Everybody was relieved when the rubbish-collection strike ended in Granada after 13 days of mounting filth.

The next task was cleaning the city up, which took a further five days, or if you prefer, 25,000 man hours, with the rubbish-collection lorries covering a distance of 56,000 kilometres as they beetled around the city and out to the rubbish-treatment plant. That, is a lot of rubbish, Ladies and Gentlemen – in no previous rubbish strike in the City of Granada has so much rubbish been accumulated along its streets.

So how much rubbish was there to shift, you might be asking? A total of 4,400 tonnes – a figure that should give us pause for thought about just how much rubbish our society produces. Another thing is that just under 3,000 tonnes was on the street during the strike but a further 1,500 tonnes had been stored in peoples homes, rather than cluttering the fetid streets further.

A point to ponder is how quickly it was cleared up. The total workforce of Inagra is 540 and these employees worked shifts of eight hours on, eight hours off, day and night during the five days – how long would it have taken if the workforce had been reduced, which was the reason behind the strike in the first place?

Finally, the City Hall is ‘studying’ the possibility of returning 13 days rubbish-collection tax to the residents of Granada… but they are not promising anything.

(News: Metropolitan Granada)