In our neighbourhood this week we all took a collective gulp when these massive recycling bins appeared out of the blue sky on our lawns. They’re BIG. They’re HUUUUUGE.

I immediately thought of the opening scene in 2001 A Space Odyssey, when the apes confronted the Big Black Monolith.

“What IS it? Why is it here? Is it supposed to excite us and make us do intelligent things?”*

And mainly: “Where the heck do we put it?”

Our neighbourhood does not have huge driveways or garages to tuck these monsters out of sight. They are way too big for this part of the world. Here we have small houses, small driveways, and if you are lucky enough to own a front porch, it’s going to be a small one of those.

We can almost fit a couple of chairs, but put this baby on too, and a good part of the house is obscured. Sitting next to it would be…unsettling. It has its own dark presence, and possibly even its own gravitational pull.

It’s a “what were they thinking” kind of thing. Yes, we love to recycle. The green boxes were a brilliant move. Love them. But why can’t we continue to use our small elegant blue or grey boxes we’ve been carting out to the curb for years? Many people have created storage systems for these boxes. They fit into our lives. They work.

And now….

This.

We are left scratching our heads.

*quote for those of you who remember the classic Mad Magazine parody of 2001: A Space Odyssey entitled 201 Minutes of a Space Idiocy.