WHY ARE THERE JOBS THAT NOBODY WANTS?

Jobs that no one wants are a signal that it shouldn’t be a job in the first place, or that we need to change the way the job is done. What’s a job that no one wants to do? Take for instance garbage collection. Ok, so if everyone was more personally responsible for the rubbish they create, the garbage system would be a lot easier to operate, we wouldn’t not like the job anymore because it wouldn’t be smelly and gross, and we’d save the planet in the meantime.

There’s basically three types of garbage. One is organic matter, the next are things we can readily recycle, and the others are materials we can’t readily recycle. So one solution is to separate the three, which we’ve already started doing.

RECYCLABLES:
The thing is, at the moment, people don’t wash the recyclables as they should, or they put in containers with food on them (i.e. like pizza boxes.) If we all took responsibility and a little time, the recyclables wouldn’t be smelly and we could do things like have people who can reuse them and think they’re fun (like the ‘Reverse Garbage’ company, stage and theatre designers, kids and schools, aluminium can collectors etc) rummage through it and get first dibs. Then the rest can go off to be recycled; so we’d also be reusing stuff first, which is what we should be doing anyway.

Recycling should be the last resort. In fact people could do this first before they put out recycling i.e. take tins and toilet rolls insides to the local school. This would make the load of collectors a lot easier. In fact, the recyclables collectors could be people who love to do stuff with recycled matter – artists etc. They could be given a certain number of streets in their suburb, and they could collect stuff each week, go through it, and then take the rest to the recycling centre.

ORGANIC MATTER:
This is a pretty obvious one and I’m sure some countries do this already. Organic matter going into landfill is one of the catastrophes of our modern times. We could be taking it to local community gardens, composting it for our own gardens, or to the local school, church, whatever. And we can also compost and make it into all the fertiliser we’ll ever need. And we could make it on site in the community (the left overs from home/school etc) and divvy it back out as well. So you wouldn’t need to buy fertilizer from the garden centre in plastic bags. I can’t believe we don’t do this already. And of course, going back to out dear garbage collectors, the whole reason why garbage collection is not on everyone’s hot job list – the smell and sliminess- would be eliminated. Instead, our wonderful garbage collectors would be seen as local heroes, turning our recyclables and organic matter into useful and fun things for the whole community. They’re already now being called Waste Management Officers (or something like that) because of their new jobs with recycling (in Oz anyway). Let’s now take it a step or two further…

NON-RECYCLABLES:
I’ve left this ‘till last because really, people, non-recyclables should be called non-consumables. There should be no reason for us to have to buy anything, or wrapped in anything, that can not be reused or recycled. This is the bit of the equation called REFUSE. Refuse, Reduce, Reuse, Recycle: The four R’s that can be now taught in schools. Reduce is for wussies. Refuse is the go. And anyway, if there is a bit left over that we don’t know what to do with, the artist guy down the road who comes and gets your recyclables, will probably have a use for it.

So we’ve got the local garden enthusiast’s club collecting your veggie peelings, the arty fartys and kids scooping the pool on your exciting bits of recyclables, and the occasional non-recyclable, so the good old refuse/waste management/ garbage collecting ‘garbos’, will be heading down the local suburb every week or so to take your nice recyclables to the recycling station. It should only take them a few hours max; they wouldn’t need to do it at 5am because it’s quick and easy; they wouldn’t need to deal with smell or slime, and they’d be the heroes of our town because they’re taking our stuff and making it into other… stuff. Now that’s a job worth loving.

So anytime we create jobs that people don’t’ love’, it’s just a cue to say we haven’t worked it out properly; haven’t quite used our noggins and gone through the finer details. What about other jobs that are on the `wouldn’t do it for quids’ list for most people? Drain cleaners, toilet cleaners, and sewerage workers…. actually they sort of have everything in common don’t they? They’re all smelly, dirty, and have a hell of a lot to do with human waste. Mmm, got any ideas?