Rural trash

[homeinwestIL]

I've lived in the country for 5 years and recently ran into a problem with what to do with our garbage. Up to this point, we had an arrangement with the trash hauler in county seat (8 miles away) who had a dumpster behind his house where he allowed trash to be dumped for a monthly fee. He had video camera on the dumpster to make sure nobody was dumping who hadn't paid. A few months ago, he sold out to a regional waste hauler, who discontinued the dumpster. That hauler at first said they would pick up trash at our place, but after a month of promises decided we were too far out. I called another regional hauler in the area who made the same promises for a couple of weeks, then also decided we were too far out in the country. We finally went back to the first hauler and after some begging he agreed to pick up our trash at the place where I work in town for a monthly fee. However, I'm sure everybody affected by this didn't go to the trouble I did, or may not have a place in town to drop their trash. I know some businesses in town started putting locks on their dumpsters to prevent dumping. I suspect a lot of trash is being dumped in ravines and along roads. I was surprised that there didn't appear to be any unit of local government responsible for seeing there was some means of disposing of trash. I know that one township in our county provides a dumpster for its residents, but others don't, like ours. We don't seem to have local dumps any more and the landfills are so regulated and unpopular to live by that they are few and far between. The former owner of our property did a lot of dumping in ravines on the property, but I don't want to do that--messes up the streams with trash getting washed down. Not sure that it's legal either. What do people in other areas do? Do other States provide for rural trash collection? I don't see that Illinois does.

 

[GRUMPA]

Here in AZ (rural) they don't provide anything for garbage. What we do is just burn anything we could and what cant be burned I throw into a 10' pit I had a backhoe make for me. If you try and throw out your garbage lets say behind a market or place of business and get caught, they give you a ticket for theft of services. $100 fine for the first offense.

 

[Richard]

We're about 15 miles outside of town. We have a service that comes to our house and carries away up to 5 bags. In the beginning when we were building the house, they'd bend some and take more bags or perhaps construction type waste.

Their fees were $12.00 as I recall. Rather than be annoyed with a $12/month bill, we just write a check for entire year and forget about it. About a year ago, we got an apology letter from them. Seems they felt bad and wanted everyone to know how sorry they were that they were going to have to up their rates to $13 / month /forums/images/graemlins/shocked.gif

We just got a chuckle out of that and decided we'd have to tighten our budget just a bit more if we wanted to keep their service. It was an easy decision.

Personally, for where we live, I find that to be a bargin although I COULD haul it in my car to work and use our work dumpster. I'd rather support the local economy.

/forums/images/graemlins/cool.gif

 

[BillyP]

In my county, they have a county solid waste system. They have dumpsters scattered all over the county. It comes with a price though, 1/2 cent county sales tax. It's one of the taxes I don't mind paying. Before this system came along, there were illegal dump sites everywhere.

You could try to talk to someone in county government and see if something like this could be done.

 

[tracdoc]

In rural Caswell county, NC we have a system like that described by BillyP. The county set up a series of large dumpster/compacters, and maintains them. I have two within 3 miles or so of my house. A portion of our county taxes provides support for the system. The county population is on the order of 23k.

There is also a private contract hauler in the area that covers our area and other counties, too. Like elsewhere, you pay a monthly fee and they come by once a week. However, I don't mind going out to the dumpster. In fact, I prefer it. If we accumulate a lot of stuff, or stinky stuff, I don't have to wait all week for a pick-up. I can go as often or as little as we need.

Our county also has dumpsters at each site for recyclables, so residents can make an effort to be ecologically responsible, too.

Depending on the size of your county or municipality, this system might be an option to consider.

 

[Glenn9643]

Seems that trash disposal is a problem everywhere. Changes to environmental laws a few years ago closed county operated landfills in most Mississippi counties (I lived there at the time) and the county supervisors were faced with huge costs from commercial contractors. In the area where I lived they soon realized that they would have to do something to provide trash/garbage collection or they would be paying crews to pick it up off the roadsides. Taxes had to be increased, but municipal/county workers provide pickup weekly and all collected trash is compacted at a central location for pickup by a contractor.
It seems that where I am now in LA it's up to the individual to provide for pickup through private contractors, but there is an arrangement with a local landfill that allows residents to dump household trash/garbage without charge. I make the run to the dump about once a week. I've always thought that trash on the roadsides was worse in LA than anywhere I've been and this may be part of the reason.

 

[dmp437]

In MI it's deceided by the the township, city, village, etc. We live in the township with the area dump so our garbage is picked up curbside for free. Other townships have a yearly assessment of $90-$150 added to their property taxes that way seniors & low income can tax deduct it through a Homestead Tax Credit. Cities contract trash haulers for their residents; some pick a single company (Waste Management), others allow competition (multiple companies). Those residents see the lowest rates.

 

[johndeere2210]

Our community has twleve families that pay $65.00 each per year to rent a large dumpster that is serviced once a week in a location that is central to most of us. We have one person that takes care of collecting the yearly fee. This system has worked well for several years. /forums/images/graemlins/cool.gif

 

[reb]

In my AZ county all the landfills were closed and replaced with "transfer stations" which are open at least a couple of days a week. We haul our trash (what we don't burn) and deposit it in a dumpster for a fee, the amount depending on the size of the vehicle or trailer. From there is is hauled off to ???

 

[JDgreen227]

I've lived in the Bath area for 15 years now and there is only one waste removal company (privately owned) which means you contract with them or handle it yourself. The service is excellent, the cost reasonable, and they have only been delayed or missed a pickup about 6 times during that period.

We have very little trash, as much of our discards end up at a huge recycling center about five miles away from us. They accept all types of paper, cans, glass, aluminum, plastic, cardboard, and magazines. It's a 24 hour operation and open to anyone. We actually recycle more material than goes into our trash container and I'm sorry there are not more centers like it.