View Full Version : Neighbors and trash
I suppose this could go under several different topics including environment...the neighbors across the back alley from us consist of a 25 yr old couple leasing the house from her mother. They have five garbage cans and every week they are stuffed and overflowing with all kinds of trash. Just wondering how in the world such a small household generates that much trash. Today, we found that they had thrown their excess in our can as they had run out of places to put anymore. It seems to be mostly packaged junk foods, candy wrappers and soda cans. Drives me nuts...
Teacher Terry
1-20-19, 8:15pm
We make one bag of garbage a week. We do lots of recycling.
That's amazing. We do 1/2 bag of garbage a week and a full recycling bin every two weeks. We are 2 adults.
I hope you spoke with them after finding their garbage in your cans or at least put their junk back on their property. Our town is probably unusual about garbage pick up, but we have to pay for the cans through them and they expect us to only have to use one can in addition to the recycling bin. It's a huge can, though. Maybe her mother was a hoarder and they are cleaning it out? I can't imagine how two people can cause that much garbage unless they have a lot of parties.
Two of us generate one 13gallon sized trash bag per week.
It does go up if we entertain, as someone pointed out.
Also, a purchase might generate packing materials that don't recycle.
Five cans seems like a lot!
Chicken lady
1-21-19, 8:17am
The not recycling the soda cans would be killing me. Also, I would want to get to know them so I could teach them to eat food.
but maybe it is a clean out situation? I have put up 18 cans in the last three weeks. Because I haven’t had trash service for items larger than a bread bag for the last two years, and because I am dehoarding areas that have never been fully addressed.
Similar situation here. My little rental house has cheap irrigation water. Decades ago it used to be farmland, and I swear the grass and weeds grow like we're deliberately fertilizing them. Even little trees spring up everywhere. It got way overgrown so for the past 2 years we've had an extra trash can which is filled when we mow and weed 2x/month. Extra trash can costs $13/month, and I've thought about stopping that service, but right now I can't see how we can.
Chicken lady
1-21-19, 10:14am
Compost pile! (And a mulching mower)
Similar situation here. My little rental house has cheap irrigation water. Decades ago it used to be farmland, and I swear the grass and weeds grow like we're deliberately fertilizing them. Even little trees spring up everywhere. It got way overgrown so for the past 2 years we've had an extra trash can which is filled when we mow and weed 2x/month. Extra trash can costs $13/month, and I've thought about stopping that service, but right now I can't see how we can.
You are allowed to put yard waste in? Our transfer station and recycle center both have a place for yard waste so that it can be composted or mulched. Never fails though every year you see people put out bags and bags of leaves and then they wonder why the trash doesn't pick them up.
Back to the OP: Does this couple have a small baby? Diapers take up a huge amount of trashcan space. I always felt so guilty about that when we had 2 in diapers and I'm ashamed to admit I was a cloth diaper dropout.
Lainey, why don't you start a compost pile in a hidden corner of the yard? You can use one of those Rubbermaid barrels if you can't have an open compost pile?
We have four compost piles but we have 5 acres. All our yard waste is composted. We let grass clippings lie and the yard looks good. Kitchen waste goes out everyday to the bin in the backyard, built out of pallets.
Teacher Terry
1-21-19, 10:58am
When we did some cleaning out I noticed the neighbors bin wasn’t full so I asked them if I could put some stuff in. They should have asked.
Teacher Terry
1-21-19, 11:00am
We can put leaves in our garbage. We can’t leave them to compost because we have Astro-turf.
Terry, that is very logical. It is so far from how we live--my husband says absolutely no desert climates for him. I think I could deal, but he could not. I love how you do the astroturf for the doggies!
Teacher Terry
1-21-19, 11:31am
When we lived in the Midwest we just left them on the lawn. We live in the high desert so we still get all 4 seasons. I don’t want to be warm all the time. The Astro-turf was really expensive but after 6 years has not faded. It seemed irresponsible to have a lawn with the water shortage. Yep we did it for the doggies. Some people xeriscape which is cheaper.
We have found that this city/region (Front Range of Colorado) does not promote recycling to any great extent. It was mandatory back in Texas so we are well-trained. Every resident here has to select their own trash company (out of 4 or 5) ; recycling is available at an extra cost which in our case is $5 a month so we do that in addition to a compost pile. The odd thing about the young couple is that they have both the large trash and recycling receptacles but throw either/or trash and recycling in both receptacles and then have personal cans too. They do not have a baby; I think they are just sort of not interested/aware of doing things another way...like a lot of the people around here:(
Simplemind
1-21-19, 6:54pm
We don't generate much trash. We are pretty careful about packaging and eat very little processed food. We recycle and compost, burn or shred paper which is then composted. Now wine bottles...…. we do have a bunch of those. Other than those, no beverages in cans or bottles.
Yes, we can throw yard waste in our regular trash can, although they've recently started a program to promote recycling of palm tree fronds. The target is commercial landscapers, and the goal is to recycle that material into cattle feed. Pretty amazing.
https://www.phoenix.gov/publicworkssite/Pages/Certified-Palm-Program.aspx
I could see composting at some future point but right now keeping the grounds of the rental house looking decent is about all we can manage. It's a 22 mile round trip for each visit. In the future if we get a tenant who is interested in gardening, maybe we can put in a composting setup and see how it goes.
As for the OP's neighbors, I'm surprised the trash company doesn't penalize them somehow. My friend had neighbors with a big family who repeatedly ignored the different requirements for regular and recycled trash, and after several warnings the city removed their recycle barrel and replaced it with a regular one. By putting regular trash in their recycle barrel, that family was contaminating the haul of their entire neighborhood and invalidating everyone else's efforts. It only takes one jerk.
There's two of us humans and three pets and we only generate about a 13-gallon bag of trash as well. We have a recycling can, which sometimes gets full but often does not and a yard waste can that get a lot of use with our clippings and leaves as we have lots of trees. The trash company will also pick up yard waste from the street so we often use that in the fall when we have lots of leaves and tree clippings. We also have a free large item pickup twice per year (up to 3 items per pick up). You can also get different sized cans depending on your needs at no extra (or very little) charge. We have the smallest available.
With all of this available, I'm often surprised when I see people putting out overflowing trash cans. It's just people being lazy.
iris lilies
1-22-19, 7:11pm
Two of my neighbors on this block have expensive asteoturf for their tiny city yards. In one case, she cannot keep any plants alive due to urine from several large dogs.
I dont understand where all of the urine goes and why it doesnt smell, but whatever.
Two of my neighbors on this block have expensive asteoturf for their tiny city yards. In one case, she cannot keep any plants alive due to urine from several large dogs.
I dont understand where all of the urine goes and why it doesnt smell, but whatever.
We have a neighbor who moved into the neighborhood about 5 years ago. I believe she's new to suburbia because she has made some very interesting landscape choices. For one thing, she lined the yard right at the sidewalk with trees and shrubs, which is fine--but I always feel bad because, just as you said, the little shrubs are inevitably brown on the side near the sidewalk. You'd think they'd give up by now, but they still have a rather strange yard. On one hand, I love it because it's not cookie cutter, but it does lack a certain aesthetic and practicality.
Teacher Terry
1-22-19, 7:42pm
IL, the rain and snow take care of the urine. Not sure why they have it since you guys get plenty of precipitation. If we lived where it rained regularly I would have real grass.
Miss Cellaneous
1-23-19, 9:49am
There's two of us humans and three pets and we only generate about a 13-gallon bag of trash as well. We have a recycling can, which sometimes gets full but often does not and a yard waste can that get a lot of use with our clippings and leaves as we have lots of trees. The trash company will also pick up yard waste from the street so we often use that in the fall when we have lots of leaves and tree clippings. We also have a free large item pickup twice per year (up to 3 items per pick up). You can also get different sized cans depending on your needs at no extra (or very little) charge. We have the smallest available.
With all of this available, I'm often surprised when I see people putting out overflowing trash cans. It's just people being lazy.
When my city started recycling, only a few people recycled anything. You had to take cardboard and glass and paper to one place, plastics and metal to another place across town.
Then the city moved to free curbside recycling pickup. And switched from free trash pickup to using official city trash bags; the 13 gallon one costs around $1.50 each.
Let me tell you, frugal New Englanders caught on real quick. Now there is a recycle bin in front of nearly every house on trash day, sometimes more than one.
I think recycling works best when it is very easy to do. And when there is a financial incentive to recycle, people will also buy in. I've noticed in places with free recycling pickup and free trash pickup that people don't care very much and will toss recycling in the trash because it's "too much work" to separate it out. One guy I know got fined for putting cardboard moving boxes in his trash. So now he hides the boxes deeper in the trash can because he still has no incentive to recycle.
But I'm lucky. Everywhere I've lived since around 1987 has had free curbside recycling. It is just second nature now to toss all the recyclables in the bin.
dado potato
1-23-19, 11:51am
...the neighbors across the back alley from us consist of a 25 yr old couple leasing the house from her mother. They have five garbage cans and every week they are stuffed and overflowing with all kinds of trash. Today, we found that they had thrown their excess in our can as they had run out of places to put anymore. It seems to be mostly packaged junk foods, candy wrappers and soda cans....
What would Mr. Rogers do?
It's a beautiful day in the neighborhood...
I've always wanted to have a neighbor just like you; so, would you be my? Could you be my? Please, won't you be my neighbor?
Perhaps they put overflow trash in your cans, because their cans were already full, and they were not conscious of any alternative.
I might suggest a neighborly discussion. Ask if they have a wall-mounted can crusher. Do they have room for another trash can on their mother's property? One may buy a can crusher on-line for less than $15. There may be a local hardware store that sells a trash can that would match their existing set of 5.
Now, this may be too Rogerish for some, but if the neighbors don't have money to buy these things, perhaps it could be a "house-warming gift" from pinkytoe. As neighbors, they may be able to do pinkytoe a solid favor some day.
Or the gift could be presented as coming from an anonymous member of the Simple Living Network, www.simplelivingforum.net
And when the neighbors ask, "Who is that?" … maybe say, "It is a friendly group on the Internet. And they have more ideas than you have candy wrappers."
Our city charges for landfill bins but gives away recycling and compost bins. They offer small or large landfill bins at different prices. People who put landfill waste in the recycling or compost bin get ticketed. Our landlord pays for trash for the residential tenants but makes his commercial tenant (a daycare center) pay for their own seperate bins.
you can also call the garbage pick-up people (Dept of Sanitation? Waste disposal?) I did this when I had a neighbor years ago who I don't think had ever lived in a house with regular trash pick-up, because he just had no clue...would put out furniture, packing boxes not broken down, with foam pellets dripping out of them, would use my bins when his became full, and/or just stack trash up on the ground, like pizza boxes, when bins were After I talked to him personally in a friendly way and he just continued to ignore me, I called the Waste Dept. every single time there was a violation. Dumping regular garbage into a recycling bin sounds like a HUGE violation!
These neighbors have ignored any polite requests. I guess that's where the descriptor "trashy" people comes from as having debris everywhere is just how they choose to live.
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