I often wonder where rats fit in. Just about every creature in creation has some point to it – even a goldfish gives us some mild amusement – but other than to send a shiver down our spine, I can’t work out what a rat’s contribution is.

Now I’m aware these comments will probably bring a sack full of letters to my door from the rat-fanciers of the world. But I hope they and you will read on as I’m trying to make a serious point. Also I can assure everyone this column is about real live rats and isn’t secret code for some political comment.

The other day my council colleagues considered a report on the work of our pest control services. It was mainly about the work of the rat-catchers. Because while we are dealing with fewer mice and insect pests, the rats are with us all year round. And there are more of them as each year passes.

Last year, we dealt with more than 1,000 rat problems at homes and businesses in the town. That is double the number from seven years ago.

Other local authorities will tell you a similar story. Pest control experts will also tell you that for every human in the UK, there are three rats. So pointless or not, rats seem to be thriving.

Ask those people who make a living from pest control and they’ll tell you there are three main reasons for this. The first is that privatised water companies have cut down on their control activities, although to be fair they dispute this.

The second is the series of mild winters we’ve all got so used to – so maybe some good will come of the snows. The final reason is that rats are getting more to eat – from us mainly.

In recent days, the news has been full of stories about the waste mountain that has piled up in some UK town and cities. They have rightly focused on the concerns of householders. I say straight away I’m in full agreement with the view that a regular, efficient waste collection service is a fundamental duty for every local authority.

But the stories have also highlighted how much we all throw away. Over the past 20 years, we’ve each of us generated 16 per cent extra household waste.

A lot of that is food. We actually throw away more than one third of the food we buy, 8 million tonnes a year or £680 worth of eatables for each household. That figure by the way excludes the takeaway detritus that decorates the pavement every weekend.

Now I would take some comfort if I knew that wasted food was packed away free from harm and our ever-multiplying rats.

But I have been out on the rounds with the binmen and seen the way people sling waste anywhere and everywhere. It is the equivalent of ringing the dinner bell for rodents.

So while I accept that local authorities have to do all they can to keep streets free from rubbish, we consumers have to keep our part of the bargain too.

We can all start by recycling more, throwing away less and consuming what we do actually buy.

Who knows, maybe that’s why some wise and all-powerful being put rats there in the first place, to teach us that there are consequences to all our actions and that the consumer society, while attractive in many ways, needs reining in every now and again.

Maybe, that’s just speculation. But maybe it’s worth stopping and thinking next time we’re doing the weekly shop that the checkout isn’t the only place where there’s a reckoning to be paid.