Michael Dawkes expresses his concern with regards to "rules, enforced regulations and disputes concerning rubbish collection via 'digitalised' wheelie bins, which crop up regularly, both here and in the UK."

Evidence of lack of concern.

Lonnie Donnegan wrote a song about it. His old man, a dustman, famously told a lady who enquired if she was too late (with her rubbish) "No. Jump up on the cart."

I would cherish rules concerning wheelie bins. I live in a crowded city district (Utrecht) where they are not used, maybe because narrow pavements are cluttered up with parked cycles: ahem. These restrict ordinary pedestrians, let alone mums with push-chairs. Large cars parked nose-to-pavement add to the problem. The only space for bins would be on top of the cars.

Black plastic rubbish bags are the norm. Unmarked and untraceable, many are put out haphazardly and insecurely to grab the nocturnal attention of mysterious foraging creatures. The unsavoury contents of split bags spill onto pavements, roads and cycle paths. This isn't cleared up until later – sometimes days later. Missed or isolated bags hang around humming for days.

Rubbish floats by.

Collection days near bank holidays are postponed for up to twenty-four hours. That doesn't stop thousands of householders putting out their bags on the usual evening. And let's not forget those who take advantage of the collection services. Rather than make a phone call for what is a free, bulk collection service, some turf out unwanted fridges; washing machines; televisions; audio systems (usually incomplete, damn it); couches; mattresses; car batteries; wardrobes, and the odd, toothless grandmother, if they could get away with it.

And that was all I intended to write on this subject, as 'feedback'. Then I went for a bike ride that involved a swift swerve around an invasive fridge and I got to thinking about rules and regulations that affect the tortured lives of expats.

Did you hear about that bridge in China that collapsed just as a ship was passing underneath? Several people died including a few sailors. Well, there are rules and regulations concerning bridge building, even in China, and as sure as eggs have something to do with Foo Yung, someone didn't obey all of them. I hope expert expats weren't involved. They hang people for 'mistakes' like that in China.

I notice that there are lots of bridges here in the Netherlands. I can't remember one of them falling on top of a ship.

Have you noticed how many building fires lead to deaths as people try to escape the inferno via fire-exit doors? Escapees often find exits locked and barred – for security reasons. Hundreds die because rules were ignored. Not here, of course, so far as I know. And even though there'd be hell to pay, they wouldn't hang you for it.

Health and safety rules are routinely abused and often derided. In fact we pooh-pooh being regulated and we hate those officious bureaucrats who appear to love upholding the letter of the law by waving it in our faces - and demanding money (sorry Natasha).

I hate 'em, too. Yet I still think we ought to more appreciate rules concerning, for instance, bridge building; fire exits; plane making; rubbish collection, and genocide: 'genocide' because it has something to do with collective health and safety of the international kind.

I find rules concerning hygiene and the prevention of life-threatening diseases resulting thereof, comforting. Have you heard what it's like to live in the shadow of Monte Vesuvius, near Naples, Italy? "See Naples and die", as they say. Literally. Well this time it has nothing to do with an exploding Monte Vesuvius. A greater threat comes from human attitudes to rubbish. It is estimated that more than one million tons of waste – some toxic – has been dumped in the surrounding countryside.

According to the Italian National Cancer Institute, "The frequency of cancers of the throat, bladder, liver and colon is rising" in the area of Naples and nearby towns; an area now known as 'the triangle of death'.

Because of fly-tipping there, here and in the UK, rubbish collection and processing have become a hot topic: a NIMBY (Not In My Back Yard) topic. This NIMBY attitude has led to the shameful practice of shipping our waste, yes, even our household waste, to poor, undeveloped countries.

Countries like Great Britain claim that they can't deal with all of their own waste. Some even complain that that they cannot afford to put in the necessary infrastructure needed to deal with it. In other words, our rubbish is becoming a serious problem with global ramifications.

Expatica has already published features and correspondence about illness and death caused by poor hygiene practice in hospitals. And we all know it happens because someone isn't obeying all the rules. We know, too, that there are a lot of nasty diseases out there; that another outbreak of plague is still possible and, thanks to bird flu, a major pandemic may well be just a short flight away.

So I'd like to know why some people this advanced western society, where all this is public knowledge, still put their rotting rubbish out early, haphazardly and insecurely? And why would anyone dump a fridge on a cycle path when there is a free collection service? And why are these people not caught and fined? Or have I got it wrong when I used 'advanced western society'?

Which brings me to governing. Whether we like it or not, we are governed by elected lawmakers and most people choose to answer to their appointed law enforcers, especially when those law enforcers are in the right. That's the way it works, folks, or it's supposed to.

We expats even have the right to complain about, even to deride, rules and regulations in (some) countries other than our own: rules that don't suit us, that is. But as we bitch away let's hope we don't attract the kind of Nationalist who might suggest that if we don't like some of their rules and regulations, we should move on. The world, after all, is our oyster.

India and China are crying out for help. They particularly need expert expats to deal with problems concerning our attitude to rubbish.                                

28 June 2007                   

Michael Dawkes' blog

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[Copyright Michael Dawkes 2007]