It’s very real. In fact private waste recycling is a daily event for the producers of commercial waste. I have walked past vans owned by various private waste processing firms outside restaurants in London in the early morning, I have photos to prove it. Each van was decorated in the livery of a different company, each with their own approach to the problem.

Somehow, looking at these vans, it doesn’t seem that bizarre to think that private domestic waste disposal might one day be real too.



Of course, the politically engaged reader will be aware that domestic waste is in fact already privatised. It is, I recall, tendered out by local councils and awarded with stunning uniformity to a firm called Veolia.

The radical political reform I would like to see is waste disposal being tendered out by households to companies listed in the yellow pages, or on that compare the meerkat website.