Trash

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Amish Heart said:
We drive to the bigger town to the free dump when we have a truckload. Some stuff goes on the burnpile. We never have food waste because we have cats, dogs, and chickens.
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Food waste goes to the critters we burn paper type waste and I haul everything else to the dump. I'm sort of jealous of folks with trash service.
 
Up the mountain and here, we had trash service but opted out. Up the mountain I had it down to about 3 cans every 6 months so would just haul it to the dump for $7-8 vs. $38-40/mo. for svc. Here we have a little more due to what is available to us but still not bad. Might look at what is in the trash. Is there something that can be eliminated? That's usually what I tell folks who want to save money. You paid for everything in that can and you're going to pay someone to take it. (makes me grumpy - literally throwing $ away)
 
For most of my life there was no trash service here. I’m glad there is now…

In years past… Every area would have a large gully, by large I meant 40yrds across, 100-150ft deep, where everyone dumped their trash. There were normally very close to a road, very often next to a famers field, who was happy to have the erosion stopped.

Garbage service started about ’08. The EPA show up shortly afterwards. I know of no case where the current land owner was fined. These dumps were used for decades… who was to blame? Most land owners who allowed it to happen were long dead. Anyway, the EPA cleaned up all these public dumps in my county.

Fast forward… In spite of a garbage service (residents are charged for) we are still not allowed to throw away items people in towns can. Things like old furniture, appliances. Since we were charged for a monthly service, the state’s public service commission and county leaders were forced to deal with this disparity.

Now, every couple of months the waste management company is forced to put out large dumpsters at specific rural locations so large/unusual items can be brought and thrown in. They usually do this on a Saturday. If you have something large, you haul it over and toss it in (the dumpster are the big ones used at construction sites).

If your property taxes go to maintaining the counties waste disposal… you may have to band together with other residents and force rural dumpster access. My best suggestion…

all that said... here on the farm, if it's wood it goes on a brush pile to be burned when the weather is right.
 
hashbrown said:
I'm sure like many of you a trash truck doesn't come to our house. How do you dispose of your household waste with no trash service?
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For several decades we had the big metal dumpsters in the alleys. There were challenges because all the surrounding communities charge for trash pickup. People have to sign up for a service and pay. So they would drive into the city and dump their trash. The city of Denver does not have a trash collection fee, but you know people pay for trash service one way or another. Now, everyone has the bins with lids and wheels that get rolled out one day a week and emptied by lifts on trash trucks.

I noticed the last time I was in small towns in South Dakota that the rolling bin with the lid is common there as well. Rapid City has them, but they have to pay a trash fee as reported by one of my relatives.
 
Weedygarden said:
For several decades we had the big metal dumpsters in the alleys. There were challenges because all the surrounding communities charge for trash pickup. People have to sign up for a service and pay. So they would drive into the city and dump their trash. The city of Denver does not have a trash collection fee, but you know people pay for trash service one way or another. Now, everyone has the bins with lids and wheels that get rolled out one day a week and emptied by lifts on trash trucks.

I noticed the last time I was in small towns in South Dakota that the rolling bin with the lid is common there as well. Rapid City has them, but they have to pay a trash fee as reported by one of my relatives.
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Our town if within the city limits has it as a mandatory fee. I don't like that because we don't make much garbage.
 
We have a weekly garbage service so normal household trash is taken care of.
I bought a 6x10 trailer with 4' sides and I throw stuff in it that won't go in the can then when it's full I make a dump run. Usually costs less than $20.
In Seattle, the minimum fee is $25.50 or $151.63 a ton. If you take 1 garbage can to the transfer station $25.50 so weekly garbage service is a must.
Burn barrels are illegal in the county I live in and they have a guy that has 1 job, looking for burn barrels. They call him Bob the burn barrel guy and he will write you a ticket if he catches you using a barrel.
 
We pay for bags or a punchcard that gets punched per bag. We can also go to the dump or transfer station. There is a cost for everything these days and as a result you see piles of trash all over in the country. To me burning and recycling takes care of most basic trash and it makes sense. Sure, some toxic things need to be treated differently. Not everyone will sadly.
 
Here, burn barrel and the burn barrel and any unburnables go into a bin that is picked up. Three families and one can per week. We put in a second driveway, over 200 yards long, before we got the garbage service. We call it the dump road, I'll let you imagine what is under the road. The gravel came from dredging the beach so our marina was functional.

My home up north, we burn, haul trash to the dump, and take stuff to recycle as that is free.

I compost at both places.
 
backlash said:
We have a weekly garbage service so normal household trash is taken care of.
I bought a 6x10 trailer with 4' sides and I throw stuff in it that won't go in the can then when it's full I make a dump run. Usually costs less than $20.
In Seattle, the minimum fee is $25.50 or $151.63 a ton. If you take 1 garbage can to the transfer station $25.50 so weekly garbage service is a must.
Burn barrels are illegal in the county I live in and they have a guy that has 1 job, looking for burn barrels. They call him Bob the burn barrel guy and he will write you a ticket if he catches you using a barrel.
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Burnning is fine if you don't have close neighbors and don't burn chemicals.
 
Out on the farm whatever could burn, got burned. Sometimes things like an old wore out chair got burned and then the metal parts got hauled to a discreet place elsewhere on the farm and got buried. Tin cans and metal household waste got buried too. Now, those things go to the recycle bin.

Sometimes we punched a couple holes down low in a 55 gallon drum to allow for air flow and burned rubbish in the drum. Most of the time, we just burned trash in a pile and when the ashes got a couple feet high we scooped it into the loader and dumped the ashes at the edge of a field.
 
Peanut said:
For most of my life there was no trash service here. I’m glad there is now…

In years past… Every area would have a large gully, by large I meant 40yrds across, 100-150ft deep, where everyone dumped their trash. There were normally very close to a road, very often next to a famers field, who was happy to have the erosion stopped.

Garbage service started about ’08. The EPA show up shortly afterwards. I know of no case where the current land owner was fined. These dumps were used for decades… who was to blame? Most land owners who allowed it to happen were long dead. Anyway, the EPA cleaned up all these public dumps in my county.

Fast forward… In spite of a garbage service (residents are charged for) we are still not allowed to throw away items people in towns can. Things like old furniture, appliances. Since we were charged for a monthly service, the state’s public service commission and county leaders were forced to deal with this disparity.

Now, every couple of months the waste management company is forced to put out large dumpsters at specific rural locations so large/unusual items can be brought and thrown in. They usually do this on a Saturday. If you have something large, you haul it over and toss it in (the dumpster are the big ones used at construction sites).

If your property taxes go to maintaining the counties waste disposal… you may have to band together with other residents and force rural dumpster access. My best suggestion…

all that said... here on the farm, if it's wood it goes on a brush pile to be burned when the weather is right.
Click to expand...
Our county has a clean up day 2x a year where you can bring big items.
 
We have both Recycling and Trash picked up once a week. The Trash Company provides the containers, so it works out well. We used to have a general clean up twice a year where you could leave anything by the curb, but they discontinued that a few years back. Now if you have large items you can buy tags and the trash service will haul it off.
 
hashbrown said:
Food waste goes to the critters we burn paper type waste and I haul everything else to the dump. I'm sort of jealous of folks with trash service.
Click to expand...
I like taking care of my own, not trash service. My son was paying $30/ week for two containers on wheels. If it’s not out at the right time, they’ll make sure it’s out again next week.
Our annual fee to take it to the transfer station went up to $100 from $60 this year. We can go whenever, with hours 3 days a week. Folks put gently used items to one side like bicycles or furniture or household, anything really, and there’s usually mulch or fill dirt free for the taking. Once a year gravel is free.
I have come home with some very nice things, and usually there’s a bit of community socializing there too.
If you have a vehicle, it’s the way to go.
 
I like our free dump. Everything is so organized. There is a place for every single thing, even mattresses in a shed. Tires in one area, yard scrap, building scrap (with a sign that says not to throw away good lumber, put it to the side), paint cans in one area, etc. The only misc is household garbage. You just drive to the areas.
 
As a kid, the family owned a station where there was not trash service, each day we would empty the 6 30 gallon trash barrels into the 3 55 gallon burn barrels, when the burn barrels got full, we burned them. When they got full of ash, I hauled them to the land fill: The land fill was not actively managed, so I would haul the cold burn barrels there about 03:00 (I worked graveyard).

Today, we have curb side service with recycling. We actually produce more recycling because of my soda habit and the 3 or 4 boxes of medical supplies we get each week. The wife keeps a composting bin in the kitchen and I use it in my recycled soil/composting efforts in hopes of reducing the cost of gardening.
 
We generate one trash can full of garbage per month. We have two places within 5 miles of us where we can bring the 30-gallon trash bag to. Both places charge $5/bag. So, our garbage bill is $5/month.

Our food scraps go to our compost pile. We deliver our newspapers, magazines, plastic, glass, tin cans, aluminum cans, and cardboard to the recycling center for free.
 
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Meerkat said:
Its in our property taxes here.
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When Hubby still had the house in town, it was on the city bill each month. City water minimum fee plus usage, sewer minimum fee plus usage, and garbage. If you didn't pay for the garbage as a part of your total bill, they would shut your water. They did it to help insure that people wouldn't let garbage stack up around their houses, but as so many things punish the whole for the fault of a few.
 
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