At the best of times, that little bin struggles to meet the demands of its thirsty owners. This week, it doesn't stand a chance.
Mike, Dale and Adrian jointly rent a place together. They don't consider themselves as absolute party animals, but they do like to go pretty large on weekends. They also don't mind the occasional mid-weeker. They know how to have a good time. Put it that way.
The recycling at their place consists of an alternating weekly collection by the local council of either the paper and cardboard (pretty much just empty beer cases and pizza boxes) and the plastic and glass (pretty much just empty bottles of booze).
Generally, by the time that the yellow recycling bin is due to be collected, it's pretty bloody full. They can usually squeeze it all in, but it's tight.
However, this week is a different story. This week, it's an absolute joke.
The bin was completely overflowing by Christmas Eve, and they have started storing the bottles in boxes all around the house.
Mike doesn't think they can make it to collection day.
"This is the worst ever. We are out of room, and there are boxes of bottles everywhere, and there's empty wine bottles everywhere. We are pretty much being crushed under the weight of glass. It's some sort of dystopian nightmare. And don't you dare suggest that we ease up on the festivities. It's the festive season so that's not a possibility. We may need to start drinking more sort of heavy spirits though, so that we get more bang for each empty bottle. Man this is dire."
They thought about doing a sneaky run-around their neighbourhood, dropping empties in other people's recycling bins. However, upon further investigation, it didn't take long for them to realise that every bloody house in the neighbourhood was suffering the same fate.
This is going to get worse before it gets better.