Pickin' trash

Shockin' ain't it?  Here left is a picture from Somewhere-in-the-Third-World of desperately poor people picking through the refuse of people slightly less poor to get some residual use from things discarded and make a poor enough living.  You note that the slightly-less-poor people of Oppressia have agreed to dispose of their stuff in particular places which has unconsidered benefits for efficiency of processing by the really poor folk.  Ireland joined the First World several decades ago and was for a brief while in the noughties boom deemed  to have the second richest per capita income in the OECD.  So we don't deal with our trash in such a shameful and reprehensible manner.  Oh no. We just fire it out of the windows as we drive through the countryside in our cars.

Self and DauII and her pal have just spent a chunk of the afternoon picking rubbish out of the ditches and drains along the county road between the end of our bohereen and The Cross.  This scheme was started several years ago by the local branch of An Taisce. They name a day in the Spring and hand out bin-bags - latterly cans/plastic/general bags -  and the Usual Suspects come out to clean up after their neighbours.  On a glorious day like today, it's a chance for a walk, a chance for a chat; and a few little competitions (largest object, oldest bottle, freshest diaper) make it more interesting.  Tea in the village hall afterwards, with the promise of iced dainties, makes a day to remember.

Oldest bottle found by Palia with a sell-by date in 1998; largest object found by Self with broken-rimmed 20 lt feed-bucket; no entry for the diaper section - t'ank de lawd.