I had a slightly unusual Sunday, in that I spent a portion of it in a hot, very unpleasant smelling rubbish dump in the shadow of Battersea Power Station. What on earth was I doing there you ask? Well, we had let our garden turn into what can only be described as a bit of a scary jungle. Des, in a heroic effort, managed to have it sparkling and pristine just in time for BBQ weather. What a great housie he is!
I hold my hands up and say that I didn’t help with the epic garden clear out (my morbid fear of spiders being the main deterrent), but I was more than happy to take up shotgun position in a zip van and hit the road to shift the bags of foliage and debris.
This may seem an odd thing to say but the whole experience was really quite fascinating. London is such a vast, densely populated city and it’s incredible to think of the amount of rubbish and waste that is disposed of on a daily basis. We put bags in our bins, but do we ever really think where they end up? Well, we got to see first hand.
A well oiled machine of an operation saw our van weighed on huge scales and we were given high vis vests before we entered a cavern of a warehouse. It was full of rotting rubbish and biodegradable materials. The smell was truly horrific. A few dry wretches later, we braved the outside of the van.
We emptied our bags quickly and despite a near panic when Des thought he had thrown the keys into the awful mountain of rubbish, things went to plan. Key-gate gave us a right laugh later too!
It was quite a sight to see intermittent steam rising from the piles of biodegradable materials. Talk about nature at work. Maybe a little compost heap will find its way into our garden this summer:)
Happy recycling and sustainable living people!
