Crushed!!

A crushing blow

Our semi-religious fervour over recycling needs to be curbed or there could be an increase in fly-tipping

At the end of the last century, the term White Van Man was popular shorthand for a young, aggressive, often tattooed driver of a commercial vehicle who would happily shunt a Reliant Robin-driving granny into a ditch if it meant beating the next red light. Ben Forrer might loosely be described as a White Van Man, though of an altogether more benign, 21st-century kind. The Warwickshire fireman used his Citroen Relay to take a friend’s cooker for recycling, but the van was mistaken for the white goods waiting to be crushed. No good deed goes unpunished and the next time an appliance dies Mr Forrer, a man of commendable patience, could be forgiven if he chooses fly-tipping. A semi-religious fervour surrounds recycling these days, but things have come to a pretty pass when three minutes away from a van is taken for abandoning it to a grisly death.