Ever pick through someone's weekly trash?

[teejk]

We only occasionally fill our trash can that is picked up every week. Sometimes, if my wife is not here, I don't even put it out for pick up. Now the recycle container is usually always filled and is put out every week.


.

Funny that when my wife is away we don't fill our container either. Huh...

 

[two_bit_score]

Funny that when my wife is away we don't fill our container either. Huh...

And I only wash one cup, plate, etc a day. Very little else. Dishwasher is never started.

 

[ultrarunner]

One of the units had 6 yard dumpster pick up 5x a week...

I changed it to twice a week and added a one 6 yard recyclable to the weekly schedule.

Same with Sharps, Pathology and Pharmacological disposal...

When no one keeping tabs the answer is always larger containers and more frequent pickups.

I bet dollars to donuts if I was not there no one could be bothered to take charge and the disposal costs would mushroom quickly...

 

[teejk]

And I only wash one cup, plate, etc a day. Very little else. Dishwasher is never started.

You wash them? I look to see if a little rinse might suffice.

 

[Stimw]

I sold my last property a year ago.
It included a perfectly working 4 person Vita Spa on screened porch. I left the chemicals and test kit with it.
A former neighbor told me the buyers put it out to the curb!
I used to find lots of stuff until the economy tanked and brought out the buzzards that ride all night.
I did find a $900. Nova Airless Sprayer that took me 2 hours to clean but now works great!
Also a Poulan chainsaw that had water in the fuel.

 

[Bird]

Yes - unfortunately. Helped a couple find the wife's engagement ring. REALLY NOT that much fun. We did find the ring.

That reminds me of a time when I was a young patrolman in Dallas, and one night around midnight, I answered a call in an apartment complex. The lady was probably in her early '40s and said she'd lost a valuable ring. She'd been trying to decide where it might have gone and remembered taking if off and laying it by the sink when she was washing dishes. She said she then carried some trash out to the apartment's dumpster and thought there was a possibility that was where her ring was. But she'd gone out there and the "door" to the dumpster was about chest high on me, and it had lots and lots of garbage in it, so she said she couldn't get into the dumpster to look for the garbage bag she'd thrown away, and there were plenty of other bags that looked the same. I told her I didn't think I was going to able to help her, and she said, "If you'll just pick me up and put me in there, I'll search for it myself." She had her own flashlight, so I did pick her up and put her through that dumpster door, and was very much surprised when she found that ring. I guess it really was an expensive ring because she just almost insisted on giving me a reward, but I assured her that was not going to happen; that she didn't owe me anything.

 

[Bird]

I have set several things out at the edge of the street for our garbage men that have disappeared within an hour or less. Of course that was fine with me, but only once did a guy come to the door and ring the doorbell to ask if he could have a broken hose reel that I had put out there, and of course I told him he was welcome to it.

 

[Oaktree]

A pizza box goes into yard waste... cardboard goes to recycle.
Wood goes to yard waste... painted or treated goes to landfill...
Plastics have to be of the acceptable kind to be recycled...
Bacon Grease most go into a cardboard container like a paper milk or juice container and goes to yard waste.
Bacon Grease is not allowed in a glass or metal container.

Eek! Glad I don't live in Calif. Do bureaucrats stay up nights just thinking of ways to make life difficult?
Pray tell, why is a pizza box or bacon grease considered "yard waste" and what do they do with it?

Where I live if you want trash pickup you must use a private trash company...AFAIK no town within 50 miles of here has municipal pickup. We generate very little trash, maybe a 25lb cat food bag a month. Glass, #1 & #2 plastic, "tin" and aluminum cans, newspaper & cardboard go in the recycle bins at the transfer station. Anything burnable gets burned. Plastic bags/wrap gets put in a bin for that purpose at the supermarket. Food scraps get composted. Doesn't leave much else.
Admittedly, for city dwellers many of these aren't an option.

I think the wood is an EPA thing. Our dump will burn brush and (for some reason) pallets, but any lumber (painted or not) goes in the demolition bin. Attendant once told me that the state inspector will occasionally poke in the burn pile to make sure nothing unacceptable is in there.

 

[ultrarunner]

Used Pizza Box or kitchen Grease goes to Green Yard Waste for composting... but the grease has to be in a compostable container...

Generic Cardboard must be recycled... oil or grease stained cannot so it gets composted.

The problem is when the property owner is the responsible party and not the user... and since we have mandatory garbage, delinquent Waste Management Bills are paid by the city and a lien is placed against the property... it gets expensive fast.

Burning trash is citeable and even wood burning is barely tolerated and never when spare the air is declared like now...

Some could care less and others, especially seniors I know are always getting confused...

 

[Industrial Toys]

Here the bacon grease goes into washed out cans in the fridge. Then usually used to start a stubborn fire but mostly lately schmeared on stale rye bread for the wild critters to enjoy.

Back in the 80s, we used to go "cruising" around my Dads neighborhood on garbage night, looking for good finds for the farm house. My Dads GF for years was a diplomat with the Brazilian Consolate. (sp?) Red plates and all. Funy how she shopped at places (Holt Renfrew) that sold $80 T-Shirts (back in 82) but enjoyed this weekly ritual.

I guess if we ever got questioned we could have claimed diplomatic immunity, but man, her Boss would have been shocked at this behavior.

 

[goeduck]

Bacon and meat grease and gel gets sopped up by used paper towels and goes along with kitchen scraps, bones, coffee grounds, fireplace ash, etc. to the transfer station. There I dump it in the huge yard waste container per instructions. Paper, plastics, cans etc. goes in a separate container. Cardboard goes in to its own container. All free except for the cost of fuel to get there (10miles)

Garbage and wood scraps are pay to dispose. We manage one 32 gallon can of garbage about every 5 or 6 weeks, even then it is not full. Cost is $5. Garbage is mostly styrofoam from incoming packaging. Wood scraps that are painted or treated I keep.

I have to get my composting going again for planting soil.

 

[ultrarunner]

In Washington we can arrange for garbage service but that means hauling out to the road... sometimes a problem for tenants as it is too far to tote several containers.

In California, Waste Management has things sewn up pretty tight... they get paid no matter what by having the city place a lien for unpaid balances and fees.

 

[sixdogs]

We live in an a very religious area where quietly helping the disadvantaged is a strong belief. While I may pick through the trash of others elsewhere, I put lots of usable things out by the road here for others that need to take. It's a complex belief that I share and also don't want to tick off the people around here so that's what we do. I occasionally get a handwritten thank you note on the ground, most recently from an old guy after I left a half cord of old but perfectly good cut and split firewood that I wanted gone.

 

[Tractor Seabee]

In Washington we can arrange for garbage service but that means hauling out to the road... sometimes a problem for tenants as it is too far to tote several containers.

That's why landlords up here have to bring in a 40 yd container after a move out. Several friends have several rentals in low cost areas and they have had the garage and/or back yard full of garbage and trash. Tenants never take cans out to the street.

Ron

 

[4570Man]

I drive by my rental property often. I’d never stand for large quantities of trash piled up. And I’d keep their security deposit for having to fix a big mess left behind.

 

[Industrial Toys]

Kind of reminds me of the aboriginals that are "supposed" to be so environmentally conscious but man-made garbage just doesn't seem to show up on their radar.

A derelict F150 sitting on blocks seems to be a perfect part of nature.

But who am I to say? I just got here!

If I see as much as a fortune cookie message lying on our 100 acres (yes strangely I found that) I have to stop and pick it up. But then I guess I'm just not very in tune with nature.

 

[ultrarunner]

That's why landlords up here have to bring in a 40 yd container after a move out. Several friends have several rentals in low cost areas and they have had the garage and/or back yard full of garbage and trash. Tenants never take cans out to the street.

Ron

Yes... I did a deep clean a few tenants ago... paid to haul out a lot that was left behind and did recover from the deposit and collections... took some time for the latter.

Where I run into trouble is not being there between tenants... had a family move and I was packed and ready to head North at 4 am... the regular time I get up for work...

Property manager calls and said the home is rented... which is great but I really need to spend at least a few days to make sure everything is up to par and note any deficiencies.

The last time I was up... the house was fine... a few things but OK... property manager said how nice it was left... BUT I walked out behind the barn and it was a dump... truck load of old asphalt shingles dumped... broken toys, tires, etc... call the property manager and she said she never thought to look behind the barn... home is on 17 acres and no access unless coming down the drive... at this point I can't prove anything because I only know how it was prior to the last tenant and not the one that just vacated.

Coming home tonight in the SF Bay Area one of the things that strikes me is just how much trash is purposely dumped and often without shame... from opening a window and tossing out the Happy Meal wrappers to backing up the truck and dumping the entire bed full or trash in a parking lot or on the shoulder of the road...

If I were a sociologist... I bet I could find a simple correlation tied to crime and everything else simply by how a populace deals with dumping... I've got two large semi tires someone rolled into Mom's creek in the last week... now got to figure how to get them properly disposed of...

Last year outside a Chinese take out I saw a group of Medical Assisting students because they all had on scrubs with the nearby school name... they opened the car doors on both sides and dumped all the take out boxes in the parking lot and drove off...

I called the dean of the school identified myself and related what I had seen... following by saying that image will always stick with me and when students from that school apply at the Hospital... it will be hard to get past.

She thanked me profusely and said she would deal with it... never saw a repeat... one of the students said the school said when you wear the uniform you represent not only the school but everyone that wears the uniform... maybe in a small way I had a little influence?

 

[Bird]

I guess we're lucky compared to many. The city pays the garbage collection company instead of us getting a bill. Instead, our water bill includes an amount (currently $8.42) each month for garbage collection. We used to have Waste Management, but a couple of years ago, Community Waste Disposal under bid Waste Management. WM provided their own container for recyclables, but CWD provides an even bigger one. Recycling is voluntary, and all recyclable material goes in the same container. We usually have to put our recycling bin out once every 2 weeks. Of course the garbage collection is once a week. We can put our garbage out in any kind of container we want; some have their own big garbage cans, some have small cans, and some, such as us, just put it in plastic bags. Brush and limbs are to be tied in 4' bundles, and there's supposed to be a weekly limit on the number of cans or bags, but they never pay any attention to that; just take whatever is there.

 

[Einthewoods]

I guess we're lucky compared to many. The city pays the garbage collection company instead of us getting a bill. Instead, our water bill includes an amount (currently $8.42) each month for garbage collection. We used to have Waste Management, but a couple of years ago, Community Waste Disposal under bid Waste Management. WM provided their own container for recyclables, but CWD provides an even bigger one. Recycling is voluntary, and all recyclable material goes in the same container. We usually have to put our recycling bin out once every 2 weeks. Of course the garbage collection is once a week. We can put our garbage out in any kind of container we want; some have their own big garbage cans, some have small cans, and some, such as us, just put it in plastic bags. Brush and limbs are to be tied in 4' bundles, and there's supposed to be a weekly limit on the number of cans or bags, but they never pay any attention to that; just take whatever is there.

In my township, garbage collection is part of your property taxes so we get a similar inexpensive rate. They do not offer recycling so you have to take it to a central recycling center. I made a nice bin rack for collecting/separating out our recycling which makes it easy as can be. We just have to remember to put the bins in the car when we head to town.

 

[oosik]

My garbage is handled by a private refuse company. I guess I'm just lucky to have it collected by anybody. The first 15 to 20 years out here nobody collected it. So I burned it and landfilled the ash. That was OK until one day the burn barrel exploded and started a grass fire. Luckily I ALWAYS kept a "live" garden hose at the burn barrel. Took all my efforts to put it out. That's when I started having my garbage collected.

In town, where my son lives, they have separation - three bins. Out here everything goes into the same bin. I have mine picked up once a month.