Sunday, June 22, 2008

Green Garden Waste 3 - LibDem Racket on Bag Sizes

Residents are dismayed at having to pay the unpopular £35 green garden waste charge and are then fuming when they see that the green jute bag is nowhere near the size of the old clear plastic bags. The LibDems seem to be taking "Mars Bar" economics to a new height, charging more for less.

Seizing advantage of the nearby Sutton Tennis and Squash Club, Cllr Tony Shields decided to research these concerns in a scientific way that would make New Scientist readers proud; by filling both bags with tennis balls and counting the difference.

The capacity of the old bag beat the new one game, set and match with the scores




  • Old bag 522 balls


  • New bag 270 balls


This is a difference of nearly 50%. Tony's able assistant in the picture, South Sutton resident John Turner told Tony "This scheme hasn't been properly explained. As a resident, I want to recycle and cut waste but the size of this new bag is a load of balls." Defending the size of the bags, we were told that it was an industry standard size. Interesting, but isn't that an answer to another question? I'm not sure if many residents will take succour in knowing that their bags comply to an industry regulation. To cap it all, during the experiment, the handle fell off.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Paul,
Very rarely do I find myself on the same side as Tony Shields on an issue but he is dead right to point out the substandard quality of these bags.
I have had residents complain to me about the size, the cost & the durability of these bags. I have also been told by officers that they are standard in the industry but people want value for money.
I didn't know tennis balls could be such an accurate measurement of volume! Has Tony got a degree in Sports Science?! ;)
Anonymous Liberal Democrat Council Member

Anonymous said...

'Old Bag'? Not very PC! Do I know her?

Anonymous said...

Can we have our balls back please?