The protests against the closure of the local dump were to no avail. I got a letter from the council a couple of weeks ago saying that they had noted the objections, reviewed the future of the dump, and were going to close it anyhow. I really don't know whether consultation exercises do any good, or whether the original proposal generally goes ahead regardless. The last place I worked in the City was shut down, because the bank that owned it had acquired another investment management business and was integrating them under the banner of the new acquisition, in Edinburgh. There was a staff consultation exercise, as there had to be by law, but since the integration and closure of the London office were going ahead regardless, and management made it clear that redundancy terms were not on the table for discussion, I couldn't see what they were consulting about, and refused to have anything to do with it.
Anyway, the dump is going. This morning I couldn't lay my hand on the letter that said exactly when it would shut. The Essex council website still listed its opening hours as normal, with no mention of the planned closure, but I suspected that might just be because nobody had remembered to update the website. I thought I might as well go and investigate the next nearest dump, since I'd be using it soon enough.
The Rush Lane dump is larger than the one that's closing, with a one way system, and parking that is more organised, once you work out what the rule is. Cars park nose to tail in about three parallel rows, with clear lanes between them, so that when you've finished dumping your waste you pull out and drive off. That probably produces fewer collisions than the random reversing and turning round one gets at the other dump, though I had better avoid going at busy periods, since with my complete inability to parallel park I wouldn't be able to get into a space, if it were very full. Instead of climbing up steps and dropping your green waste into a gigantic skip, you feed it into a hopper from which it is pushed by a gigantic ram. Having an engine running constantly seems to me less green than simply making a big pile of stuff and then compacting it occasionally, but I am not an expert on waste disposal.
The drive is 7 to 8 minutes longer than the trip to the other dump. If I go to the dump on average once a fortnight, which is plausible averaging it out across the year, an extra quarter of an hour drive each time adds up to six and a half hours a year extra time just driving between my house and the tip. That's a depressing thought. I could improve matters if I managed to compost more at home, and needed to take less to the dump, which would work if the garden were less weedy. Recycling weeds back on to the borders via the compost heap is a thankless task. A friend who began to put her hairy bittercress and other nasties in her green waste bin instead of her own compost heap was struck by the improvement it made to the garden beds after quite a short while. We don't get green waste collection here, so it's a choice between home compost, burning, or the council tip.
I started pulling up the nettles and brambles that have established themselves along the edge of the wood, on the way to the compost heap. I put the stems and roots where the bonfire goes, hoping that the Systems Administrator might be able to burn them, otherwise that'll be another 35 minute round trip to the dump, if not two. And I don't fancy trying to stuff the nettles into bags. I got stung just pulling them up.
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