Keen Spanish speaker Brian emailed with a pretty direct translation of the dustbin message:

“Bastard rubbish collector, put the rubbish into the (f*****g) lorry and work like some kind of whore’s life”

…or similar. It could be Portuguese though. I don’t recognise a couple of the words. I’ll get working on it!

He did (though any problem he had with recognizing words was, I’m sure, because I’d failed to copy them correctly). He asked his Spanish friend for something that captured the spirit of the “POLITE NOTICE”:

Chuck the rubbish in the lorry and work for once in your life!