Garbage ..... san antonio...alternatives? (Castle Hills: HOA, houses, neighborhoods)

[1StarRanch]

Originally Posted by Chaka

I know you're joking, but ARGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

Just trying to get a rise outta ya! :O)

[scuba steve]

I'd like to find out what to do with yard stuff too. I'd hate to bag it with the trash, but trimming back over a year's worth of growth from this neglected house is producing quite the pile of sticks and cuttings.

[SnappyBob]

Originally Posted by BigDogsTX

Our biggest problem is going to be what to do with yard waste... We have a very large lot in Oak Hills and in the spring and fall it's not uncommon for us to have over 20 bags of leaves and lawn clippings. In San Diego I know they have a weekly yard waste pick up in a green roller can along with the blue recycle and rubbish cans. It's going to get expensive if I have to haul it all off to the dump every week. Not really sure what it takes to compost but Im pretty sure I would not have the time or interest in keeping a pile in my yard.

The best thing to do would be too compost the leaves and put the compost on your lawn. You could always just let them lay on the ground and decompose on their own like they would in a natural setting. You could also rake them up and transport them too the bitters road site where they will be shredded for mulch. Whatever you do please don't just bag them and send them to the landfill. One day soon that landfill will be full and they will be looking for another landfill site. Next time it may not be on the "other side of town".

[Snowglobe]

Originally Posted by fierce_flawless

I am just wondering when we'll get the new system? I'm READY. We heard about it right before we were about to go buy huge lidded cans, because the raccoons, stray dogs, cats, etc, area always turning our other cans over and tearing up the trash before it's picked up!

San Antonio's recycling site Solid Waste Management Department Automated Garbage and Recycling Collection has a link to the map of the "Proposed Automation Routes".

I hope you are better off than me--my neighborhood is in a "Under Contract" zone with no scheduled automation date in sight.

[Chaka]

Originally Posted by fierce_flawless

LOL!

I am wondering some things about my previous owners too... I was digging for another flower bed and found some weird stuff. My son (the 10 year old) has dreams of being an archaeologist some day and he was sooooo excited when I would say "what the heck is this??"... but the stuff turned out to be an old bottle cap, a tiny plastic miniature coke bottle, and a "coin" that was not really a coin after all but a fake trick coin with heads on both sides.. which he would have liked if it hadn't chipped when we tried to clean it to see if it was anything "exciting".

He and I both watch "If these walls could talk" together on HGTV, and he wants soooooo badly to find "stuff". We found stuff in the attic that belonged to the PO, she worked for the school system and it was just some mail from 1980 and he was thinking it was "something old and significant". Poor baby.

Maybe to a 10 year old, something from 1980 is old and significant

The PO's left a TON of junk (you saw the pictures, most of that was left). The day we took possession the house was so filled with crap, and we just needed it OUT so we could start gutting. We had already waited a week because the POs wanted extra time to move out. So we just hauled most of it to the street and said "FREE!" 99% of it went within a couple of days. I'm sure we lost some antiques that way, but we just didn't have the time/energy/space to save any of it. Then there was the garage - that was actually interesting...quite a few 'antique' gardening tools.

During that time we accumulated about 30 bags of just TRASH (eg food that rats had eaten through...). We left presents for the garbage collectors because we felt bad leaving them so much stuff to pick up

[Chaka]

Originally Posted by SnappyBob

The best thing to do would be too compost the leaves and put the compost on your lawn. You could always just let them lay on the ground and decompose on their own like they would in a natural setting. You could also rake them up and transport them too the bitters road site where they will be shredded for mulch. Whatever you do please don't just bag them and send them to the landfill. One day soon that landfill will be full and they will be looking for another landfill site. Next time it may not be on the "other side of town".

I second the composting. We generally just mulch the leaves, however we still end up with a lot of debris. We save all large branches for the fire, but we're still left with many many mature trees that suffered years of neglect and hence have TONS of branches.

I thought the semi-annual brush pick up DID take it all to be mulched,but given that they also collect non-brush items, I'm guessing not now. Anyone know? We don't have a truck to haul anything...

When I lived in Indiana they had one of those big truck vacuum things for leaves. Very cool. You piled your leaves up along the sidewalk/street. The truck came by and sucked them all up!

[Bowie]

Originally Posted by Chaka

I thought the semi-annual brush pick up DID take it all to be mulched,but given that they also collect non-brush items, I'm guessing not now. Anyone know? We don't have a truck to haul anything..

The crews do two separate pickups: one for brush and one for large items that aren't brush.

[Chaka]

Originally Posted by Bowie

The crews do two separate pickups: one for brush and one for large items that aren't brush.

Ah, that's great! As they're coming next week and I have a very large pile of brush, and off to go trim some more.

[scuba steve]

Is the a schedule for the brush thing? I could go cut off a TON more if they were going to come sometime within the next week to pick it up.

[sapphire]

Originally Posted by scuba steve

Is the a schedule for the brush thing? I could go cut off a TON more if they were going to come sometime within the next week to pick it up.

Brush - City Wide

You can check the link for a schedule, also, I believe you can call for a one-time pickup, for a "nominal fee"--what that is, is anybody's guess.