Recycling Is Good Business

As a result of the house move and buying some new stuff, we’d accumulated a lot of rubbish that needed to be got rid of. It was time to look at the recycling options. When we were in Gouda, we’d just load the car up with the junk and take it down to the Cyclus plant and offload it for free. Here in the Achterhoek, I discovered that there ain’t no such thing as a free lunch.

 

There is a recycling location, Ter Horst in Varsseveld, but as a privatised concern (no longer under the control of the council), you have to pay to get rid of your rubbish. This has had two effects. One, the good burgers of Varsseveld and the surrounding environs tend to just dump their rubbish anywhere rather than actually taking it to Ter Horst and paying someone to get rid of it. The Dutch have a reputation second only to the Scots for being careful with their money. And two, I noticed that a privatised recycling business which not only charges its customers, but which also makes money through recycling the stuff they bring in is clearly doing well. I note this from the fact that the line of cars owned by the employees and the owner of the concern were, without exception, rather expensive BMWs.

 

Ah well, such is life, I thought as I offloaded the junk and received a chit that I had to take to the cash desk. And it was there that I had the experience for which it was all worthwhile. The cash desk was in the kitchen of the business owner’s house, and it was presided over by Gypsy Rose Lee. She was every inch the part, and guarded by two fearsome dogs of some kind of (very large) bulldog breed. The house was doing its best to masquerade as a gypsy caravan, complete with chandeliers, oil stoves, knicknacks and tapestries. Glorious to see that sub-cultures are alive and well in the Netherlands…