ON THE COUCH WITH JASMINDA: Bin takin’ my bin?

DEAR Jasminda,

WE live on a battle-axe block with three other sets of neighbours.

On bin night, all our bins go to a central spot.

I’ve noticed, on collection day, that neighbours have been taking my clean bins (that I wash each week and double disinfect with a homemade mint, lemon and bicarb soda spray), leaving their smelly bins for me. How do I resolve this?

Norrie D.

DEAR Norrie,

IF ever you want to assess basic hygiene standards or commitment to reducing and recycling waste, look no further than a person’s bin.

Some bins contain carefully sorted rubbish and others contain dead rats, loose dog poo, kitty litter, car batteries, building waste, great-grandpa’s ashes, asbestos and, for good measure, a fish frame or two.

Some time ago, in a bid to make people more accountable for what they put in their bin, councils in various areas held community workshops where a random bin was presented to a group of participants.

Once its contents were ceremoniously tipped onto the floor, the participants (those who didn’t run out of the room dry retching, that is) assessed which of those items could be put to better use (fruit and vegetable scraps, for example, could go into the compost bin, batteries could go to safe battery disposal boxes found in selected supermarkets, misplaced recyclables could be redirected to the recycle bin or turned into money or donations at local return and earn facilities, and so on).

A food and garden organics (FOGO) mandate has been introduced, which will be fully implemented in NSW by 2030. The out-of-mind, out-of-sight, throw it in the bin attitude is having devastating impacts on the environment, so we all need to be far more attuned to what goes into our bin and have more respectful attitudes to waste.

It appears, Norrie, that you revere your bins, and no doubt you are also very careful about their contents.

Perhaps you could beat your neighbours to the bin collection point, thereby ensuring the clean bins are returned to their rightful owner.

Alternatively, you could stick a message on the bin lids. Something like: “Norrie’s Bin. FOGO off”,’ or “Bin takin’ my bin? STOP!”

The upside to your problem is you and your neighbours have created an unintended yet effective form of clean bin rotation.

If your bins are collected by a new neighbour each week, the bin cleanliness regime you’ve instigated is having far-reaching effects.

Perhaps, a less antagonistic solution may be to place a bottle of “Norrie’s Organic Bin Cleanser” on the lids of each empty bin next week.

Hopefully the neighbours will view this in the spirit it is intended, thereby initiating a sweet-smelling solution to your problem.

Carpe diem, Jasminda.