Perhaps the title of this entry is a little unfair on Naples. After all, there were reasons why garbage piled up on the streets there. Here in Westerpark we have no such excuse - apart from our anti-social residents.
I've just had a run in with a horrible little man who dumped two bags of empty beer cans next to the underground garbage bin - one in an official city centre yellow bag which is somewhat odd.
He told me he could do what he likes with his rubbish - another one of those 'I pay my taxes' comments so beloved by dog owners. He also told me I should complain to everyone else - which I do - and then told me I was a k**wijf, in that charming way so many anti-social garbage dumpers have.
Before the introduction of these underground garbage containers, you put your rubbish out twice a week and it was collected. Now you can put your rubbish out any day you like - so if the container is full or jammed shut (which it often is) - just the easiest thing to do is pile it up alongside. As long as you don't have to take it back home and look at it.
If I remember rightly, the arguments in favour of underground containers where that a) the streets would be cleaner, which they aren't, b) the system would cut costs and be more efficient - which it patently isn't seeing as the bin men are down our street every day, including Saturday morning, and c) it would improve health and safety because bin men would not have to bend down so much - but they still have to pick up all the crap that has been dumped every day of the week.
Doubtless bright sparks in the council still think these underground rat collectors are a good idea. Perhaps because none of them have to live next one. Yet.
Next time we get an old washing machine, the remains of someone's house removal, two sacks of empty beer cans, the contents of the waste bins at Rosalia's beauty shop and assorted household waste chucked outside our front door, I might be tempted to do a little rubbish collecting and dumping of my own.
