#cost efficiency

One of the advantages of being old is life experience and remembering how things were. One of the disadvantages is false memory and kidding oneself into believing things were better in days gone by.

Life today is infinitely better when compared to the 1950’s and 1960’s. There really was no Golden Age. Having said that, we also have to realise that some things WERE better 50 years ago and that "progress" isn’t always as beneficial as we are led to believe.

For example, I remember a time when the bin men would come to your house every week, walk around the back and carry your bin to the waiting refuge truck where it was emptied, and then return it to its place in the back yard/garden.

Enter the wheelie bin. Now our streets are blighted by bins being left out on the pavements all week long, with some local authorities now talking about only having a bin collection once every four weeks. Imagine the smell as food scraps are left to rot for four weeks before collection!

The advent of the wheelie bin and customer responsibility for “taking out the rubbish” was introduced in the name of efficiency. Fair enough, it must save local authorities a considerable amount of money but at what cost to our day-to-day environment?

The argument of cost efficiency is often used as a reason for the dilution of public services, the problem arising when “cost efficiency" is allowed to trump the practice of "service" itself.   Collins dictionary describes “public service” thus:

“A public service is something such as healthcare, transport or the removal of waste which is organised by the government or an official body in order to benefit all the people in a particular society or community.”

The key words here are “to benefit all the people".  I would argue that all too often efficiency savings come with other costs, but because they are not necessarily immediate monetary costs our politicians deliberately ignore them. Wheelie bins may have kept down the cost of council tax but they have blighted our living environment and studies show that a bighted environment can lead to feelings of anxiety, stress and depression.

Way back in 2013 The Express carried this headline:

“War on wheelie bins that litter our streets. EVERY new house will have to be built with storage space for wheelie bins in a Government bid to clear up the clutter blighting Britain’s streets.” (16/08/2013)

Twelve years later and nothing has changed:

“Huge crackdown on 'bin blight' in UK beauty spots as major law could change. Planning laws are expected to be relaxed as the Government tackles what has been dubbed as the UK's "bin blight". (Express: 14/02/24

What started off as a cost-efficiency saving has morphed into a "blight" on our streets, especially where bins fall over, are ransacked by squirrels and foxes,  and are left on the streets from one week to the next.

Yesterday I read that Darlington is to become the first town in Britain to start receiving parcels by Amazon drones. Drones are noisy. Just as more and more electric vehicles are coming into use, thus reducing noise pollution, the government decides to allow the deployment of noisy drones. Why?

Amazon argues drones are more cost–effective because they reduce the need for human drivers and vehicles. They also argue that because drones produce zero emissions, they are an eco-friendly alternative to traditional delivery methods.  Needless to say they do not seem to regard the  noise drones make as a negative environmental factor. The cost to the state because of loss of livelihood by delivery drivers who will now have to either find new employment or go onto welfare benefits, is also ignored.

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