Red-carding the wrong sort of garbage may be a foul idea

The pilot project in Greater Manchester giving garbage collectors a cache of red cards to dole out to trashy wrongdoers begs the question about what their primary duty is and should be. If they become litter referees in addition to being collectors and refuse to cart refuse that does not conform to norms, it could raise a stink. Britons have been sorting their rubbish into different bins for years now, but trash is collected only once a fortnight. So, double-checking the receptacles for “proper contents” would not only prove to be onerous but unbearably odorous as well for the sanitation staff. If the project is expanded, the resultant waste of time should also be allotted a colour-coded bin for proper disposal.

Of course, the capacity of trash collectors to multi-task should not be underestimated. After all, Dilbert’s Garbageman — avowedly “the world’s smartest” — not only cleans the whole city single-handedly via wormholes, he is an inventor of many things (including an anti-stupidity gun) besides being a problem solver. However, the civic authorities of Greater Manchester would do well to heed his words on the crucial matter of assessing the nature and content of trash, “The contents of a garbage can are determined by which path I choose to perceive, not by what somebody else chose to discard.”