I was taught from an early age to always bag trash before taking it outside. The exception are big gallon bleach bottles, 12 pack cardboard containers, and sometimes cereal boxes.
I got clueless neighbors street over from me that leaves their lid open. :rolleyes: The trash is the can is obviously loose kitchen waste. Makes me nauseous every time I drive by there on trash day.
Is it a city regulation (in most cities) to bag up trash before putting it in the Wheelie Bin or can?
I’d expect that it would be. Simply to keep down rats, flies and other vermin. But I wanted to ask.
I even use my empty boxes for some small waste. Cereal boxes are great for coffee grounds,used paper towels, egg shells, and banana peels, tape it up and throw out. I usually put my empty bottles back in the 12 pack, tape it securely and throw in the Wheelie Bin. Since it’s taped up I feel ok putting it directly in the wheelie bin.
I guess it goes without saying the lid should be closed on Wheelie Bins? Even if it’s overflowing the lid can sit on top of the trash.
I’m pretty sure Nashville’s trash pick-up regulations are as you say. We also have separate (once a month) pickup for recyclable stuff that’s to be kept in separate wheelie-do thingies.
Even with that once-a-week pickup for non-recyclable stuff in plastic bags, critters of various types manage to get into the wheelie and tear open the bags. I’m not sure what’s gained there.
I can’t imagine how filthy a wheelie bin would be if wet kitchen trash was thrown in there without a bag. Not that some of my neighbors would think to hose it out. Renters usually don’t care.
I keep a couple barbell plates on top of my wheelie bin. Good luck to any critters trying to get in there. With a little luck a 10 lb plate might brain them on the noggin.
I guess the main reason Nashville has the flip-top plastic wheelies is for ease of more-or-less automated pickup by a single truck driver. Their attention to detail is such that fully half the emptied bins are tossed aside by too-hasty drivers who may not even be looking at what’s happening in their rear-view mirrors. And Heaven help us on windy days!
I suspect if they saw a bin with a weight on top of it they’d just drive on.
Of course, I could weight the lid down until time for the pickup, couldn’t I?
That’s what I meant. I use a weight on the bin in my carport. Take it off when I roll it out to the curb. I’m up anyhow at 6am so I roll mine out then instead of the night before. Gives the nighttime critters less opportunity to get into it.
I imagine that the USA has more of a ‘crittur’ problem than we do. Rats have not yet managed to scale the wheelie bin and lift the lid, and even squirrels have a hard time chewing through.
Councils all over the UK have different rules. My daughter in Portsmouth leaves hers out in a bag with no bin. We have two bins, one for landfill and one for recycling, and they are each emptied every two weeks in rotation. Our bins have to be wheeled to the back of the cart from the edge of the property by the bin men, but a neighbouring council requires householders to line their bin up on the kerbside so that the automatic equipment can pick it up.
There is no rule/law about bagging. We do, but many don’t. There are entrepreneurs who can be contracted to wash out your bin after it’s emptied.
[QUOTE=aceplace57]
I was taught from an early age to always bag trash before taking it outside. The exception are big gallon bleach bottles, 12 pack cardboard containers, and sometimes cereal boxes.
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Right - those go in the recycle bin.
I just looked through my trash service’s website and could find no mention of bagging garbage. Plenty about what goes in the recycle bin, and that recyclable food containers should be rinsed. The recyclables aren’t supposed to be bagged - I’m sure that’s a big part of why they’re to be rinsed.
According to the rules, animal poop is supposed to be bagged before being put into the wheeled bin. And if you have extra trash to pick up, it goes into bags, to be set beside the bin. The bags require a sticker, with a check box identifying it as yard waste, recycling, or trash.
You get twelve stickers in the mail every year. They’re a different color every year so you can’t save them up between years. You can order extra stickers, but there’s a fee.
Those are the only rules about trash requiring bags.
My suburb must be the last decent-sized place not to have gone to the wheeled bins with the automatic pickup: we still put our bags in the alley/on the curb and they have a guy riding on the back of the garbage truck that jumps out and picks up the bagged garbage.
I guess it would be ok to continue putting the empty beer bottles back in the 12 pack (taped closed)? I recall cardboard and bottles are both eligible for recycling. There would be less chance of the bottles breaking in the recycle bin.
No, cardboard and glass are both recyclable, but should be separate. Here they also want lids from plastic bottles removed, since they’re often a different plastic.
For the refuse cart, in Ann Arbor they suggest double bagging animal waste, but otherwise the only requirement for allowable trash is that the lid can close, and that it isn’t too heavy. I’m not sure how heavy is too heavy. ETA: I’ve never heard of a cart being refused because it’s too heavy, but I guess if you had a bunch of large boulders to get rid of, you should spread them out over a few weeks. We also have yard waste collection, and those bags are often left behind with a green notice about the weight. Probably people throwing out sod or root balls from dead plants.
I suspect the “double bagging” bit is a holdover from before we had carts, and the main garbage bag would count as a second bag.
No rule here, and the lid to the blue garbage bin is heavy enough so that animals have never lifted it. In fact, food stained paper (like pizza boxes) are supposed to go into our green yard waste bin.
The robot arms of the truck do a pretty good job of getting the trash into the hopper without spillage.
BTW, the way glass bottles get smushed together in the truck, I doubt that it breaking in the bin is going to be an issue.
Here’s a pro tip I learned from my parents: Keep the wet trash in a plastic bag (an empty bread bag works very nicely) in your freezer. Put the bag into the trash on trash day.
We have single stream here as well, but aceplace57 is putting the bottles back in the box and taping it closed. The glass and cardboard all go in the same toter, but they don’t want people doing that.
I’m not sure why plastic bottle caps are supposed to be thrown out.
ETA: My wife said they are too small and cause problems with the sorting machine. We’re also not supposed to put in those plastic clamshell things everything comes in now for the same reason.
i’ve lived in cities where every wheelie bin had a hole in the upper corner lid, where a squirrel could leisurely sit and get a good bite on a corner. a learned skill.
raccoons can also lift can lids. i’ve seen families make a regular feeding circuit.
So, for those of you who don’t have your trash in bags…how do you get it from, say, the kitchen garbage can to the outdoor garbage bin? I’ve honestly never heard of having loose garbage in the collection bins and can’t imagine the logistics of that. Do you not line your indoor cans with plastic bags for easy transpot outside?
There is a difference between bagging up kitchen trash because it is easier to move and bagging up everything. For instance, when I pick up loose bits of stuff from my lawn (I live across from an elementary school) it goes into the blue can directly without bagging.
I don’t think rodents would have much of a problem chewing through your normal kitchen bag. I’ve got a dog so they tend to stay away.
Renters usually don’t care.