So I was reading this thread about moving trash cans, and became curious about the opinions of another trash-related activity that I occasionally engage in.
Specifically playing “Trash Fairy”, which is when my can is full, and I take trash out of mine and secret it into my neighbors’ trash cans (near the curb in the alley) unbeknownst to them.
I feel like it’s somehow sneaky and dishonest, but at the same time I wouldn’t care one bit if my neighbors did that, if my can wasn’t full and was already placed out for pickup.
At work I have a dumpster. It is where all my home/work garbage goes. Over the years twice I’ve had someone put their stuff in my dumpster and had a (nosy) neighbor get pictures. Both times I filed a police report (theft of services or something like that). One guy came and unloaded my dumpster into his car to avoid charges (his son was cleaning out the garage and he did the crime). The other guy paid a fine. In both cases the trash they put in my dumpster included identifying material (mail).
OP, what you are doing is likely not legal but the laws and regs vary so much state by state, county by county , city by city and ever smaller areas, that we can’t give an answer.
However, we use very little space in our trash cart, and fill the recycle, so we have told a few select neighbors they can use our trash cart and a couple have said we can top off their recycle cart.
And of course we expect walkers to drop their water bottlers or water in a cart as they pass.
I never need to worry about excess trash, but I often do have too much green waste for the bin. In that case I will ask a neighbor if I can top off their green waste bin and it is never a problem. I think the key to avoid un-neighborly situations is just to ask first.
If there is no room anywhere (usually during leaf season), I will just keep my stuff in a pile until the green waste bin is empty and then just transfer it.
Your neighbors probably don’t care either. Just ask them and you won’t have to feel sneaky or dishonest.
Whenever we have a large amount of trash for some reason we will text our neighbors to see if they have extra bin space. Sometimes they do; sometimes they don’t. No one’s ever had space and said no.
We have one neighbor whose bins are always mostly empty. If we have more of anything than our bins will hold, my spouse texts her and asks if there’s room, and she always says yes. But we always ask first. (And as far as I know, she hasn’t said that we have blanket permission, either.)
What does offend me is people throwing bags of dog poop in as they go by. I understand (and I’m glad they’re picking up after their dogs) but I don’t want it in my can.
I have no idea whether it’s legal or not. The way I see it is that they’re all City carts, and we’re charged based on our water usage, so it doesn’t affect anyone’s cost one way or the other.
It’s not a common thing- I’d say maybe once every 3 months we end up with one more bag of trash than will fit after doing something like a housecleaning project, and that’s what gets trash-fairied. This is mostly because in the past (pre-pandemic in fact), the sanitation dept. people would leave nastygrams if your can was overfull and the lid didn’t stay down. Nobody wants to keep bags of trash around for almost a week (our trash picks up on Tuesday morning, and the transfer station is open on Saturdays, so that’s the best solution.
I would ask our neighbors behind us, but that house has high turnover of antisocial millenials, so we don’t really know them because they look at us like we’re crazy people when we say hi to them. Our next door neighbors probably wouldn’t care- they’re older and super-cool, so maybe I’ll just give them a call and see if I can get a standing OK.
That came up recently in one of the daily advice columns (can’t remember which one) and the people who were on the receiving end of the bags of dog poop mentioned that these bags stink up their trash can (not to mention it’s gross).
When/if I retire I’ll really miss my dumpster at work. Anytime we have a full bag of garbage I take it to work with me that day. Or a smelly bag that’s half full, it goes that day. If we do spring cleaning, I load up my Jeep and take the stuff to my dumpster.
They also can break, since they’re little squishy bags sharing space with big heavy bags. Let’s also just say out loud that the dog owners who do this aren’t necessarily considerate enough to check and see if the can has been recently emptied, so you could end up with dog crap at the bottom, with the homeowner stuck either having to climb in to retrieve it, or load a weeks worth of trash on top of it.
Our neighbour on one side rents out rooms in their basement and those short-term tenants something throw stuff in our garbage or recycling. It’s annoying for us; it’s possible (albeit unlikely) that we could get fined by the city for having recyclables in our garbage or non-recyclables in our recycling bin.
I know a person who does not have garbage service, though it’s available in her neighborhood. She goes around to commercial dumpsters here and there and drops in her trash. Never been caught yet, and she seems a little proud of herself for saving money so cleverly.
Not saying this is what the OP is doing – it totally isn’t – but what this other person is doing is sneaky and unethical for sure. Just saying.
I have no issue with that. Better in my can, than on my lawn.
Our carts can only be on the street for 24 hours, so I have no issue with it. They dump, the cart is picked up, then it goes back in my yard for a week.
How about neither your can or your lawn but instead the garbage can or the lawn of the dog owner? Because to honest, one reason I don’t have a dog is I’m not willing to deal with any poop other than my own.
Sometimes the trash truck doesn’t come and I have to keep my can for another week. Having someone else’s trash in there means there’s less room for mine.
I’d wonder if they were doing it to dispose of something that they didn’t want associated with themselves, such as porn, drugs, etc.
Our cans are from the city and we pay for the size of the can. If someone has more trash than fits in their can, they should get the bigger can rather than use mine.
Sometimes I have trash in the morning I want to throw in my can. If someone else has filled up my can with their trash, I won’t have room.
Dog poop bags end up stinking up the can. I have dogs myself and occasionally wash out the can to get rid of the stench. I’m sure other garbage stinks up the can as well. Someone who doesn’t have dogs probably doesn’t want their can stinking like dog poop. Especially if the trash truck doesn’t come and they have to hang onto the can for an extra week.
That’s a good reason not to want others to leave stuff in your trash can; that what they put in might violate rules about separating trash and recyclables.
I live on a cul-de-sac, and everyone does this in our little enclave (those of us with kids even more so). It’s likely against the rules, but we’re also allowed two large bags to put alongside the can for “heavy pickup”, and I’d rather not leave garbage bags unattended. It’d also be more work for the drivers to get out and deal with them. I could also stack the bags higher on my trash can, but that’s also a hazard for the drivers.
