RECYCLING is easy, isn't it ?
Well, no, not from several experiences I've had.
The latest - offloading a defunct chest of drawers at our local Chesham recycling dump - proved to be another trickier than expected task.
First came the problem of getting the wretched thing into an average-sized family car.
I just managed this by folding down the back seats and inserting the chest without the drawers.
That done, I smashed the drawers with an axe, lobbed in the pieces, and set off for the tip.
I should have guessed that everyone and their mother would be there and, once again, finding a parking spot proved a major pain.
However, having eventually secured one, I next scanned the confusing array of signs revealing which skip was earmarked for which type of rubbish.
Of course, way down the line, marooned among other dumpers' cars, was one marked 'Wood' - the one, I presumed, I needed.
Unable to get my car anywhere near this, I had no choice but to drag my clunking, ugly, increasingly hated chest all the way there - only to be told by a grinning, hard-hatted official standing beside 'Wood': 'Sorry, sir, chests back over there...'
Yes, the area I had just come from.
Fighting an impulse to leave him wearing the chest as a new hat, I turned and dragged the thing back to its designated place.
Why does recycling cause so much irritation ?
Not too long ago, doing my 'civic duty' and taking a mass of garden clippings to the dump, I was hit with a £60 speeding fine for exceeding a 30mph limit on the approach road by 2mph - the first (and only) fine for speeding I've had in almost 30 years of driving.
Other visits to the tip have left me upset for different niggling reasons.
Recycling - I'm not sure it's worth the hassle.