Rural Garbage Service

[CurlyDave]

$29.50/month for a squarish container on wheels. Looks like maybe 1/4 yard or so.

Big PITA, the closest they will come is the end of our driveway, maybe 1000 feet away. Always have to remember to take the can down the day before. Plus the bears like to raid the can & spread out a picnic in the woods next to the road. Picking it up is loads of fun -- never know when the bear will come back and object...

I called Fish & Wildlife (remember when it was Fish & Game) and they said if I shot one raiding the can they would prosecute for "baiting" the bear in. They said to put ammonia in the can. I am thinking bullets and they are thinking laundry products. I do have to admit that the ammonia works.

Have just about decided to pull the plug on the service and increase the size of the dumpster at our rental property in town. Once it is in the bed of the truck I can just bring it with me when I go over there, which happens a few times a week.

I can get an extra 1/2 yard for $20/month, which is sort of a savings, but it is a lot more trouble.

We can still burn in the winter, but not during fire season. It rains a lot in the winter, so not a good option. I would have to be a lot younger and a lot poorer to think standing in the rain for a few hours watching a burn barrel was worth it to save $7.50 every week. Maybe the return is $2.50 per hour.

 

[PILOON]

Like Curly Dave, we also have bear problems. Every so often you drive by and see 20 or so bins upended and a trail of trash as they select their menu.
In our case we have a bylaw that provides fines if the bin is visible from the road outside of specific blocks of time.
Visual pollution you see.(not cash grab)
In our case we are 12 miles back in the woods, lakeside on a dead end road and only us would ever see the bins.
City says no exceptions everybody is to be treated alike.
With 3 bins all on different days it is impossible for a weekender to comply. The city's main response is that we do the neighborly thing and haul the neighbors trash or hire somebody to do so.
Locals want $5.00 for each bin maneuver which due to staggered schedule would be $20.00/wk.

I am about to dig a big hole and bury my trash but I'll bet they have or will create a bylaw to prevent that from happening.

 

[JerryK]

Surprised they don't 'mandate' a bear resistant cage or bin for your garbage out by the road....

 

[jfh28]

I pay $90 a year to our local town recycling center........each Saturday I can bring down 3-30 gal bags of garbage as well as all the recycling I want including anything metal.....they also take used motor oil and fluids which they use to run the heating system in the town hall....the money they get from the recycled material pays for the tipping fees for the dumpster of regular garbage and it's all run by the town's road department crew.....all in all a pretty good deal......they use to have a yearly clean up day where you could bring down whatever you could load up in your car or truck and wanted to get rid of like furniture or what not.....but to many people abused it so they stopped......if I had private pick up it would run around $40 a month and I would still have to put everything in the car and drive it to the end of the driveway........Jack

 

[AGRIMAN]

We have our own full size dumpster that we rent from a local company. We pretty much put everything in it. They dump it once a week. Cost is $65.00 month

 

[ultrarunner]

It varies a lot... in Olympia have to haul 1000+ feet to the road.

In Oakland it's mandatory and $450 per year for one 30 gallon container and recyclables.

Tahoe is also mandatory and strict rules due to bears... I've had bear damage to the propane tank... never use it and about $400 annually.

In Austria it is included in the property tax... unlimited... but VERY strict as to segregation... and only open certain times.

I have a 6yd dumpster with 2x week pickup at work that I control... employees may ask and if there is room... no problem... several times due to schedules the dumpster will be about a 1/4 full. I keep it locked to control what goes in.

 

[mark02tj]

A couple of the Townships around here got together a couple of years ago and formed a trash cooperative of sorts so that everyone would have garbage pickup. Before you could contract on your own and not have trash pickup if you didn't want it. That was causing problems, hence the cooperative. They contract with one of the trash companies around here. The Township bills the residents for the service.

We pay $56 / quarter. They pick up trash every week and recyclables every other week (I have an Outlook reminder to let me know which week! ). Overall the service is OK and they will take stuff that's laying next to the can. If you want a big trash can, the company will rent it to you but they provide the big recyclable can on wheels at no additional cost.

A couple of interesting things about the company.... First, they won't use a "competitor's can". When we moved here, the house had been vacant for about a year. During that time the Township had switched companies and the old company's recycle can was still sitting next to the garage, along with a generic 75 gallon can that you can buy from Lowe's. I painted over the name of the old company and tried to use that can for my recyclables. No dice - they wouldn't touch it! I called the company and they said that their internal policy was to have their drivers ignore cans that weren't their own. I protested, but didn't get anywhere. That's when I found out that they'd send me a recycle can for "free." But I still have what is basically a can I can't use sitting next to my garage. Someday I'll cut it up and recycle it.

The other thing is that I've seen interviews with the trash company owner/president where he complains about stuff that people put in the recycle can. One thing that he complained about was that people were putting a lot of plastic grocery bags in the recycle and he didn't recycle them. BUT, you can take them to Kroger and they'll recycle them, so why can't he find out who Kroger sends/sells them to and do the same. I understand the business side of it, but when you're pushing recycle as a way to be "good to the environment", then I think you have a responsibility to recycle as much different stuff as you can. If they were pushing recycle as "send us stuff we can sell to make money off of and also that we don't have to pay to dump", then I wouldn't have (as much of) a problem with his attitude. OK - off my soapbox.

 

[txdon]

In Texas the offense for dumping in another's dumpster without permission is "Theft of Service" (31.04 of the Texas Penal Code.)
the same charge for leaving a restaurant without paying for your food.

If the value of the theft of service is determined to be $20 or less the fine is up to $500.
If the value of the theft of service is between $20 and $500 the fine is up to $2,000 and/or up to 6 mo. in Jail.

 

[buckeyefarmer]

Something knocked my can over last night. One bag was in the road getting ran over. Picked up the largest clumps at 6am, but lots of trash along the road in my yard.

 

[rekees4300]

$20 a month, once a week pickup. It's worth it to me.

Ditto