Recycling is hard, let's go dumping!

Recycling should take no more time than it does to throw away normal refuse. But to many, a bin is a bin is a bin. Doesn't matter what you're not supposed to trash in it, so long as they see the gaping maw of the receptacle consume it, well it must be valid mustn't it? No. It never really matters where you live, you'll always find people too lazy to stack the right piles.

"What's happening is people are putting their garbage into the sites," said [Aaron Praus, Dickinson's solid waste manager]. "When materials are mixed in with the cardboard that we ship to St. Paul, they pull samples and if they find too much garbage, they can reject the entire load."

Sailer, Linda. "City establishes recycling collection sites: Garbage mixed in with recyclables" The Dickinson Press 29 May 2011

But hey, it's not like the council asks you to pay for such a privilege in sorting out your trash. If you're in that kind of town, you're pretty lucky. Or not bothering to read what's actually printed on your council tax rates. Then again, moving all this garbage out of sight, out of mind has to incur some costs. So who's going to bear it?

Solid Waste Management Director Donald Long is telling elected officials he thinks it's "imperative" for Durham to emulate other North Carolina cities and begin charging residents a monthly collection fee for garbage and recycling.

Gronberg, Ray. "Monthly garbage, recycling fee sought" The Herald Sun 30 May 2011

Now imagine having to walk through your city, suburb or town with the wafting scales of rotting garbage rough-licking your nostrils. For nearly a whole wretched week no less.

The six-day old garbage crisis in Panaji ended on Saturday evening as the CCP started lifting the garbage and transporting it to Taleigao. "The compost at Taleigao is being removed, while construction of a compound wall at the site has also started," Parekh added. Piles of wastes in the city market were growing bigger and the stink more unbearable as the garbage crisis entered its sixth day.

"Finally, garbage collection starts in Panaji city" The Times of India 29 May 2011

Making the Earth bloat doesn't come free people. Recycling makes things a little easier. Even better when you can reduce or reuse beforehand.

Picking your wallet while you pinch a loaf

Back when video game demos were still on CD hot waxed to the cover of a games magazine, there was one for Theme Park from Bullfrog Productions. Similar to RollerCoaster Tycoon, you were the owner/proprietor of an amusement park. Rack up the cash money from the park patrons and you're on your way to winning in a game that didn't really have an endpoint, like most sims.

One simple tactic would be to price the chips and fries cheap and load them up with salt. But only enough as to make it taste better and not to smother them. Their mouth drying out, the customers would be in search of something to drink in order to quench their tricked thirsts. Of course, having turned off the bubblers, your other snacks stand would be selling soft drinks. At a very high price. Gouging like they do at cinemas back then and all through today.

If you're running a music or religious festival, or any gathering for that matter, the same kind of shady dealings apply.

Tired after fulfilling her vows to Lord Muruga at Batu Caves [during the Thaipusam festival], A. Jaya, 58, decided to use the toilet to freshen up. Little did she realise she would have to pay 50sen [roughly $0.15 AUD] to use the facilities.

Menon, Priya. "Devotees thronging Batu Caves put off by toilet fees"
The Star Online 19 January 2011

If you can't screw the money out of them before they hit the can, do what one council in Tampa Bay is trying and suck them dry after they've been.

The daughter of a Port Tampa woman who was socked with a $2,100 water bill doesn't agree with the city's explanation that a leaking toilet was at fault.

Johnson, Neil. "Daughter rejects city's theory behind high water bill"
The Tampa Tribune 19 January 2011

All cause and cash effect really. Lead the people to water and milk them for the privilege of using it.

If you're in the business of making anti-bacterial products, you do what the board and shareholders expect you to and run some study that will push people into looking toward your products for the cure. In this case, BioCote, makers of things anti-microbial.

It's probably not a bad idea to wash your hands after using an ATM. A recent British study found ATM pin pads were as contaminated as public toilets and the type of bacteria found was comparable.

Moos, Jeanne. "What do toilet seats and ATMs have in common?"
CNN/NECN 13 January 2011

Of course, use that stuff often enough and you create superbugs leaving all that anti-bacterial goop useless and in the end a little harmful. It's a good bet that any surface you don't own and don't keep to yourself will be smeared with germs and the like. Best walk into the world wearing a full body condom to be safe and sure.

Work the people long enough and you might just get all their money at every stage of play and pay.

Getting one back for the garbage trucks

Right at the end of 2010, like some kind of demon possession of refuse and trash, garbage trucks were getting into some battles leading up to the end of year and New Year's celebrations.

The want for supremacy in all aspects of life is a competitive bone that still gets thrown out with the scraps and leftovers. It's as high as the tips and dumps littering the landscapes and flocking all sorts of birds and rats to their mounds.

A teen on a bicycle was struck by a garbage truck Tuesday afternoon when he swerved into the path of the truck, Highway patrol officials said.

"Teen struck by garbage truck"
WIS News 10 28 December 2010

The bike rider just did not have any aural senses available to him with his mp3 player of choice locking out that angle. The report doesn't even mention if he was riding with a helmet. Which, if you're reading far more into it than they want you to (or you're accustomed to putting back shredded documents), lays some kind of blame or responsibility on the kid for biking around and not paying attention to his total surroundings. Being able to hear a heaping mass of trash coming around the corner is always a good thing.

But the highs of Championship Collision is soon dashed when a garbage truck runs afoul of tip truck in New York.

The crash happened when the garbage truck, heading north on Northern Pines Road, went through the intersection and was struck by an eastbound dump truck belonging to Larned and Sons of Rotterdam, police reported. [..] No tickets were issued, but police said if any were going to be issued, it would be to the driver of the garbage truck.

Kerr, Drew. "Two hurt as dump truck and garbage truck collide on Ballard Road in Wilton"
The Post-Star 28 December 2010

Sealing a deal of pride hurt is that last line. Two trucks enter the arena, one will be the loser. Bruise for the ticketed loser. Looks like garbage trucks were not ready for prime time.

One thing losers do to feel a rush of being on top again is go back to where they were winners last.

A man was killed Wednesday in southwest Leavenworth County when he was run over by a garbage truck, a Sheriff’s Office spokesman said.

Richmeier, John. "Man killed in garbage truck accident"
Leavenworth Times 29 December 2010

In a world filled with junk and things left behind, it is still those who are on top at the end of the bloody waste that reign. What they lord over is still garbage and trash though.

No babies in the overhead compartments, please

The Mile High Club is that term for being "on the job" in mid-flight and leaving with a walk of shame as two people emerge tussled from the confines of the smaller than small toilet cubicle. That's all well and good for switching bodily fluids with another air traveller. And it's one thing to notice an elderly gent to walk into an airplane toilet and come out a skinny Asian man.

But then it gets really hairy altogether when it's another thing completely to see a pregnant woman go into the loo and walk out a whole lot lighter.

An aircraft cleaner found a fetus that was stuffed inside the trash bin of an Etihad Airways flight that arrived from Abu Dhabi late Monday evening. [...] [Aircraft cleaner Randy Ondo] was almost done with his cleaning chores and was collecting the garbage from the trash bin when he saw a big roll of tissue paper that was all bloodied up.

Becoming suspicious of its contents, Ondo inspected what was wrapped inside the tissue paper and discovered the lifeless male fetus.

Perez, Anjo. "Plane trash bin yields fetus"
Manila Bulletin 4 January 2011

Throw it back a week or so, the day after Boxing Day, another mother-don't-want-to-be does a very similar thing, but this time, before she ever boarded.

Dubai Police have called on the Interpol to help in arresting a woman from an African country on charges of strangling her newborn with the baby’s own umbilical cord at the Dubai Airport.

According to the police, the woman gave birth to the child in the toilet at Dubai International Airport early Thursday and proceeded to strangle the baby so the child wouldn’t cry, then dumped the body in a trash bin and left the country.

Al Sadafy, Mohammed. "Mother strangles baby with umbilical cord"
Emirates24|7 27 December 2010

What the second news item seems to elaborate on is the reason for strangling the child. It's very possible, given the outcome of it all, that the strangling was to kill the baby, getting rid of its only pathway to air.

That it couldn't cry was something you can only hint at. Without a woman sitting in the stall next, and who would most likely have egregiously ignored the goings-on, there's no telling what alternative reason behind the choking was.

Drunken blunders on the thunderbox

Watch enough old westerns and movies set around saloons and cowboys who wear only the smartest ironed clothes, you'll see the drunk tank pop up every now and then. Basically a holding cell in the local gaol where the inebriated and off their face get to spend the night to sober up. Free accommodation when the missus is having none of that.

Fine for the most part, but ramp it up to modern times and you have to make do and getting into a cell isn't as friendly an endeavour it was back then.

A drunk New Jersey man locked himself inside a portable toilet that required bolt cutters to free him, police said.

"Man locked in portable toilet overnight."
United Press International 4 December 2010

It might be cosy, but a porta-potty isn't the best place to fall asleep. Especially when you're drunk.

At least that drunk wasn't endangering anyone but the washing machine at the laundromat the next morning.

Nicholas Maday, 26, arrived intoxicated at a friend's house on A Street in South San Francisco just before midnight Sunday, grabbed the gun from a bedroom and fired it once while in the bathroom, said Chief Deputy District Attorney Steve Wagstaffe.

Melvin, Joshua. "South San Francisco man pleads not guilty to bathroom shooting."
San Jose Mercury News 14 December 2010

Listening to a live round go off has got to be one of the more far out insta-sobering techniques. Doesn't work and you're left with a hole in the wall.

The metaphor is strong in the sober all the same as another man a month back squeezes one out of the same and not yet similar in a mood foreshadowing some other tight colon.

A 25-year-old Sheboygan man was charged Monday after allegedly firing a handgun into the floor of his upstairs apartment unit while seated on his toilet, sending a bullet into an occupied downstairs apartment.

"Man, 25, arrested after allegedly firing gun while on the toilet."
Sheboygan Press 29 November 2010

There's no need for wasting bullets, or water, when a fake courtesy flush will do.

Diminishing returns of recycled urine

Dehydration is a killer. And dying from thirst is no fun. But when you're desperate for the sweet juice of hydration, urine can sometimes substitute its place just fine.

You really have to watch out for the taste at first. It's something sharp and not easy to stomach. In a pinch, it's what you'll have to do if you can't even find standing water that you might want to boil. Or if you can't wring out a cactus.

[...] Did you know that urine is sterile? That's right. You can drink it.

Tyler Durden, Fight Club

On the other wet hand, there's got to be a limit as to how many times you can recycle and refill your own cup with the urine that's gone through once before.

The law of diminishing returns applies here. And if you started out with clean, clear pee, it won't be much longer when the thirst strikes. Kidneys will hurt if you abuse them too much. Or that's just a little bit of flavour in your yellowing drink.

How many times do you think you can drink your own before it really starts to affect you? More than socially that is. What other people drink at the dinner table is of their own concern. Drunks are still invited to parties, it doesn't stop them.

Stakeouts are where the toilets all disappear

From the street, stuck in the car, keeping an eye on the place and the swishing is swilling a bottle of yellowing stuff. It's not long before the bottles in the car are all filled up.

There are times when it would be a nice and friendly gesture of insomnia if the people still up at 3am in the morning would be willing to allow you the use of their toilets. Washing your hands after going is a most pleasant feeling.