Inspired by the garbage-burning thread in the pit, I’m curious…what do you pay for your garbage pick up? I’m semi-rural (and getting more suburban all the time). Waste Management is our garbage service provider. Since we are unincorporated, we don’t have the recycling program that the townies have. We pay $117.38 quarterly. I can throw out anything non-toxic, and the only thing we’re set up for recycling on our own is cans. We have a separate big garbage can for those, and it takes us a couple years to fill it enough to make it worth the trip to the can man.
There is a recycling point in town that will take old paint and thinners and that kind of thing. For some more serious toxins, there’s a monthly drop-off about 40 miles from here.
This quarterly charge allows us 2 garbage cans per week. I can also put all kinds of other crap by the side of the road and they’ll take it. I don’t have to bundle stuff, like the townies do. The guy across the street has a seemingly never-ending pile of crap on the side of the road each week. Old toys, crappy furniture, weird-ass looking stuff, and the garbage men take it all.
My yard waste, which consists of dead branches from the gnarly hedge, gets burned in the fire pit along with small branches that fall from our trees regularly, and any other wood we generate through construction or the gradual tear-down of our old fence. We can burn this type of stuff whenever we want; no permit is required.
What do you pay for garbage pick up and how much of your garbage will they actually take?
Waste Management also serves our area, but we don’t use them. When I called to inquire 4 years ago (when we moved it) it was something like $80 quarterly for one can a week, no recycling or yard waste taken. I know it’s gone up because of the price of fuel.
Fortunately, in our county, there are several Convenience Centers where you can take your garbage and recycling for free as long as you’re a resident. And since there are only 2 of us in the household, we don’t generate a lot of trash, so we may go once every 3 weeks or so. And we can recycle paper, cardboard, glass, metal, electronics, used motor oil, and even clothing (they’ve got a whole line of receptacles for all those goodies.) It’s only about 6 miles from the house, so from loading the van to putting away empty cans may take all of 30 minutes. For us, it’s a much better deal than paying $25 or more per month for what little trash we generate.
For big stuff, especially big yard waste, it’s the dump - $10 for our trailerload. We’ve taken big branches and downed trees that aren’t good for firewood and put them on the pile for mulching. I won’t burn in the yard - there’s no need to, and it’s too easy for things to get out of control (as I know from experience.) Then we could get free mulch if we were so inclined. Once I get my yard in order, I well.
We have the free mulch thing, too…however, I heard that there’s mulch and then there’s fucked up mulch. The fucked up mulch comes from those freebie joints. No clue what the truth is in that regard.
We had an issue with a spark going into the hole of an almost dead tree (right next to the pit). I always have the hose right there now. It really can get out of hand in a hurry. The guy across the street had to call the fire department last summer because his was just leaves (not in a pit) and it took off across the yard.
Ours comes out of the property taxes, well I presume it does since we don’t pay separately for it. There’s a recycling center in town that hardly anyone uses, I’ve only ever dropped off paint and batteries there. We have a dump about five miles away but at 37 I have yet to have anything big to throw out that didn’t get picked up at the curb.
Leaf refuse is vacuumed up for six weeks each fall if you get it out to the curb. All yard waste is collected on regular trash pickup day as long as it’s in a different container, and loose branches need to be bundled. They pick that up nearly year round, from April to December at least.
A few years back they dropped off these honking big wheeled trash cans for every house, the type with a special bar on them that a single trash collector can manage with the fork-arms on the truck, but that single guy will still get out and pick up whatever can’t be handled neatly by the lifting arms. If you regularly exceed your one honking big can you just call the city and they’ll drop off another one to you.
There is no garbage pick up service in our area. And I’m kind of glad. We have too many critters about to be able to leave trash out. And we live on a gravel (or mud or snow) road. The fewer vehicles the better.
I take mine to a transfer station. Basically a couple of roll offs.
It’s $3 for a 30 gallon bag, and $1 for a kitchen size $13 gallon bag.
I pay about $30 every two months, for that I get one 33 gallon can of garbage a week, a 66 gallon recycle can every other week and a 66 gallon yard waste can that is picked up once a month till March then twice a month till November.
We pay for pickup. Each household is allowed one full trash can per week, and the top bag has to have the town trash sticker on it. No sticker, no pickup.
The sticker costs $3. You can buy a book of them up at Town Hall or at the library.
Every additional bag has to have its own $3 sticker. A couple of weeks ago someone up the street was doing a major cleanout. Had all the possible trash cans/contractor bags/whatnot neatly lined up in front of the house. No stickers. They were still sitting there as of yesterday.
The town gives us a recycling bin gratis. No limit as to how much to put in. Their only stipulation is that everything must be cleaned – jars, bottles, etc. Newspapers and other paper goods go in paper bags. Boxes bigger than a shoebox must be broken down. We don’t pay for this. Ditto yard waste cleanup (April-December).
What irks me is that the sticker price goes up every year. It went from $1 to $3 a couple of years ago when the last override passed. We have another override vote coming up this spring. Watch this, it’ll probably go up to $5 :rolleyes:
We pay about $10 for garbage pick-up and about $2 for recycling per month. Garbage is picked up twice a week, no limit on volume. Recycling is picked up once a week. Large items such as old furniture or appliances will be picked up for an additional fee, if you make special arrangements. I remember one time, pinning $10 to a sofa for pickup. we’re in the city limits, BTW.
Large yard waste goes in the burn pile. This includes stuff from our 5 acres, brother’s 10 acres and Mom’s 5 acres. We probably burn it twice a year.
What is the purpose of the sticker? Was there a problem with “out of town” trash or something? Strange.
Are you sure it’s not on the water bill? (just curious).
Once a week residential garbage pickup is included in our taxes and provided by the City. Yard trash and recyclables are picked up once a week, too. Any hazardous household waste or ewaste can be taken to the City facility five days a week or to one of the occasional neighborhood collection points.
Nope, I’m not really sure. I don’t happen to have a water bill handy to check, but all I’ve ever seen on there is the itemized breakdown for water and sewer service. I checked the city website and they didn’t specify it, either.
I’m sure we pay for it somehow, of course, just not sure how.
$10 a month. Pickup is once a week, at the curb, and we’re not to put it on the curb until the day before. We’re allowed two 30-gallon bags, and they want bags so they can just toss them into the truck, not cans that have to be up-ended and emptied.
If you have more than two bags, you can buy a sticker for $1.50 and put it on the bag or box.
Recyclables are picked up every other week, free, but they’re so picky about the cleaning, sorting, bagging, and tying, I don’t do it. I use the big bins in a nearby town for paper and glass – we can just dump it all in. No charge.
We’re allowed to burn yard waste, and there’s a community brush pile, but it’s not composted, it’s burned.
At the last city council meeting, I learned that if you slip the guys a few bucks, they’ll take other stuff too, like furniture and appliances.
Rural unincorporated county area here. Local carrier. We pay $90 every other month and have one trash bin and one recycling bin which they pick up every Monday.
Without looking up my land rates bills … last I knew, I paid around $140 annually for weekly pick-up of rubbish in one wheelie rubbish bin (looks like the middle photo here) and as many blue recyling bins as I care to put down at the kerbside (picture on this page). Me, 'cause I live alone, I tend to put rubbish and recycling down about once every three weeks or so.
For yard clean-ups creating a mountain of green waste, like I’m working on right now, I’m looking at a $395 charge for hiring a whopping great 15 cubic metre bin to get rid of everything cut down, which is two-thirds of a hedge, tree branches, bushes, long grass … But that’s only about once every few years I do this kind of thing. Hopefully (if my maintenance plan works) I won’t have to do such crazy stuff again for a lot longer.
USD 30.05 a month for weekly pickup of the medium container I use (I really should downsize, since I could usually get away with putting it out every other week). Yard waste and recyclables every other week on an alternating schedule. Only containers supplied by the utility are picked up since they use a mechanical arm on the truck (similar to **Ice Wolf’**s example). The monthly payment also gets me the resident rate at the “landfill” (they don’t actually fill any land, but truck the swag off to a Desolation of Smaug somewhere in Eastern Washington).
We also have the option of calling for pickup of furniture, small appliances, etc. twice a year. They used to schedule a citywide pickup in the spring and fall, but abandoned that approach because of scavenging problems — ISTR reading about a couple of curbside fights involving rival scavengers vying over a particularly choice item.
We call them inorganic collections here – and we nearly lost them because of the same problem of scavengers. I left an old fridge down on the grass berm one year. It was gutted by the scavengers, looking for the motor parts. Bits of fluffy insulation left everywhere – fridge massacre! Anyway, we ratepayers kicked up a fuss with the councils, so we have a pick-up once every two years. I can’t grumble too much about the scavengers – picked up a good bookcase during one of the collections myself. We don’t have the option of calling for a pick-up, unfortunately. I usually chuck stuff in an old shed on the property until the pick-up period comes round again.
We can only use bags with the name of the city on them, sold only at city hall. A roll of 50 purple 13 gallon bags is $39 and a roll of 25 green 33 gallon bags is $33. They are also available in smaller sized packs. This pretty much covers the cost of our weekly pickup. I usually only have one purple bag to put out, unless I remembered to empty all of my various wastebaskets. That fills another purple bag. We also have a variety of bins for recycling that are picked up alternating weeks, but I always forget to put them out, so I take them to the recycling center.
I pay nothing. I put my trash with the neighbor’s when he isn’t looking.
Just kidding. I do put my trash in his bin, but with his permission, as I take his cans out to the street every week in exchange. I think he pays about $16/month for a 3-bin pickup (garbage each week, paper every other week, plastic every other week).
Our town government considered paying for the service directly for all residents and collecting thru taxes. The cost per household would have been cheaper, but many residents objected since they aren’t here year-round and would be paying more in the long run.
I can also take stuff to the dump and they charge per ton for general, high-quality garbage, with a minimum of about $8. They also charge per unit to accept computers, TVs and most other appliances.
It’s included in my water bill, so I’m not sure how much I pay. Not much. I live in the city, and they take pretty much everything, although sometimes you have to call to get them to take a large appliance or something (generally those vanish of their own accord, however.) Recycling, trash, yard waste, whatever you got. If you take down a tree you have to chainsaw it up, but they take that, no questions asked.
ETA - they won’t take anything your CONTRACTORS take down, though. You have to get a dumpster for that.
Anyway, we ratepayers kicked up a fuss with the councils, so we have a pick-up once every two years. I can’t grumble too much about the scavengers – picked up a good bookcase during one of the collections myself. We don’t have the option of calling for a pick-up, unfortunately. I usually chuck stuff in an old shed on the property until the pick-up period comes round again.