A bin full of waste is as much a part of the Christmas ritual these days as the turkey, presents and the empty bottles left over from a few too many celebratory toasts.
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It is hardly surprising given the months-long advertising onslaught over the big day that there should be such a substantial rubbish hangover.
People are told to consume and consume, then have a bit more for added merriment, until they’re left totally dazed and confused by it all.
It puts pressure on our waistlines and untold pressure on our finances, yet we continue to happily indulge ourselves because, well, it’s Christmas.
The cost that we never seem to consider until the clean-up is the obvious by-product of all that celebrating – the acres of wrapping on the kids’ presents, the food we couldn’t fit in at the dinner table.
It’s handy then that we’ve got the big plastic wheelie bins out the back, ready to soak up this festival of glutinous excess.
But of course, as well thought-out as the new three-bin system is even it was probably not designed to cope.
Invariably that has led to a rash of criticism of councils on both sides of the border about not making an extra effort to consider the uniqueness of the festive season.
Many Albury residents took to Facebook to complain about this, reckoning that an extra bin run – specifically, the red-lidded ones for anything not organic or recyclable – should have been factored into the equation.
Indeed, South Albury resident Mark Middleton noted how some of his neighbours had been forced to use others’ bins.
Based on even a sample of the anecdotes flying about from people sharing similar views, it would seem to make sense to at least look into the possibility.
Albury councillor Ross Jackson is going to do just that, having given notice of a motion calling for a report into how the numbers stack up.
That is, whether the volumes justify an extra service at Christmas and Easter and what this would cost ratepayers.
Wodonga Council is confident the problem can be fixed by people becoming even better at sorting their household rubbish into the right bins.
That perhaps is true.
But given residents have already been recycling for many years, it does not hurt to take people’s views seriously by giving this a second look.
