On one side of my house I have a short-term Airbnb rental. The house on the other side is rented to students. The bins for both houses, red (general waste), yellow (recycling) and green (garden waste), are left out rain or shine. Every Tuesday morning the bins are emptied. The bin men leave the bins for the three houses scattered over the pavement. They would stay like that if I hadn’t appointed myself bin monitor. I put the bins back in front of the two houses (I don’t put them away; I’m not that ridiculous).
OK, so that’s the background. For the past few days, the people in the Airbnb have been putting general rubbish in their house’s green waste bin – which really annoys me. Why do I know this? It’s not because I’m a busybody though I actually am a busybody. No, it’s because I make free with the Airbnb’s green bin for my garden waste. I use it so much that I now feel a sort of ownership. Their bin saves me dragging mine out from down the side of the house (I actually put my bins away, you see).
After clearing their green bin of general rubbish yesterday, what did I find today? Another bag of rubbish in the green bin. The lazy so-and-so’s hadn’t even tied the top of the bag. Well.
Enough is enough. I took a Sharpie and wrote in big letters on the bin top ‘GARDEN WASTE ONLY’. Then I noticed that there was already a printed label saying exactly this.
So, on an A4 sheet of paper, I wrote a message in big Sharpie letters, instructing the Airbnb tenants not to put general rubbish in the green bin. I then climbed their stairs and shoved it under the front door.
A few hours later, I happened to be outside putting some leaves in their green bin when I noticed all their lights were on. The French doors to the balcony were open. I kept my head down and made quick work of the leaf disposal. Nobody likes a confrontation.
