Come to Wales? Why?

The focus this morning is on ‘Rubbish’. I have long worried about the huge amounts we discard. Our Council has changed its collection method from solid ‘Wheelie Bins’ to black plastic bags. Not sure who thought that one up in the hallowed palaces of local councils, probably someone they have dug up from the local primary school. The result was as anyone with a brain could figure out in five seconds, an enormous amount of rubbish floating around. You ought to visit the area on collection day to see what happens. First of all, if it’s a windy day bags fly all over the place, even onto the roads. Do cars stop? Oh, Welsh drivers don’t stop for anything. Obviously the results are simple to figure out, the amount of rubbish within the environment has increased vastly. My town looks worse than a third world country city. Even Cairo looks better. The Rhondda is suffering bad decision making, careless attitudes from citizens and lack of maintenance.

There have to be answers, even if some cost more. Discarding 'wheeliebins' was not a clever move. Also plastic bags when burned emit vast amounts of carbon dioxide. The question whether burning refuse is good, needs answering quickly as the amounts keep on increasing by the day! Perhaps it is time to address some of the nasty problems such as using materials that are not recyclable or much better and efficient recycling methods. We also, in the human world, need to look at our consumption. Do we need all the things we think we need? Really? For instance, look at the variety of things like cars, nice but in the end we need much better public transport. I am very fond of the idea of ‘maglev’ and frankly I think it is imperative we start taking that seriously. Recently we had to endure the dualling of part of the road that serves the Rhondda, the A4119. The cost has to be running into the millions. Yet it is no longer than about a mile!! Some would say, it gives employment. True, but is that the way to sort out transport? They say that building roads only increases traffic. More cars, more roads needed, attracting yet more cars.

And just to whet the ‘appetite’, here are also some pictures to show what I am talking about. It is from a town in the Rhondda Cynon Taf Borough, a first class holiday spot (as long as you bring the left-over plastic personal protection attire).

A previous bank property, just abandoned.