Our last house in FL, we had a neighbor who did this to us. Garbage collection was a whole $10/month, and she couldn’t swing it. Funny, she never seemed to have problems affording cigarettes or maintaining her swimming pool or buying all manner of crap.
We found out when my husband came home early and found her garbage - he recognized the furniture on her porch as belonging to the box on our driveway with the extra trash bags… He tossed her stuff back on her own driveway and the next time he saw her, he told her to cut it out.
There is justice - about a year after we moved we heard that she was forced to move because she couldn’t afford the house after all. I know that sounds nasty, but the garbage was just one of many issues we had with her. She was not a nice lady.
I believe it’s to limit the amount of weekly trash. The sticker shows that you’ve paid for the pickup. As I said before, no sticker, no pickup.
My personal theory is that the sticker is yet another way for the town to extract $ from its already-taxed-to-the-gills residents. We’re the only town in the general area that has a sticker system. The next town over from us has no limitations on trash pickup, and its population is probably double compared to ours. They’re also allowed to put out small furniture and appliances without a fee. If I wanted to do either, I’d have to go to Town Hall and purchase a $10 sticker for each item. If I wanted to dispose of something bigger – say a couch – I’d have to purchase a $40 sticker.
Weekly, for a 20-gallon can, $12.25. This includes trash, glass recycling, commingled recycling, and yard debris pick up. If you use the recycling service, this weekly rate goes down by $1.50.
At the dump, recycling is free and earns you a small credit toward your dump fee if you’re dumping as well. We haul large yard debris to a shredder, which costs around $5 for a completely stuffed pickup truck. We compost table scraps. Many of the local groceries use recyclable or biodegradable bags, and we have can and bottle refunds. There’s a big recycle/reuse center within a couple of miles that will take #6 plastic and rigid styrofoam as well as other items that aren’t picked up or received at the dump. For a small fee, they will take care of computer components and other lead/mercury/toxic materials.
I just happen to have my utility bill right in front of me. For Solid Waster Service, I pay:
Anti-Litter Residential: $2.60
Res. Bade Customer Charge: $7.00
Res. 60 Gallon Cart: $7.50 (the city provides wheeled trash cans. I have the medium one, I could probably make do with the small one and save two bucks)
Sales Tax: $1.21
Total: $18.31 monthly for weekly pick-ups
Includes trash can emptying (you can also purchase stickers for extra trash), yard debris (must be in those big paper yard waste bags), recycling (I have one bin, could get more free) which must be sorted by types, and twice yearly big items and big yard trash pick-ups.
We’re about to go to single stream recycling where we’re gonna get a new container and don’t have to sort things. I don’t think our prices are gonna rise tho’…
We rent, but I assume the cost comes from property taxes of people who own the buildings.
We have twice a week garbage pickups, no limits on bags (ours is Tuesdays and Fridays). Once a week recycling (Wednesday), no limits either.
I have no idea how yard waste is handled, seeing as there really isn’t much yard anywhere to speak of in this neighbourhood, and large items can be picked up following a phone call to set a date. Paints and other hazardous waste can either be recycled through local hardware stores or other drop-off places.
We used to pay $70 a month for 3 cans per week at the coffeehouse, and $55 for two cans per week at home.
Now I run 7 cans plus a few bags, about 250 lbs., to the dump in my truck about every 10 days. Costs around $20. Uses about 3 gallons of gas, but I consolidate some other errands.
Someone did this to my dad a couple years ago. He was from a couple blocks away, it turned out. My dad called the cops and they went through the garbage and found the guy’s junk mail and busted him!
My dad was all scared that there would be garbage retaliation. Nothing ever came of it.
No town pickup for us. We could private hire, and we tried that when we first moved into our home. Turned out too expensive for the amount of trash we were generating.
Now I go to the dump (they hate that term, and prefer ‘transfer station’) on either Saturday morning, or Sunday afternoon. It’s ‘free’ in that taxes pay for the dump. The trip takes about 15 minutes.
I actually don’t know. We moved into our first house in July and there were two Waste Management cans in the garage when we got there, a gray one for garbage and a blue one for recycling. Both of which I’ve managed to hit with my car about twice a week since July and I’ve kind of messed them up so I actually have to get some new ones before too long. I assumed that it was part of our HOA/Townhouse fee, but it might be on the water bill too. Whatever it is it’s not enough to even notice.
The system here is that local authorities in England (usually called Councils) charge local taxes, usually based on property values (and the number of people living in your house + whether you are retired / registered sick etc).
The local taxes pay for garbage collection (we call it rubbish), road repair, police, education etc.
There is a breakdown on how much of my annual payment (about £1,000 / year i.e. $2,000) goes on garbage, but I don’t have it to hand.
Currently I get a weekly collection of household waste and recyclable paper / cardboard/ bottles / cans, plus a fortnightly collection of garden waste.
Soon we will go over to fortnightly collection of all 3 categories.
We’re very rural but do contract for trash pickup for somewhere around $25 per quarter, one large wheeled container per week plus biweekly recycling of paper, cardboard, glass, plastic, and metal. It’s a pretty good deal except when it’s really windy and we have to haul the cans up out of the culvert. We don’t send yard waste; what we can’t compost or use for mulch, we burn. If we have something large that needs to go, we have to pay extra. Our demon-possessed Roper stove cost $40 for disposal. I’m not sure how much of that was for the exorcism.
Our county is fairly large, so in addition to the county’s recycling center, we can bring hazardous waste to periodic pickups in nearby towns. They’ve just eliminated their fee for computer monitors and televisions, so I’m hoping people will stop throwing them into the river.
Groot does ours. It’s through the village - they bill us for garbage, water, sewer, flood control surcharge, etc. all on one bill. It runs maybe $55 a month? We have recycling bins provided by Groot, but we don’t use ours. In fact, ours is on a “trip”, much like the traveling gnome. Also, we can put out as much as we want and they’ll pretty much take it.
We had Waste Management until they decided not to cover our area anymore. We were paying about $50/quarter. I had 2 55 gallon drums and they would take whatever I could cram in them.
Now I pay $13/month for the privilege of hauling my trash to town in my trailer. And they’re only open on Wednesdays and Saturday mornings. No branches.
Rural setting - we have Allied Waste. Bill is just shy of 80 dollars a quarter - pickup is weekly. I believe the limit is 3 cans of bagged refuse that is lift-able by the collector.
We have recycling bins located in several of the smaller towns (“towns” being loosely translated into meaning “a collection of streets and houses where the population is over, say… 50 people, 10 cats and 14 stray dogs.”) We take our paper, cardboard, cans, etc to the bins. Computer monitors, motor oil and the like go to the county recycling building just outside of our county seat.
No town pickup. The company that picks ours up charges $34 per month for weekly pickup of a 95 gallon wheeled can. I’ve broken down furniture and they’ve taken it as long as it fits in the can. I can bring it to the town’s collection point every other Saturday and get rid of it for $3 a bag, but I don’t have the space or the desire to store 2 weeks worth of smelly trash.
Town does recycling every other Saturday. It’s volunteer operated + pretty much runs on the honor system. The one volunteer is always helping people unload while the bucket of cash sits on the table. You bring your stuff to the collection point and dump it into a big container that is shipped out on a flat-bed semi. It’s $3 a load, with no restrictions on load size.
We have a transfer station nearby for used oil, metal, batteries, fluorescent bulbs, paint (all free), appliances ($5-$10), and misc. (carpet, construction debris other than wood, etc.) They weigh the vehicle on the way in + out and charge by weight for the misc. stuff.
We also have a “stump dump” where we can bring stumps, christamas trees, yard debris, and any untreated wood. I think it’s free, but have never been there, as I own 14 acres including an old gravel pit that is my “stump dump.”
Mine’s included in the property taxes, although there’s some discussion about separating it out as a different line item. In which case they’ll eventually mange to finagle this in as a separate additional charge, I’m sure.
Funny, she never seemed to have problems affording cigarettes or maintaining her swimming pool or buying all manner of crap.