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I don't get why every house needs to have their own huge garbage can, recycling can, and yard waste can. Plus a separate bin for glass. At least, that's how it is here, and it seems like it would make more sense for each block/neighborhood to have their own dumpster, that each person can go put their garbage in. It seems like it would be a lot more efficient, quieter and reduce gas from the garbage trucks, as well as encourage people to produce less garbage, if they have to carry it to the dumpster themselves. It's annoying hearing people rolling their garbage cans back and forth (and it's not just on garbage day - people use them for gardening, and drag them around with them, so it's annoying to hear them being dragged around all day), slamming the lids every time they go out to throw something away, and the garbage trucks going by - it sounds like they go through my neighborhood 50 times on garbage day. I guess, they have to go by separately for garbage, recycling, yard waste...it certainly doesn't seem very efficient or environmentally friendly, and it's certainly loud and annoying. I don't even have garbage service, since I don't produce much garbage...and I survive.
Location: East of Seattle since 1992, 615' Elevation, Zone 8b - originally from SF Bay Area
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Would you want that big, stinky dumpster located next to your house? I actually did without garbage service for 15 years when I had a business. I would just throw the bag in the truck once a week and toss it into my dumpster at the shop. I have no problems with the sound of people rolling their bins, it's only once a week and we can't here it unless outdoors at that exact moment. My problem is the way they combine yard waste and food waste. We gave up and went back to the disposal in the sink. The food waste will be smelly, and probably have maggots by the time that big bin gets full, unless we happen to have a lot of yard waste that week. We find that the actual garbage bin, which is smaller, is usually only half full. The recycling only goes out when full, every 2-3 weeks. The food/yard bin even less. Still, we pay for it as if picked up every week.
OP, why don't you just cancel your service and take your trash and recyclables to the dump directly? That's what we do. And all yard waste goes back into the woods to naturally decompose.
I don't get why every house needs to have their own huge garbage can, recycling can, and yard waste can. Plus a separate bin for glass. At least, that's how it is here, and it seems like it would make more sense for each block/neighborhood to have their own dumpster, that each person can go put their garbage in. It seems like it would be a lot more efficient, quieter and reduce gas from the garbage trucks, as well as encourage people to produce less garbage, if they have to carry it to the dumpster themselves. ........
Okay, I'll tell you why .... without fully addressing any of your complaints about noises that offend you.
Dumpsters have to be kept locked so the users all have to have keys so they are only practical for businesses and apartment buildings at single addresses. When the lock gets forgotten or lost by somebody it's easier to replace the lock and distribute new keys to the tenants of the buildings. Many businesses and apartment buildings can get by with only one key that is kept in a communal location so that all tenants have to use the one key. If that key gets lost the building manager will have a spare key or two to replace it.
Dumpsters are not practical or efficient for a neighbourhood/block, instead they are a hazard that can attract a lot of unwanted attention from pests and outsiders that can be dangerous to the residents of the neighbourhood. If the lock is forgotten or lost and the lid left free it will be filled up within a few hours by people who don't live in the neighbourhood (bush telegraph is an amazing thing), you'd get dumpster divers, drug addicts and homeless people going into them to scavenge, and you'd get animals going into them. Scavenging people and animals who go into dumpsters throw the trash out of the dumpster onto the ground to clear more room to get to the bottom of the dumpster.
If an entire neighbourhood/block had a single dumpster for all garbage, recycling items, yard waste and glass as you are suggesting it would require all users to have their own keys and pay for the cost of them and the lock, the garbage trucks would have to come empty the neighbourhood dumpster every day or every 2nd day of the week and its contents would all have to go to a landfill. That method of all waste going to a landfill (which is the senseless, lazy way that urban waste was disposed of in the dark ages) is thoughtless and would completely negate and fly in the face of all the reasons for green living and recycling.
And last but not least ...... Dumpster lids are very heavy and can be difficult to impossible to lift and hold open by people who are old, sick, small, weak, disabled, etc. I'm thinking perhaps you're just not seeing the big picture and don't think of those things because I know you are are a sheltered, single, young, healthy, strong and active person who does a lot of walking and biking and you've said in other posts that you don't generate a lot of garbage or recycling. It would be easy for somebody like yourself to take all your small amounts of garbage to a dumpster every day but not everybody else has your social and physical advantages.
About all the noises that offend you - that's part of living in urban society. If the noises of day to day life in an urban neighbourhood bother you too much you should probably move to a quieter place where there are less people.
Based off of this post and your other recent thread, I think you would be better off living in a more rural area than you do. You seem to not like neighbors or restrictions. Have you ever thought about moving?
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