Every week we get a paper and food waste recycling collection.

Every two weeks we get a plastic, glass, metal and non-recyclable collection.

These are all becoming more and more policed by some form of rip-it-open-and-spill-it morons imitating rubbish collectors.

A short while ago I was informed by one of these people "I can't take that cardboard (a folded and bagged 2000mm by 800mm sheet) until you remove that strip of polystyrene packing (10mm by 20mm by 50mm) from it".

Since then I have watched them increasingly and systematically decide what they will and won't take based on ..... well based on nothing as far as I can see.

Today, and not for the first time the plastics recycling operatives, ignoring the fact that the items were all bagged in transparent recycling bags and that ALL the plastic plainly bore the recyclable symbols, merely moved some bags onto the top of the pile of black non-recyclable bags.

I can but assume that they didn't feel like doing the job they are paid for.

The non-recyclable items collectors are also now tearing open the bags to check what's in them before throwing them in the lorry, barring the contents they manage to lose on the ground.

Does it matter to them that they then spill the stuff?

No of course not because to be honest they don't give a damn.

Do they bother to pick up what they spill?

Nope, for the same reason as above.

And do they take everything even when it's in black sacks as required?

No, of course not.

Today I was left with one normal sized black bag of new carpet remnants.

Nope they wont take that. I don't know why since they took a larger one a couple of weeks back.

I was also left with two, again normal size black sacks containing two metal kitchen storage trays. These are neither large, heavy nor non-recyclable.

They'd started their hoped-for journey to the dump in clear recycling bags and in a green recycling bin.

Dressed that way they didn't get taken so I re-clad them in black sacks and.... they're still here, ripped open but here.

Is it any wonder that our country side is still blighted by people dumping stuff when the contractors employed by the council, to who we pay an inordinate sum each year supposedly for waste disposal services, merely take what they feel like taking?

This would explain the regular appearance of piles of detritus dropped wherever a space is available, for example in a field gate way in Oaklands Lane in Biggin Hill.

Recently, whilst passing, I observed two pianos had been dumped there. These were not, I am sure part of the recent piano 'thing' going on in the great Cities of the world. (Pianos left in city streets to prompt players to play.) They sat there for several weeks before vanishing.

Now I can understand why people don't take things to the dump. Take people living in Biggin Hill for example. The nearest dump is in New Addington however this is only available to people who can prove they pay their rates to Croydon.

Then there's the dump near Sevenoaks. Here you need to prove to pay rates to SRDC.

So you now have the Waldo Road dump or the Churchfields road dump for Bromley rate payers. However for those you need to have a windscreen sticker before you can get passed the security on the entry.

This council-assured difficulty facing those who actually wish to legally dispose of their rubbish, I suspect contributes greatly to the increasingly large number of nocturnal dumpings we're seeing.

Then again, going back to the collection service, there's always the point of assuming that they even feel like bringing their lorries up your road in the first place.

Give a council driver an unmade road and the merest hint of rain, sleet or snow and you can wave goodbye to your collection.

So if you see a dark, skulking figure, swathed in black, dragging several black sacks down an unlit highway, it won't be me but you can bet it's going to carry on becoming an increasingly common event.