Refuse refusal

In these days of increasing environmental awareness we’re all being encouraged to recycle, right? Those of us with children know that their schools are pushing the message that it’s best to separate out paper, glass, drinks cans and the like for reprocessing – and to dispose safely of toxic items such as batteries.

So, as the Rhyl Journal reported recently, it came as a bit of a shock to taxi driver Paul Owen when, encouraged by his two daughters, he visited his local recycling centre in Rhyl to dispose of some household items and some old batteries – but was turned away because he was in his taxi.

Rhyl Journal: Is just rank

Sure, rules are rules, and a commercial operator seeking to evade the fees for disposing of commercial waste should be given short shrift. But you’d think the attendants could use a bit of common sense, particularly in the case of a taxi which may be the driver’s only vehicle. And to respond to Mr Owen’s offer to return on foot by threatening to call the police was ridiculously over-officious. If there’s any doubt over whether the waste he was planning to get rid of was commercial or not, why not simply have a quick look at it and decide?

Latest posts in In the News

News of the Screwed
The closing of the News of the World looks less like a cleansing of the Augean stables than it does a smokescreen for a cost-cutting exercise

Giggs and gags
The Sunday Herald's identification of Ryan Giggs as the footballer behind a gagging order against The Sun and Imogen Thomas brings the controversy over super-injunctions to a head.

Mail in Nazi slur on Clegg
The Daily Mail takes the press coverage of the 2010 General Election away from the politics and into the mire of personal attacks

Murdoch takes pay-per-view from football to websites
For the first time, a News Corporation newspaper website puts up a paywall