Dear LPG,

Some people collect magazines, others prefer dolls and I know one model fire engine collector, but I like to collect information about all the odd and weird celebratory days that have been introduced over recent years.

I have been looking at my internet calendar of national days again and thought that I should make everyone aware that today is recognised as Global Garbage Man Day.   I have never heard of it before and I have to admit to spending a lot of time arguing about the waste disposal service, especially in October 2017 when Lewisham Borough decided on some rubbish being collected fortnightly instead of weekly. 

But that is a quarrel between us and the administrators and not the men that turn up at our front gardens each week to collect our rubbish, and perhaps we should do a little more than just remember to tip them at Christmas, if we still do that.  They turn up when it is so hot that we avoid going out, and we all know what smells they have to cope with continually; the ones that force us to hold our breath when we pass the odd bin or dustcart on a really hot summers day.  While we are usually still tucked up in our beds on those cold winter nights they also get started in the morning when there is snow on the ground.  The only time that they turn up late is when we have a bank holiday and they get a day’s grace. 

I found some information which informs that they are changing the name and the length of this celebration from Global Garbage Men Day to World Waste & Recycling Workers Week.  So, while we are at it, I think that we also need to spare a thought for all the other workers that sort our rubbish, the sewage workers and the people that process, recycle and deal with it all. 

Those of us who are motorists often have something to say when we turn down a street where one of their lorries is completely blocking the way and keeping us waiting, I have done that myself in the past.  And I cannot help but really get upset when I then turn back to the main road and use the next turning up only to find that there is a lorry there too.

I found lots of information including a league table of the top ten rubbish producing countries in the world and, yes; we are in the top ten.

So, while I think that many of these new-fangled celebratory days are a bit over the top, and while many of us are still dissatisfied with the way that the council administrates the refuse collection service, lets acknowledge what the men who actually do the hard work do today. 

DR, Crofton Park

DR shared the following information…

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