Rural Garbage Service

[Retiredguy2]

I pay a local company (basically the only one available) $17.95 a month for weekly pickup of a wheeled bin that holds perhaps 14 square feet. They are dead reliable and never raise the fees more than a reasonable amount. They also own the recycling center about 7 miles distant that I have been going to for 26 years.

 

[txdon]

Mace, I could not eat them, they are like pets. Besides my blood test show I can get all the proteins from plants ONLY. Thank goodness!
They would be a good source of protein for starving third world countries = like Canada (just kidding)

 

[jack707]

I burn all garbage and give the eggs and bread to the wildlife.- YOU GOTTAAVE MONEY WHERER YOU CAN!!!

 

[PILOON]

We are a lakeside community with about 1/3 permanent and balance seasonal or weekenders.
The city wants to fine ($$$) folks that leave the trash bins outside of the allotted 24hr pickup window claiming visual pollution.
They proposed to install MOLOK containers which are an in-ground communal device but one problem is nobody wants them in their view.
That brings on another problem as we, the community association, would be billed with the collection fees and not be taxed individually as such.
Problem here is that an association hasn't taxation powers that a city enjoys, shucks dues collection itself is a chore.

 

[Gary Fowler]

We pay $25 per month (we pay it in full once a year in advance)for roadside pickup. Before we fenced in the yard(had to keep our dogs off the street), the truck would pull into our driveway and pick up the garbage from beside the house. The garbage collector is private business and a nearby neighbor. We could haul it ourselves to a nearby county collection site that is about 4 miles away but it is worth the $25 a month to not deal with it. He takes everything but plant / tree refuse which I just burn or throw into the woods to rot naturally.

I am glad we don't have a ban on food waste as I hate the smell of compost piles and sure don't want to put all that into my septic tank. This is my recycling plan: My kitchen scraps daily go to my chickens or brother in laws pigs if it is something the chickens cant eat (and they eat almost anything). The pigs took care of the turkey carcass from thanksgiving very easily. My German Shepherd takes all the bones other than poultry bones which go into the garbage. It took him about 30 minutes to do away with 90% of the bone from a 25# ham. Anything the animals cant or wont eat, goes to the garbage collector.

 

[dmccarty]

Our county taxes pay for "free" access to several garbage collection centers around the county. I just take the garbage once a week to the collection center.

Some of my neighbors pay for garbage pickup which I just don't understand. We are lucky in that one of the collection centers is near the only two grocery stores within a 30 minute drive so all you have to do is drop off the the trash when you go for food. Why pay extra for something that takes maybe five minutes to do? The reality is they spend more time and effort dragging their big garbage cans up and down the gravel driveways than it takes to go to the dump. :confused3:

Later,
Dan

 

[Oaktree]

Recycling is "free", garbage requires a 75｢ sticker per 40# bag.

Slight thread drift: While I'm not convinced that recycling is cost effective, especially the "single stream" fustercluck, I figure that anything I don't have to stuff in one of those 75｢ bags is saving me money. I also save and sell any scrap metal, tho at current prices I barely pay for the gas to haul it to the scrap dealer.

More or less the same thing where I live, though there is no municipal pickup...transfer station is open 2 days a week. They only accept trash in special bags which are available either from the town or a couple of area stores. There are 2 sizes, not sure offhand the pricing, but probably in line with what you pay. Recycleables are free (cardboard, newspaper, cans, bottles and most kinds of plastic...no #6 and #1 has to be a screw-top bottle...no deli containers, etc.). You have to sort it. Tires, freon-containing appliances, electronics and "demolition" have a one-time fee. Yard waste is free (they do a burn pile periodically)...oddly they'll accept pallets as "yard waste", but not lumber.

What little trash we generate (usually a kitchen-sized trash bag once a month or so) we just dump in a trashcan at a store or gas station. Used to put it in the dumpster at work before I retired. They didn't care.

Soon VT will be implementing a no food waste in the trash mandatory policy. That will mean all food waste will need to go down a disposal or be composted in one's yard, or taken to one of your work dumpsters

Curiously, what is the reasoning behind that? I can't imagine putting garbage down the drain does anything good for the septic system and meat scraps, bones, etc. don't belong in a compost pile.
Sounds like an unenforceable law, especially for people who live in apartments.

I guess I'm not "rural" but Maine is a bit different in that respect. What would be a "township" in Michigan is a "town" in Maine.

Often wondered that myself. Had never heard the term "township" before joining this board. Is there a difference between a town and a township or is it just semantics?

 

[DFB]

When I was a kid growing we had both a "garbage man" and a "rubbish man" so separation of refuse isn't really too new to me. A small galvanized metal pail with lid and handle aptly called "the garbage can" and used for kitchen scraps could be found in most every yard in the neighborhood. And neighborhood dogs were notorious for often knocking over and spilling the cans. Some had an in-the-ground storage unit with lid, so loose dogs couldn't get to the garbage.

And did those garbage trucks ever stink. Especially in warm weather. Every now and then you could get stuck in traffic behind one on a motorcycle Whoohoo!

We also had burn barrel way back


I open pile compost all my yard and garden debris along with wood chips and locally sourced manure but hate putting out kitchen craps because that's PITA and crows always go after it.


Mandatory Composting: Coming Soon to a Trash Can Near You | Environment | Seven Days | Vermont's Independent Voice

There was huge finished product compost problem in Vermont a couple of years ago turned out that using horse manure from animals that ate a certain herbicide treated hay just passed it along!


Dow herbicide that contaminated Green Mountain Compost now effectively banned in Vermont



My town has $65 transfer station annual use fee and then you have to buy special bags for household trash. You have to separate glass and paper to the appropriate bins too. I don't participate there.

Weekly home pickup from most independent haulers here is still around $30 month.

 

[Deere Dude]

In our county it is a mandatory $85 a year for the county dump, no exceptions. They take everything I can think of from recyclables to oil to metal to trees limbs. That doesn't seem to bad but I hate to go there so I have a 300 gallon tank with a door for all burnable trash. Then once a year I shovel into a trailer and off to the dump I go. I could just dump it in a fence line but as long as I need to pay the dump fee anyway I do that.

 

[TCJatko]

I had to do a bit of Googling for "Soldier Larva" and amongst other information found this which was..."interesting".



I really didn't need to know that! :ill:

Grow your own protein. Yum!

 

[polo1665]

Often wondered that myself. Had never heard the term "township" before joining this board. Is there a difference between a town and a township or is it just semantics?

Not entirely sure about Michigan, but here in Ohio a county is sectioned off into townships. Each township has their own limited government (typically made up of elected trustees) and school system. There are towns in the township, but a township is not a town.

 

[Ed of all trades]

Not entirely sure about Michigan, but here in Ohio a county is sectioned off into townships. Each township has their own limited government (typically made up of elected trustees) and school system. There are towns in the township, but a township is not a town.

In Pa township is = to county in Va. Ed

 

[bigtiller]

$192 a year for me.

I had a rental property for a few years, and that guy just used the ditch on the way into town for anything that wouldn't burn. He was to lazy to steel space in someone else's can.

 

[turnkey4099]

$39 per two months. Mandatory. You pay whether or not you use. Recyclables we have to haul ourselves but the separation is easy, boxes from the grocery store for paper and separate boxes for cardboard. Ex banana boxes are especially good to contain the paper and carboard, then everything else goes in barrels. I haul (due now) when I have 3 35gal barrels recyclables plus boxes of newspaper and one box (usually) of cardboard.

I built the Cadillac of burnbarrels, Concrete block enclosure for a 55 gal drum which had both ends cut out. It sat on a grate made of scrap iron. Burned like a blowtorch when lit off. It also burned up the grate and the barrels. both needed replacement every couple years. Then the burn barrel ban went into effect with the hooker being they were paying a bounty to anyone who finked off anyone using a burn barrel. Since my place is right on the highway that ended burn barrel use.

When I started recycling, I cut my garbage doen from a garbage can a week to a half can. I only put it out every other week.

Harry K

Harry K

 

[JerryK]

Up here in the boonies, our township [ Corwith ] operates a dumpster site open once a week for $1.50 a 30 gallon bag. I take about two bags in a month, unless I am doing some type of clean up. They also have a free dump day each spring where you can take in just about anything [ including Freon filled stuff /modest piles of tires/etc ].

 

[QRTRHRS]

13.50/month, five bags per week but we usually only put out about two bags a week so I may skip a week on occasion. I put wheels on a chemical tote with a wire cover to throw my bags in. Keeps the critters out. Every now and then I put scrap metal out. I don't generate enough to make it worth my while and at 13.50, my hauler is not getting rich.

We burn our paper waste. That way, we don't have to worry about any info being picked up by others. Wood scraps get burned too usually when I have to much on hand after saving it for who knows what project. Brush gets stacked in heaps in my woods for wildlife cover.

No recycle pickup here. We have to take it to the county garage or in the case of plastics, we often throw a bag in the recycle container at a Wal-Mart in the next county over.

 

[downsizingnow48]

Where we lived in coastal Virginia, there was no local pickup. The closest transfer station was about 25 minutes away, on the way to the nearest grocery store, so I dropped stuff off once a week or so. It was funded by the county, so no direct fees of any kind for the user. One very nice thing was unlimited drop off of tree limbs, bushes etc which was real handy in hurricane season and again in the spring.

Here in California we have homes in Sacramento County and Mendocino County. For Sacramento, the fee for curbside pickup is about $40 a month. That is garbage once a week and recycling every other week. At the transfer station and landfills, the fee is $30 a ton for most stuff.

Mendocino is a different story. No local pickup. At the closest transfer station, household waste is $4 a bag or 33 gal container. Rather than pay that I just put the bags in the back of the truck and add them to our curbside pickup in Sacramento.

Mendocino charges $25 a cubic yard for everything else (trimmings or concrete blocks, doesn't matter). So my small dump trailer (5x10x3) would be about $125 a level load. Since I have to drive back and forth anyway, I just throw stuff in the trailer, and when it is full, tow it to one of the Sacramento facilities and unload for generally about 1/4 to 1/2 the cost of a Mendocino facility. That is a bit of a nuisance but it irks me to pay what seem to me to be very high Mendocino fees.

 

[Walker1]

$135 a quarter, trash plus recycles, once a week.

 

[doxford jim]

No garbage pickup - we do have a free transfer centre about 4 miles drive. I go usually every second week and put the bags etc. in the bin - no charge. They also take tires, rims, frigs, stoves all types of metal etc. They have a separate compound for the large stuff and it is open fours hours each day.

 

[DT86]

We do not use pick up, though it is available.

In our county we have "convenience stations" spread through out the county.

We take our trash there, where they compact it into a large container that a truck picks up and hauls to the landfill.

They also have a bin for recyclables and a spot for tires and used oil (which they're supposed to charge for).