Dear LPG, 

I recently read what NP had to say about the days of the week; particularly the ones that make up the rest of a bank holiday week and I would like her to be assured that she is not alone when it comes to missing the early morning clatter coming down the street. 

When there is the one bank holiday Monday to contend with my whole week is completely thrown out and Easter with its two-week Friday and Monday combination nearly always leaves me with much too much food waste.  But I suspect that it is the fact that Christmas and New year present us with two weeks of really complicated on days and off days, depending on which day it falls on, which really gums up the works. 

Now that things are nearly back to normal, my 18-person- strong family nearly all converged on me. I have always seen it as the day that my home has a lot in common with Liverpool Street train station because it feels like the busiest junction in the world as they come and go.  

This year was as I remember it during the pre-Covid years and that meant a lot of cooking and a lot of food waste but I did manage to just about get it in the bin. In Christmas 2024, the big day fell on a Wednesday and we are usually part of the Thursday early morning round.  

Our expected bin day came but the bin men did not, as did the day after (which has always been the day to expect them during a bank holiday week).  I did leave my bin at the gate overnight but, on realising that it was still full, I took it back again.  The whole of the next week passed without incident and I realised that I must have missed them.  

I resigned myself to having to start my new year with my old food baggage in tow.   I put my bin out on Friday January 3rd and brought the filled version back in the next morning having made the decision to phone my council on Monday morning.  So you can imagine my upset when I awoke on a Saturday morning with that bin-van drone and clattering sound interrupting my dreams.  It soon registered in my head while I was still tucked up in bed, in what I call the early hours of my morning. 

Like a bolt of relatively slow lightning, I got my slippers and dressing gown, opened the front door retrieved said food bin and ran up my front garden path towards the street only to find myself facing the houses over the road with the rear of a dust cart to my left and the headlights of another to my right on the approach.  I ran out into the road which must have been a frightful sight for the driver of the approaching van as I manifested in his headlights (thank goodness they travel so slowly and they are used to seeing rubbishy sights!)  and, at the top of my voice, asked if his was the food waste van.  Back came the answer, as he pointed to the van that was now so far down the road that I was not willing to chase it.  I was cold and very aware that any neighbours who had heard the commotion did not need to see me looking like that.

Considering the cold, the dark and the fact that all this happened before 7 o’clock in the morning, the bin men were really understanding and told me that I should find an extra black bin liner, to avoid seepage and add all the rubbishy foodstuff to the top of my black bin which was the one that they happened to be collecting at the time. They saved me from a really extra smelly week of worry about what would happen if I could not shut the top and the foxes got to it.

I felt a bit guilty but that did not stop me from crawling back into bed for an hour or two.  Later, when I got up properly, it all felt like a bit of a dream, but I did phone my council to ask just what people are supposed to do in those circumstances.  

I am sure that different councils have different rules but I was told that you can phone to tell the council that your bin has been missed.  They should arrange for a collection  and the person who I spoke to said that the last resort is to do exactly what the bin men said and use the ‘black-bin bin liner’ approach.

The whole experience felt like balancing the first impression I left my neighbours and the bin men with against the need to get rid of the contents of that food waste bin but I have to thank the bin men for their advice on the day. 

ND, Mottingham. 

Just in case you find yourself-wondering which alternative week day your other  bins should be  collected.  LPG found a little online information…

(►►►)