We, the Lidless

Among the many other mysteries of life there is the one about the Missing Dustbin Lids.  It amazes me that I now have five dustbins - four plastic and one galvanised metal - and only two serviceable lids. The metal lid was kidnapped  (lidnapped?) some years ago by someone who shall remain nameless who used it first as a gladiator's shield, then as a giant frying pan and finally as a boomerang - only it failed to return.  It's probably in some nettlebed somewhere, hopefully serving some useful purpose as a rainshield and suntrap for a colony of slow worms.

I don't use dustbins for my rubbish any more, but as storage receptacles for Hoss's rugs/feed/grooming kit. Maybe it amounts to the same thing.

Still, it doesn't explain why there so many dustbins in the world that are lidless.  Can the wind blow all of them off?  Is there a 'lost lid' centre somewhere?  I've bungeed the two lids I do have onto their respective bins but am tired of using large sheets of wood to cover the three Lidless Ones.

So while I was down at the local recycling place the other day I asked about lids, having noted the number of open-to-the-elements bins that were lined up at the Centre, marked 'batteries' 'books' 'shoes' and so on.
"Odd," said the helpful chap there. "I've noticed it, too, this dearth of lids."
"Do you ever have any brought in?"
"Usually trashed ones - pardon the pun - that got blown off in the gales and run over by cars."
"Could you have a look, please, and see if you've got any Untrashed ones?"

Reader, he found me two.  Perfectly serviceable if grubby.  They'd been brought in as strays with no bins attached and they were due to be destroyed.  I couldn't allow that, I'd never put down a healthy lid, so I asked if I could rehome them.
"Shouldn't really."
"But they can do another twenty years! You can't send them to Lid Heaven/Hell when a loving home awaits."
He let me have them both.

Did you know that not all lids fit all bins? It took me twenty minutes of re-organisation to get my collection into some kind of order. Even so I now need some more hooked bungees to train the incoming lids to graft onto their new partners.  But it's looking good and I'm just on the look out for one more lid to complete my set.

If you notice you've a lid missing in the next few days, with nary a storm or gale in sight, you might consider that I've visited and liberated it.