Trolley boys who could turn paper into pence

NOW that the Green Party has entered into a Faustian Pact with Fianna Fáil, a great clamour arises from numerous dissatisfied sectors demanding that the Greens put their money where their mouths used to be and introduce a proper, efficient and fair recycling policy to replace the profit-driven privatisation shambles which is a wonderful form of indirect taxation.

In effect, the State is quietly leaving the market for supply of healthcare, drinking water and refuse collection, but still collecting all the old taxes which used to pay for these essential services.

When I was a youngster playing on the streets of Dublin some 50 years ago, a dealer operated a waste paper purchasing facility from a warehouse in Smithfield Market. Lorries laden with old newspapers arrived there daily and the drivers left with hard cash.

Young tearaways like myself hauled homemade trolleys from house to house in the locality, collecting newspapers and jam jars (which normally ended up in the household rubbish bin). There were also dealers who paid for sacks of good quality rags and old clothes.

The paper was weighed and paid for, and I made my way home with the princely sum (in those days) of perhaps sixpence for my labours.

There were no multinationals jostling to enter the waste collection business then. I don’t know if this story will help Mr Gormley, but I sometimes wonder what ‘progress’ is?

John McDermott

Puerto Rico

Gran Canaria

Spain