'dumping" your garbage service?

[starbuck123]

Pun intended. Hello..I was curious as to whether anyone has done this..outright cancelling their garbage service. I just got our renew bill and it's huge. It went up again.

We live in the suburbs and have the usual x1 per week recycling and garbage pick up. We've had it for a year. I've gone to the largest recycling bin size possible and the smallest garbage bin possible. We only need to put out the garbage bin once per month..we just don't have much garbage at all., only the equivelent of a plastic grocery store bag most months. We recycle most, compost the rest and have about 1% true waste.

I'm still looking into things as far as where to take leaves in the fall and specifically what type of recycling our local center will take - need to go there and just spend time talking to the folks there..things like that, BUT - I'm thinking this may be possible.

My parents live nearby so if need by I could give them anything large we need to throw away (like styrofoam - although might be able to recycle that). They're going to think I'm crazy. We don't have babies in diapers, don't use disposable things..heck, even when I buy cereal I re-use the inner bags to wrap their lunch sandwiches in. We have virtually no waste.

Has anyone done this? did it work? Did it backfire? I've looked up our city rules and we are allowed to do this. I'd love feedback. Again, keep in mind we're not in the country so not allowed to burn a ton of things or bury any garbage...

Thanks!

 

[mayble]

I was talking to a co-worker about this sort of thing just the other day.
They live in the country, so they are able to burn a few things but they take recyclable materials to the local recycling center, and her husband will take the occasional bag of garbage to work and toss it in the dumpster (with the boss' permission, of course).
I would put leaves into the chicken run or on the garden.
I'd love to dump my garbage service, but unfortunately I'm in the city and we are charged for it whether we use it or not

 

[starbuck123]

I'd love to dump my garbage service, but unfortunately I'm in the city and we are charged for it whether we use it or not

Interesting. That seems like a city money-maker to me.

Once I discovered we were needing a lot less garbage space (everyone else has the biggest bins possible), and not even putting it out every week like our neighbors, I called ours and asked if we could get some sort of price break for putting it out 1 time per month. They said no.

And yes, leaves definitely in the run. We can also dump over the fence. We had 3 massive trees removed last fall which will help reduce the leaf waste.

 

[wyoDreamer]

We didn't have garbage pick-up in Wyoming, the only service that we could get was a dumpster and once a month pick-up for $85; no recycling. I did a little research and found out it was $8 per bag of garbage at the county transfer system and we could use the recycling bins at the Target parking lot for free. We had strict hours we could drop off garbage at the transfer station, it opened at 7 am until 2. So I would drop it off in the am before work about once a month or so. We had about 2 bags per month.
Check out the web-site for your county and they may have information on the landfill, if no landfill look for a transfer station. The garbage company has to take their collections somewhere, so just bypass them and find out how you can drop it off by yourself.
Here in our new place, they have a transfer station also, it is run by the fire department.
They are volunteer, so I am guessing that this is a fund raising activity for them somehow. They are only open on Wednesday night and Saturday morning. I love living in this small town area - the dog catcher is the guy at the transfer station and he loves our puppy! We take Gus with to give him some socialization.

 

[mayble]

Interesting. That seems like a city money-maker to me.

Tell me about it!
The city "gave" us all big new garbage cans I only fill once a month at best (cans they can pick up with an automated truck, eliminating two jobs for each truck), and they tell us to thoroughly rinse all our cans and bottles (using city water they charge outrageous $ for) so they can sell our recyclable materials to a processor. All this comes with a nice little fee tacked on to our monthly water/electric bill.
I think I'm in the wrong line of work. I love that my town is encouraging recycling, but come on.

 

[starbuck123]

It almost seems like they're trying to discourage it.. Hm.

 

[wyoDreamer]

If you have to hire your own service, you can probably find a way around paying a service to collect your garbage. Just be aware that there can be some hefty fines if you get caught tossing your personal garbage into a bin at a store or a restaurant.

 

[starbuck123]

If you have to hire your own service, you can probably find a way around paying a service to collect your garbage. Just be aware that there can be some hefty fines if you get caught tossing your personal garbage into a bin at a store or a restaurant.

that's good to know and makes total sense. After all, they pay to have someone haul away theirs.

I already do things like take my own reusable cup to the gas station when I get coffee..once I had a place say no to me filling my own mug, so I got it in their cup, dumped it in mine, then tossed their cup. I hated to do it. I didn't go back and instead chose to continue to patronize places that allow me to bring my own.

It's going to take a little more forethought when I go to the grocery story, but not much as I already use cloth produce bags and buy grains in bulk and refill my jars. It's things like packaged chicken and ground beef - the plastic that is around that.

My kids are at the 'wow - cool - let's try it' stage..but i wonder how long that will last. LOL. We will have to get creative!

 

[wyoDreamer]

I can almost see you at the checkout pulling off the plastic and re-packaging the meat in your own containers ...

... innocently ask "Can you throw this away for me please?"
I am not making fun of you - I applaud your ethics and totally respect what you are doing.

I just have had those thoughts myself, I hate all the excess packaging that everything comes with these days.

 

[starbuck123]

Quote:
Originally Posted by wyoDreamer

I can almost see you at the checkout pulling off the plastic and re-packaging the meat in your own containers ...

... innocently ask "Can you throw this away for me please?"

well, I did buy the kids a doughnut to split at our local gas station yesterday. I pulled it out with the tongs, handed it to my son and we walked up to pay for it. She looked a little puzzled when she asked where the bag was and I explained they were going to eat it in the car so we didn't need one. She had that 'aha' look then!!

All of this came about because I read a book this past summer that got me thinking a little more about waste and I wish I could remember what it was called..I want to say "The Zero Waste Lifestyle" or something like that? anyway..I think she did things like that..lol. asking deli people to place things in her own containers. It does makes sense but again requires some forethought! It wouldn't be hard for me to just walk into the store with a couple of ziploc bags and ask the butcher to put the meat in them. The problem is that I only buy the hippy-dippy organic, grassfed beef and I don't think that's sold loose by the pound.

Anyway. food for thought. I think it's so easy just to toss something in the trash and not think about it. This sort of radical idea forces a person to not only think about what to do with garbage, but also ways to circumvent getting stuck with it in the first place! Besides, I'm really peeved about my huge future bill and will cancel it if this idea will work. They can take a hike.