Your garbage cans (Brit.: dust-bins) are old and worn out. You’ve bought new ones to replace them. On garbage collection day you leave them out for the last time. But the garbage collectors (dust-blokes? dust-wallahs?) assume you’ll want to use them again next week, so they extract the garbage and leave the garbage cans behind.
You can’t get rid of them!!! I guess a thing of beauty is a joy forever.
Crush it until it fits in a trash bag (bin liner), then throw it out that way.
Put a sign on them. (Please take these.)
Or go out when you hear the garbage truck coming if you’re around.
Perhaps your garbage men are not telepathic. Put a note on the garbage cans or otherwise communicate the situation to the garbage men.
A neighbor tried that when I was growing up. She made a note “Please take this too” and taped it to the old garbage can. They took the note and left the garbage can. 
That’s great, Guy. I happen to have metal trash cans. How do you expect me to crush them?
We tried this, the same thing happened to us. So then we wrote “trash” on the bin. They still didn’t take it, so we wrote “basura” underneath the word trash. At the next block party there were many jokes bandied about regarding how clever it was for the SthrnAccents to label their shoddy trash cans in both English and Spanish. Then we tried writing “Please take the bins well as the garbage in them.” The bins are still not gone, the wheels are gone and the cans are so damaged and lopsided that they don’t stand properly unless the kid props them up just right.
I guess we need to try another language.
Call your local bulk trash remover, and tell them what you want removed. Then, put a sign on the can(s) telling the removal guys that you really want the cans gone too, not just what’s in them.
I’ve had the same problem with signs, bilingual signs, etc. They just don’t seem to work.
The plastic can finally cracked so much, that we could fold it (bend one side into another, so to speak) and stick it in the other bin, with a bilingual sign on it, “Please take this”. Guess what? They left it.
I think the only thing to do is to attack the plastic ones with shears and cut them into little bits, but even then I’m not sure.
For the metal ones, sneak out late at night and leave it in the backyard of someone you don’t like.
(I’m in the UK) I’d take them to the local civic amenity site where they would be recycled if they are metal and probably put in landfill otherwise.
Wait until the garbagemen come and do it your damn self.
A note for the binmen is a good idea but the wording is wrong. It should read ‘On no account remove this bin, it is NOT rubbish’.
That’ll get rid of it.
You could always make it somebody else’s problem. Just put them in front of another house on garbage day (preferably under cover of night) and let them deal with it.
I have put that note on several cans & they take them every time. It just says ‘take this can’
You could put it in one of those Rhino lunch boxes you see on the street…or take it to a landfill.
If you live in New York, gift rap it and place it on your front step like you were carrying it out to take to a friend and then forgot something and went back inside. It’ll be gone in five minutes.
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I’ve had success putting the old can inside the new can. Most of you will have figured out that this only works if the new can is the bigger of the two. Also, as Dex pointed out, it may not work if the garbage is sorted manually - we have a truck that comes and grabs the can with a big forklift type device, so I could put a metric ton of plutonium in the can and it would be taken without a whisper of suspicion. All I have to do is make sure it isn’t wedged in so it doesn’t stay stuck in the big can.
Some ideas:[ul][li]Metal cans - take to a scrap heap! They are recyclable.[]If you have an apartment complex nearby, dump it in their large dumpster.[]Actually ask the garbage man personally.[/ul][/li]
Good luck.
And for more great wisdom on the subject…
http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=4887
Crush them with a big hammer. If you have a sledgehammer, use that to take out all that repressed agression on those poor, defenseless trash cans/dust bins.
I did it to the frame of a washing machine I had to throw out. I bashed the hell out of it until it fit into a small cardboard box, then put it out with the trash. The trashmen took it without a problem.
While I would most likely take it to the local recycling plant or waste heap myself (if there’s one nearby), where I used to live they actually distributed stickers which one could put on the can saying, “Please Take This Can Away!”
To flatten or ruin a metal garbage can, just lay it on it’s side and sit on it… or stomp it a few times. Pick it up and bang the side on something solid like a cinder block to dent it, then just stomp or sledge hammer it. Drive over it with the car, or better yet, donate it to the WWF; they are pretty good at crushing metal garbage cans on each others heads.