For you garbage collectors out there...

[General Lee]

I disagree...be paranoid..it is your trash and you contracted to have it hauled away not sorted through...do you want your garbage sorted. Do you know that law enforcement does this routinely when they suspect someone of something..You can learn a lot about a person or a family by going through their trash - that is why movie stars and others are very protective of how their trash is removed. I would call the company and complain and let them know you will be watching and a repeat of this will mean cancellation. Be careful.

The US Supreme Court made a ruling, (Case law) that when trash is set out to be taken away, privacy rights and ownership of trash no longer exist. Unless the trash company has its own rules prohibiting their employees from going through the trash, there is nothing you can do.

 

[Bird]

Garbage collection seems to always be a source of contention. I just noticed an article in the Dallas Morning News this morning that Dallas is going to once weekly pickup.

Dallas has long owned their own landfills, transfer stations, garbage trucks, etc. The crews worked a 4/10 plan with each crew having two routes. They worked one route Monday and Thursday and the other Tuesday and Friday. The crews had weekends and Wednesday off, so with all the trucks on the lot on Wednesday, that was when the routine service was done. Our garbage was picked up in the alley behind the house, and I see that's changing, too. Of course there was no recycling when we moved out of Dallas, and you could set out garbage cans or bags. So now it appears everyone will have to use the "official" city issued 96 gallon cans. Incidentally, that's what our daughter and her husband already have to do in Ft. Worth.

Just before we sold the Dallas house 21 years ago, they were experimenting in our neighborhood with using a private company to collect the garbage in the hopes that it would be cheaper. I don't know what happened to that program. The newspaper article doesn't say whether it will be city crews or a private company donig the pickup.

 

[MossRoad]

Look at it this way...
If a private company says they can do it for $15.00 a month per city customer and the city says they can do it for $14.00 a month, everyone in the city thinks that's a great deal.

What the city folks don't take into account is that the city employees will then be on the city retirement and insurance plans until they die. In the long run, it will cost the tax payers more than if the city would have contracted it out. That's the beauty of pay-as-you-go. You pay and it is over.

 

[dooleysm]

I pay $1/bag to dispose of trash at the county dumpsters that are almost exactly 1.5 miles from my house. They accept just about any kind of recyclable you can generate for free. We sort and recycle newspaper, magazines, batteries, plastic, glass, aluminum cans, steel cans, and cardboard. I load up the pickup and take the boys (4 and 2) along with me almost every Saturday morning. They love getting suckers from the old guy that works there. There are dumpster locations around the county. I know of 2 others but I'm sure there are more.

The folks in the big town in our county, where my parents live, buy the same $1/bag stickers for their curbside trash and have curbside recycling of the same materials we can recycle at the county dumpster locations. I do not know if they pay an additional fee with their utility bill.

 

[Bird]

What the city folks don't take into account is that the city employees will then be on the city retirement and insurance plans until they die.

Again, it depends on the city. I'm retired from the City of Dallas, and it doesn't cost the city anything now. Yes, I'm on the city health insurance plan, but I have to pay the premiums instead of the city (before retirement, employees pay for dependents' coverage, but the city pays the employees health insurance premiums). And yes, I have a pretty decent pension plan. It doesn't cost the city anything now because before retirement, I was paying 12.5% of my gross salary into the plan, and the city was paying 25% into it. One way they keep the salaries low is by having a good retirement plan, so I guess you could say it's expensive for the city when employees are working, but not after retirement.

 

[tallyho8]

Sorry to tell you Tallyho8 , They paid $1200. PER CAR removal after Katrina, many were late model that the hauler could have made another fortune dismantling and selling parts!!!! IIRC the government paid $25 million for vehicle removal when they EASILY could have let a contract to have it done for FREE for the salvage!

I'm not sure where you got your facts from but according to the local Times-Picayune newspaper the city put out a contract for bids to remove the cars. They had 2 bids. One bid would give the city $20 for each car they removed and the other bid, the city had to pay them $40 for each car they removed. The city chose bid #2.

All cars (and houses) that had been washed into the streets blocking them were bulldozed out of the way by the Corps of Engineers after the waters went down.

The huge majority of the cars were dogs that people didn't evacuate in because they knew they wouldn't make it. These were all cars with no insurance because all insured cars were paid for and hauled off by the insurance companies. Since all cars bought on time and most newer cars have insurance, this means very few were worth much money.

Besides, after the cars set underwater (very toxic water) for over a month, there were not really any parts that could be salvaged to be sold. They were only good for the price of scrap metal which was fairly high at the time.

The owner of Jake's towing services is the one who got arrested for removing cars for free to save the city money and make some for himself.

Before Katrina, there was no place in North America except for Cuba that had as many old junky cars on the streets as New Orleans. After Katrina, there was no city in America with as high a percentage of new cars on the streets courtesy of the US taxpayers.

 

[dave1949]

We pay $19/month for weekly trash pickup. No recycling, we do that by taking our cans, glass, etc. to the town recycling roll-off dumpster.

It's a family owned and run business, no hard limits on how much trash you may put out, etc. They say the driver will tell you if it is too much or need a an extra payment. I have always been reasonable, and have never been told I am putting out too much trash. They will take about anything I can fit into a 'contractor' size bag.

Have to put my house trash out in crow and raven proof cans Any plastic bag with any sort of food waste or even wrappers in it will be shredded - and they know how to make a mess. I think they know which day is pickup day too
Dave.

 

[Stimw]

Wrong Again-
snopes.com: New Orleans Scrap Cars
Even worse than I stated!

 

[Bedlam]

As they say Priceless.Sounds like he was beign consulted by the FEMA people.
But good to read the hard facts. Thanks

 

[forgeblast]

We pay around 90 every 4 4 months, for two bags of garbage a week. (that being said i use contractor bags when we have more then two bags ready and they have never said a word). Its wm and they do a great job, no issues no garbage left.
as far as papers, personal id stuff, thats what a burn barrel is for. My dad shreds his papers and still has me burn it.