home an hour later and prepared to get my own blue bin I saw the contractor coming back down Dickson Road, so watched him as he left more bins behind when only one bottle stuck up slightly above the top edge.

So I decided to go down Dickson Road and keep ahead of the contractor to see what eventuated. Well at some stage, as I kept moving ahead of the contractor he must have noticed me. Because I saw him empty a bin that had two bottles sticking up slightly above the edge. The next bin was really full. To my amazement the contractor took a long look at me, then proceeded to empty the really over-full bin into this truck.

So I returned home.

Later in the afternoon I noticed that my neighbour's bin was now empty. When I spoke with him late afternoon he said the contractor must have come back down Dickson Road and taken the ones he had left in the morning.

I realise the contractor is not obliged to take over-full bins, and won't taken any with sharp broken glass as this is a safety hazard. But I would have thought there may be a slight leeway in his estimation of bins fullness, and I guess anyway he may have finally become a "Good neighbour after all.