I seem to be missing something. The council advises me to separate my organic refuse into black bags and inorganic stuff in specific grey bags.

These are collected on two identified days, from right behind my door. Excellent.

On the other hand, we cannot hear more about recycling, reusing and what I like to term, rejecting. I recycle by collecting plastic, paper and tin together and dumping them to be collected by the Scammell truck, who transports it to a recycling plant. They do whatever it is they do with it and make a profit. Great.

I reject by refusing the shopping bags offered to me at supermarkets and instead load my shopping into available boxes. These boxes fit comfortably into my car booth and everybody’s happy.

But they accumulate.

The bubble bursts at the point of reuse. I reuse in many innovative ways: margarine tubs are cleaned out and used for leftovers. Plastic bags are used to freeze this and that. Magazines or paper bags come out to play when I am peeling food in the kitchen. On Tuesdays and Fridays, instead of adding squashed boxes placed in plastic bags into the environment, I dispose of these same boxes by reusing them to dump all inorganic material such as bales of magazines and newspapers and squashed plastic bottles. They are easy to carry, stand neatly against the wall and don’t topple over onto the pavement.

It saves me and the environment the unnecessary use of another grey plastic bag, and while many seem to agree with me, not everyone does.

Certainly not the collectors in my area because my boxes are being left behind. Is it a case of the contractor being told to collect only grey bags on these days, perhaps to control the way in which retail outlets dispose of their loads of boxes? In this case maybe the council could modify their instructions to accommodate domestic use of these boxes in this frugal way.

One or two boxes filled with inorganic material is clearly identifiable as opposed to a mount of empty boxes. I appreciate the efforts being made all round and I believe I am contributing my share in this way.

Is it preferable to squash these cardboard boxes and place them in grey plastic bags, thus using up more plastic, or does it make sense to reuse the boxes in this useful way? Please tell me.