Garbage

[Marcel Birgelen]

I don't know about your local laws and regulation, but dumping garbage is a serious offense with some juicy fines attached to it. She didn't remember the license plate, did she? Because I'd call the police if someone would dump their trash in front of my window.

As for current developments in local garbage disposal and recycling: We're down to three trashcans from four, as they decided you can now combine the stuff that goes into the blue and the yellow bag into the blue bag. I could never exactly figure out what went into the blue bag, but taking the garbage out for disposal has become simpler...

[Randy Stankey]

She didn't remember the license plate, did she? Because I'd call the police if someone would dump their trash in front of my window.

Yeah, that's what I was thinking. Better to pay $20 at the dump than to pay $200 to the Magistrate!

At least the guy should have come inside and bought some popcorn first!

[Mark Lane]

In our tiny town, we have recycle dumpsters in the town hall parking lot. These are often abused. I think they are old TVs setting out in front of them now. People dump anything into the dumpsters and when they are overfull, they start pilling up their recyclables (trash) next to the dumpsters. The town has made some changes to try and help cut down the abuse but it is still a problem.

[Frank Cox]

I'm still waiting for my lock. One of the town workers is supposed to be coming to install it but they had something major happen earlier this week on the other side of town (a street cave-in or something, nobody really told me exactly what it was) and all of them have been involved in fixing that so my lock has been pushed off to sometime next week.

Nobody else has come along to fill up my dumpster since then, or if they have they've been neat about it so it hasn't been a problem.

I still think it's some kind of a deal when I have to lock up my garbage. Sheesh.

Where are we going, and why am I in this handbasket?

[James Wyrembelski]

Do you have any cameras pointed at the dumpster?

We just recently installed a camera system inside the building, but there were two outside on the rear end of the building that somehow managed to survive the remodel here. Both are pointed right at the dumpster. Little do they know those ones don't work, but I think it does have something to do with 0 issues so far with people using it. It might help that we also own the building next door and the businesses there also use it and are there during the day to keep an eye on it. However, I worked for years at the restaurant across the street and we always had issues with anyone and everyone thinking it was free to use. But, there were no cameras to be found.

[Marcel Birgelen]

I'm still waiting for my lock. One of the town workers is supposed to be coming to install it but they had something major happen earlier this week on the other side of town (a street cave-in or something, nobody really told me exactly what it was) and all of them have been involved in fixing that so my lock has been pushed off to sometime next week.

Nobody else has come along to fill up my dumpster since then, or if they have they've been neat about it so it hasn't been a problem.

I still think it's some kind of a deal when I have to lock up my garbage. Sheesh.

Where are we going, and why am I in this handbasket?

We've got similar problems around here. Those problems started once communities started to switch to systems to bill their citizens and businesses by weight or volume for their garbage. Ever since, you see trash dumped in some public places or into dumpsters that are easily accessible. We keep our trash indoors in a separated, ventilated space. I'm pretty sure if we would keep an easily accessible dumpster somewhere, it would be quickly filled by freeloaders...

You're probably not the only one sometimes asking him selves where society is heading...

[Frank Cox]

Got my lock this morning.

The guy who came to install it told me that he's suddenly got all kinds of work orders to install dumpster locks. He said that they just move the problem around, so next week he'll probably have a work order to install a lock on my neighbour's garbage bin too.

[Marcel Birgelen]

Any alien looking at us through a looking glass must think we're crazy... Now they're locking up their own garbage?

[Frank Cox]

Don't need to travel that far. I think we're crazy too.

[Frank Cox]

I just heard a bunch of slamming outside. Looked out the window and here's a woman unloading from the back of her suv into the neighbour's dumpster.

I notice that she waited until after business hours so nobody would see.

That didn't take long.

[Marcel Birgelen]

Looks like garbage dumping is like a local plague.

[Sean Falk]

We share a dumpster with a pizza place next door, not sure on our pick up days but I imagine its 2-3 times a week. Haven't had issues with it getting too full or noticed anyone but us using it thankfully.

Used to work at a gas station on the edge of a city, people would use would use our dumpster all the time, but never caught anyone

[Kenneth Wuepper]

some deterrents are:
Locking the cover of the bin
Placing the bin in a limited access or locked area
Deploying a camera and placing a sign announcing the surveillance
Be sure the area is brightly lighted after dark

[Van Dalton]

The final format for garbage here now is that residential gets two bins each, one for garbage and one for recycling, and the bin contents will be collected on alternating Mondays. (Garbage one week, recycling the following week.)

They started doing that in Clark County, WA about 20 years ago or so. They started with one big roll-away garbage cart then did the same with recycling several years later. Recycling used to be a color-coded, three-bin system (paper, plastic, glass/metal) but now just about everything goes into the two huge carts, which are unloaded automatically by one guy who never leaves the truck. Glass still goes into a separate bin so the driver still has to get out to dump it into the compartment on the side of the truck, same with batteries and oil. For at least a good couple of years the biggest caveat (with our POS driver, anyways) was that spent motor oil and antifreeze absolutely, positively MUST be put into a ONE-gallon MILK jug and set on the ground directly to the RIGHT of the recycling cart; no exceptions. If you didn't you got a sternly-worded, hand-written hangtag attached to the jug excoriating you for not following "established waste-handling procedures outlined in Clark County code". Apparently water or (god forbid) orange juice jugs, or half-gallon milk jugs, either would cause the universe to collapse or just weren't good enough for the guy. That ended when Waste Connections got enough complaints and eventually fired him for (allegedly) unrelated offenses, and the city of Vancouver sent out terse apology form letters to all customers along his route in the following month's bill. (This wasn't stated in the letter, but was found out through a little research) The guy had previously been an ex-Marine Corps drill sergeant with a power trip, and had been creating his own unofficial BS procedures on the spot.

[Van Dalton]

FYI, I did not type that as one huge hard-to-read paragraph. The forum software screwed up the spacing.