𝗔 𝗿𝘂𝗹𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗼𝗻𝗹𝘆 𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗸𝘀 𝘄𝗵𝗲𝗻 𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘆𝘁𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗴𝗼𝗲𝘀 𝘁𝗼 𝗽𝗹𝗮𝗻 𝗶𝘀𝗻'𝘁 𝗮 𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘆 𝗴𝗼𝗼𝗱 𝗿𝘂𝗹𝗲. 𝗔 𝗹𝗲𝘀𝘀𝗼𝗻 𝗶𝗻 𝘄𝗮𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗱 𝗲𝗳𝗳𝗼𝗿𝘁.

This week, I arranged a bulk waste collection with my local authority. Being a government agency, there were, of course, rules to follow or they wouldn’t collect.

Most were perfectly understandable; everything had to be outside the property, and larger items had to be disassembled so they could be carried easily.

For once, I followed the rules. And then wished I hadn't. Because, right at the end of the six-hour collection window, came the inevitable phone call:

‘𝘚𝘰𝘳𝘳𝘺, 𝘣𝘶𝘵 𝘸𝘦’𝘳𝘦 𝘯𝘰𝘵 𝘨𝘰𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘰 𝘣𝘦 𝘢𝘣𝘭𝘦 𝘵𝘰 𝘤𝘰𝘭𝘭𝘦𝘤𝘵 𝘵𝘰𝘥𝘢𝘺.’

And that’s when the process unravelled. Because everything that made life easier for the collection team made life much harder when they didn’t arrive.

Now I had to move everything back inside; there is, quite reasonably, a rule against leaving bulky waste on the street. But the items had been outside for hours, were now dirty, and had to be carried back through the property.

Only to be taken outside again for the rearranged collection. Assuming, of course, they turn up next time.

It struck me that this isn’t really a story about waste collection, it’s about process design. Too many rules assume that everything will go according to plan. They optimise for the ‘happy path’ and ignore what happens when the system fails to uphold its side of the bargain. 

And when it goes wrong, that matters. The real test of a rule isn’t whether it works when everything goes right; it’s whether it still makes sense when something goes wrong.