There I am at the dump, putting paper in the paper recycling and cans in the cans and plastics in the plastics and generally being a responsible, slightly smug citizen when I see a guy pull up in a car, open the boot and tip a long cardboard box straight into the general waste. He’s not recycling the cardboard so I do what anyone filled with righteous fury would do in my place: I slightly narrow my eyes and tut. But there’s something about the episode that keeps my attention. Something’s up.

When he’s finished, the non-recycler drives off, my tut ringing in his ears no doubt, and I go and have a look at what he’s thrown away. The box is lying on a pile of rubbish. It’s open at one end and I can see what looks like flat-pack furniture. The box looks new. There’s a label: Ikea. The guy has just thrown away a brand new, unused Ikea wardrobe. From shop straight to landfill. Shocking.

How often this sort of thing happens is hard to say, but one of the guys who works at the dump tells me it isn’t unknown for people to throw away Ikea flat-packs that have never been opened or used. Usually, the staff put the items aside for someone who might be able to use them, but it does make you wonder why people would behave in this way. Perhaps it’s because you can buy shelves, for example, at Ikea for less than the price of a pizza and if you make furniture that’s cheaper than pizza, you will encourage a similar attitude to both: fast food, fast furniture.

Perhaps I’m being a bit harsh, because like everyone else, I’m not immune to Ikea. In the 90s, before they had a store in Scotland, me and friends would drive to the store in Newcastle and it was brilliant. None of us had much money but we’d come back with the car full of quite cool-looking, affordable stuff. I bought one of the classics, the Billy bookcases, and I’ve still got them. They’re not the sturdiest on their own but I’ve bolted a few of........

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