Okay, so there’s a little more coming, too – a whole new kitchen, double American fridge-freezer, snazzy eye-level oven with a magic disappearing door and a dishwasher that projects updates on the floor or something – but it’s the bin that has been at the forefront of my mind since the salesman hit send on the order.
All I’d said I wanted was a built-in bin – one that swings out when you open the cupboard. Next minute he’s offering me an all-bells-and-whistles, super-duper recycling one with no fewer than four different receptacles.
Of course, I told him to hold his horses, that this recycling-phobic family needed to learn to walk before we could run; next minute, we’d agreed to the two- part solution.
Now the problem is, what do we use the different bits for? And it also means that we need to get ourselves into gear and actually use those recycling boxes piled up outside the back door – and work out the right days to put them out.
But, baby steps – and this first move is progress for us.
On a recent holiday to Lanzarote, every single bin, from those in the apartment we were staying in to those by the beach, were broken down into sections for different materials. And by the end of the week we were properly making use of them, almost without thinking.
A recent report from the Environment Department revealed that Jersey’s recycling rates have remained stuck at 32 per cent since 2009 – and yes, I know that’s in part due to people like me.
But the States could and should be doing more too. Currently, parishes are responsible for their own kerbside collections, and some offer better recycling opportunities than others.
It’s now time that everyone got together and came up with an Islandwide plan instead of continuing to blame ‘silo thinking’ for the stagnation.
After all, if a simple thing like a new bin can begin to change the attitude of someone like me, just think of the possibilities.
I’M all for a bit of girl power, especially in politics. But this week one woman really let the side down.
The former UK business minister Jo Swinson, who had been the favourite in the race to succeed Tim Farron as the leader of the Liberal Democrats, ruled herself out of the party’s top job. Instead, she said she would fight for the deputy leadership, saying it was ‘the right role for me now’.
But it is what she said next that got to me.
The East Dunbartonshire MP, who said that she had been overwhelmed by the messages of support and people asking her to consider the job, said: ‘Being the leader of a political party is a unique and all-encompassing job, even more than the roles of MP and minister that I have undertaken before. It should not be done simply to achieve status, to make a point or to please others.
‘Feminist that I am, I have of course wondered what a bloke in my position would do. It’s obvious. Most blokes in my shoes would run for leader like a shot. It’s true that my many years of encouraging women to have the confidence to go for that exciting new role have taught me that women often don’t go for things when they should.
‘But just as often I have observed men going for the promotion when they shouldn’t. Just because a man would do it, doesn’t make it the right thing to do. I have consistently fought against stereotypes and structures that impose a choice on someone, rather than allowing them to make up their own mind.’
What a bizarre statement.
While it is true that some men would indeed ‘run for leader like a shot’, so would some women. But – and this is the important bit – not all men and not all women.
It is sweeping generalised statements such as those made by Ms Swinson about her decision that are often the problem with sexism, which, by the way, isn’t just exclusively against women.
And such comments do the equality cause no favours at all.
