Kissing Goodbye to All That

Today was the final day of the transfer of a massive slice of the Viridor pie to Biffa. It's been an intense few months of drawing lines which must not be crossed – quite literally.
Today has been particularly intense in the drawing office, but I took the time to send a personal email to my now ex-colleagues, Dougie and Tam, in the Clyde Valley. One looks after public-access recycling tips and the other looks after the transfer stations where the bin lorries take their booty. It has been an utter joy to work with each of them and I am very sad to see them go, so I told them as much. They very kindly took time out of their final day to respond, and both had kind things to say to me.
Of course for them it's not really their last day, everything will continue tomorrow in exactly the way it did today, it's just that tomorrow they will belong to Biffa and there will be other people who take care of their drawing requirements. But for me it will all be very different. I will no longer have any refuse collectors and very few recyclers remaining as colleagues, and that is a huge shift in how I see where I fit on this planet.
Three years ago some public water utilities also came under the same banner – I felt very green, I could claim to be part of a good-for-the-planet & helpful-to-residents-of-Britain organisition. But that's all changed. Our water utility parent sold us to a US equity outfit and now the focus is on profit for shareholders and fuck the planet or the staff. All that's left of a business built up over decades, with thought and care, is landfill and incinerators, and we're all fully expecting an announcement in the next few days about the sale of landfill.
“Viridor” is Latin for “I become green”. If landfill is sold then all that will remain will be those massive incinerators that burn refuse at extremely high temperatures to generate electricity. I don't think that is particularly green, but it is regarded as a “renewable energy resource”. So if you are a person who has switched their electricity provider to one who has “green” credentials, and you don't think that burning garbage is as green as windfarms, then I'd start asking some questions if I were you.
When a Biffa refuse truck pulled up outside my office today just as our Viridor secure shredding collector arrived, I had to run outside with my camera to catch this, across the windswept & desolate tumbleweed staff car park.