On yesterday's post someone commented
I see on the side of the green bin, it says "your litter please". I thought 'litter' was an american term, i am surprized to see it there. What ever happened to plain old 'rubbish'
Well "litter" is the stuff we throw away on the street, whereas "rubbish" is what we clear out of our homes. If you are doing some building work or renovation then you'll put the rubbish in a skip. I saw this one a few weeks ago near the Queens and was surprised to see it still there a week later.
7 comments:
Thanks ofr enlightening me on difference between litter and rubbish.
ah yes, I love learning these little differences that would have otherwise been all the same to me!
Thanks GE for the education!
Now, where does 'garbage' fit in?
I really need to start proof reading my comments. Ignore the GE!
hi susan; don't worry about proof-reading too much - you'll find me listed as "gerald england"; "ackworth born" or just "GE" depending on which user ID I'm using at a given moment - they're all me.
"Garbage" is an American expression; I think they call what we call "skips" "dumpsters".
We do use the term garbage sometimes but not when referring to general rubbish -- we might say that someone is "talking garbage" when we mean that they are talking rubbish or nonsense"
The PC word for "rubbish" is "refuse" -- we used to have "dustmen" or "dustbin men" but they became "refuse collectors" and maybe now they are are called "household waste management operatives" or some such garbage [there, I've used that word!]
thanks for the definitions....before it had all been rubbish to me!
All the English bus stops used to have small boxes attached for bus tickets or any other unwanted stuff and it had "litter" printed on them. They were usually green.
I never saw them get emptied, did they do that at night.
Yes, over here, it is Garbage and Dumpster
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