Nov 9th - #NaBloPoMo - Post 9 - Weekday Quickie - Nosy Neighbour

Glass Recycling - What it tells you about your neighbours!

Slightly random this one. I was inspired to write this after walking past all the boxes of empty bottles and jars left out for collection today as I walked to and from school. I pondered what the various contents told you about the owners of the houses.In our area we have small black plastic crates for the glass collection which get collected once a month so they are clearly visible and contain a months worth of information!

There was one and only house where all bottles and jars were immaculately cleaned and labels removed - too much time on their hands or a case of OCD?! Then there was the house with the empty bottle of bubbly - what were they celebrating or do they just like a glass of champers?

Some boxes are rammed with wine,beer and spirits bottles - did they have a party or do they just enjoy a glass of wine and a wee dram. Some houses have no alcoholic bottles at all ( not many though!!) just jars and oil bottles - do they not drink through choice or is it lack of money? (in our case we have few alcoholic bottles but this is more through lack of money than choice hence not assuming it is through choice). Some people lay the bottles higgledy piggledy, others are carefully placed upside down so they don't fill with water.

As most people clearly don't do as instructed and remove the labels from the bottles and jars (me included!) you could also see those people that obviously shopped for brands all the time and those who go to Lidl's and just don't care (that's me then!). There were those with real ale bottles and those with a pile of cheap lager bottles and some filled with wine bottles. There didn't seem to be anybody whose box was crammed with instant sauce jars and the like so I guess as a village we drink a lot but cook from scratch (well it is Hampshire dahling!)

It certainly gave me food (or drink) for thought - the psychology of a household through their bottle collection - could be a whole new area of research!

And what of our recycling box - well there was a couple of empty wine bottles (would be more if I was in gainful employment!), a blue and White Tescos gin bottle (not a sign of mothers ruin but of sloe gin making), an instant coffee jar, a pesto sauce jar and a couple of condiment jars and a Lidl olive oil bottle. The jars had been rinsed but labels had not been taken off (some had been eaten off by slugs or similar). They were all laying higgledy piggledy, some may have had water in and the box was also full of fallen leaves. Not a shining example of domestic tidiness but it probably sums us up quite neatly.

What's in your recycling box?