The lady at Biffa didn't sound too surprised. It happens quite a lot, apparently, but it was a new one for HDC. Our bin lady told me that tourists often send pictures of our domestic bins back to her from their holidays on the continent. I found a news item about a bin from Peterborough being used to mix concrete in Bulgaria. Apparently they lose thousands from Peterborough every year and other towns report the same problem, but the big ones don't generally go missing. The local police said it was unusual, but issued us with an incident number all the same.
The Rangers have three theories about the small domestic bins migrating to Europe;
- They are homing bins. They are manufactured in Germany, after all. (Don't ask me why.)
- When people leave the District, they might pack their gardening tools or whatever in the bin and take it with them.
- They are stolen en masse and sent back to Europe by the container load.
Before you write in, I know we are in Europe, but don't be pedantic.
As for the big bins, your guess is as good as mine. Perhaps they get re-sprayed and rented out by a rival firm? Are they crushed and re-cycled? Are they used to send stolen car-parts and computers abroad? Perhaps they even get used to smuggle people.
I know that a growing sport in the area is to hold a caravan destruction derby. Blowing them up on t.v. seems to be some people's idea of fun too. Perhaps they race the wheelie bins, film them and then show them on You Tube? I'm going to look.
Well, what do you know? There are videos of people doing all of the above with your domestic bins, but not much about the bigger "dumpsters," except that people line them up and then fail to jump over them with skateboards, motorcycles, etc. 'Seen one? You've seen them all.
