Yr City's a Sucker...

Sometimes I wonder how much of colossal mistake it was to move to Christchurch; I mean sure, I got a free trip to Brisbane thanks to it, but otherwise I am often plagued by the decisions I have made whilst living in Christchurch that completely go against the personal and moral principles that I have developed over the last 29 years.

And Cantabrians are fucking stupid.

You see, at least the temporary abandonment of my socialist/anti-establishment attitudes that resulted in me trying to conform to bullshit propaganda that I hold so dearly in contempt has helped reinforce my original beliefs - and given me new reasons to laugh at right-wing religious nuts. That I can live with, and I am sure I will forgive myself in time. But the people of Canterbury... goddammit, sometimes they just make me weep for their future as a society. And nothing sums it up better than all the drama surrounding the new recycling system.

So let's take it from the top: last year the council announced the current rubbish bags/green recycling bin system was to be replaced with 3 different large wheelie bins. I didn't care at first, but upon closer investigation I saw the benefits - New Zealand is light years behind other parts of the world when it comes to recycling and it is about time we stepped up our game. But how did the general population of Christchurch react? Why, with complete disgust of course! For the last 6 months, The Press has been filled with articles regarding the system and constant letters complaining about various aspects - people have nowhere to put these bins and the majority find the whole thing confusing. Because, you know, 3 different coloured bins for your 3 different types of waste is a pretty radical concept!

Now as much as I bitch about how corrupt the Christchurch City Council are - and they most surely are - I think they have gone about the changes to the waste management very well; they sent out a large pamphlet with all the information on the bins and what type of waste goes in which, the sort of things you can recycle, and a calendar for collections . They even got the new recycling bins out months before the changeover and taped over the lids with a great big sticker that read "DO NOT USE UNTIL THE WEEK BEGINNING 2nd FEBRUARY 2009". So not only is it clear you start using it in February, but you also had a good couple of months to find out if your collection day had changed. And I can't count how many times the council advertised that the little green bins would no longer be collected once collection had started with the new bins (you know - 2nd February).

The week beginning 2nd February was of course last week. And what happened? People got confused and put out their green bins. And complained when they weren't collected. Most of the people in my area actually put their new yellow bins out on Monday - even though our collection is and has always been Wednesday. And my laughter at the public's inability to comprehend any form of change led to a rather telling conversation with a very lazy/snobbish Cantabrian (and for the record, we are talking someone approaching 40 here):

Me: "It's a great new system"
Fool: "Oh no it isn't - it's really confusing! Why give me a bin if I'm not supposed to use it? And how am I supposed to know when to use it?"
Me: "It says on the top that it started this week"
Fool: "Yes, but why won't they collect the green bins now? And there's all these new rules about your recycling..."
Me: "Like what?"
Fool: "Well, now you're supposed to rinse your recycling before you put it in the bin"
Me: "You should have been doing that all along, actually..."
Fool: "Well I'm not going to wash things - why should I have to wash out my cans? I'm just going to put them in the rubbish bin from now on - save the hassle"
Me: "How is that a hassle? Just run them under a tap and clean them out a bit-"
Fool: "Why should I have to wash the cans for my cat food? They're so smelly and yuk!"
Me: "!?!?!?!?"

The conversation did actually go on further, where we discussed why she was happy to have a bin for her rubbish because she refuses to handle dirty smelly rubbish bags. But to make this even funnier, this was someone who had just moved to a very posh area that isn't actually a part of the Christchurch City Council and therefore their rubbish WON'T EVEN BE COLLECTED BY THEM!!!


You wacky Cantabrians and your wacky logic - who needs common sense, eh?


To quote James Murphy, "Yr city's a sucker, my city's a creep"