The ‘psychology’ of bins and dropping rubbish revisited

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Published: 13 October, 2011

• A CITY bank worker has been filming people on a webcam he and his colleagues watch “on a huge screen at the office” (New Journal October 6).

The people he films leave litter next to an overflowing council bin. “The psychology of the bin and dropping rubbish is really interesting,” said William Robertson.

That may or may not be true, but the psychology of a worker at a City bank fixating on this rubbish is really something else.

He took it upon himself to set up this ad hoc, Orwellian witchhunt because one of his colleagues advised him not to bother ringing the council.

Rather than tell the council of a need for a second bin, more frequent emptying, and action from fly-tipping teams, he instead decided to rubbish the dignity and privacy of anyone going near or walking past it by turning them into unwitting big-screen entertainment for a load of his colleagues, who, he says, are “addicted to it”.

Could we have a live webcam from the office itself?

The sight of workers at a City bank assuming moral superiority over anyone leaving a carrier bag or a bit of cardboard next to a bin is really too good to miss.

The entire country would surely find it highly entertaining.

S MACREYNOLDSON, N6