Seattle Weighs Bi-Weekly Trash Pick-Up

Comments

Are they going to charge me half as much or give me a trash can twice the size for the same price? Otherwise this doesn't make sense. I already fill my recycling and yard waste. I can't reduce my trash any more and use the small size can.

tigntink on August 11, 2010 at 5:57 PM

I need my recycling picked up once per week, period. I know we are talking about garbage, but if I recycle MORE (which I couldn't, I am already recycling everything) I'd need two recycling pickups per week, and I only get two per month.
It doesn't really matter if I could go two weeks without a garbage pickup - I am far more concerned about what's going to happen in my neighborhood with the houses that have 4+ people living in them - households with two or more kids, or big houses that have 8 roommates.
Yeah, their food waste SHOULD be in the yard bin, NOT the garbage, but I don't want to find out how lazy they are the hard way.

bella on August 11, 2010 at 6:01 PM

I'd be happy to dump my trash in the Billionaires Tunnel.

Will that help?

Will in Seattle on August 11, 2010 at 6:03 PM

I like the idea. Our family of four barely fills the little black cube each week. A slightly larger container and less frequent pickups would be fine.

Mahtli69 on August 11, 2010 at 6:07 PM

#2 I totally agree with more recycling pick up-BUT if you have an extra garbage can and label it clearly, they will empty it for you for free.

FlagrantMary on August 11, 2010 at 6:16 PM

Fine with me.

We use one of those mini-cans, and even that is only half full every week. We're very diligent in our recycling and composting, and barely generate much actual garbage any more. The trash could easily go to a every-other-week schedule.

Larger households probably could too, if they had bigger cans.

Reverse Polarity on August 11, 2010 at 6:36 PM

We already recycle everything we possibly can and probably some stuff that can't actually be recycled but look like they can. Our trash can only fills up if I forget to take it out some weeks anyway, so yeah, biweekly trash pickup would be fine (if they charged me less) but I wouldn't recycle more.

NaFun on August 11, 2010 at 6:41 PM

@3 Shut up Will.

@1 Yeah really. I mean if they came and got my recycling once a week I could go along but as it stands it seems like I would be getting much less service for the same cost.

giffy on August 11, 2010 at 6:42 PM

I'm with @7. We already recycle as much as we can, and our trash rarely comes anywhere near being full -- most weeks there's one or maybe two lonely little grocery bags full of trash sitting in there, so every other week would be fine.

Fnarf on August 11, 2010 at 7:01 PM

There's a balance to strike here, and avoiding a victim-of-their-own-success story like Berkeley's is something to keep in mind.

While true, I only typed that first sentence so I could segue into a rant about our mayor making composting mandatory; which, in a city that is most definitely losing the war against vermin, is an asinine idea. Same goes for your recycling program that may actually discourage recycling, you (we) suck at garbage, SF.

Ok, I'm done for now.

Dougsf on August 11, 2010 at 7:09 PM

My fiance and I produce about one 13 gallon trash bag per week, with all the little ones around the house emptied when we feel like it. Us being forgetful, we often fail to put out our barely full cans every week anyways.

It would be interesting to see if the kind of people who call for "spending cuts" would be willing to sacrifice their own convenience for the sake of their spending cuts.

emor on August 11, 2010 at 7:09 PM

Would this apply to apartments? My neighbors are a bunch of lazy fucks, and this program would be a disaster for my building.

keshmeshi on August 11, 2010 at 7:11 PM

I can't remember the last time my trashcan was full for pickup, but I'm always struggling with cramming stuff into my recycling bin.

tiktok on August 11, 2010 at 7:12 PM

I would totally be down with compost & recycling once a week - and trash every other week or more. I mean, really.

mattereaterlad on August 11, 2010 at 7:27 PM

As I was taking out the trash and compost tonight, I was just wishing I could pay less for a biweekly trash pickup option. Yard waste is so much cheaper as it is, it just seems lazy to pitch stuff into the trash bin. But in my old condo building, 3 out of 16 units used the compost bin. Reminders & encouragement didn't do anything to change that, so maybe this new program will.

alight on August 11, 2010 at 8:22 PM

It's been that way at my house for about a year now. I've gotten along fine. Unless you have infants, most of your stinky stuff will be in the compost bucket.

Renton Mike on August 11, 2010 at 8:30 PM

our family of three only has trash picked up once a month, and we do quite fine. as long as you are diligent about putting things in the green, it's really not that difficult at all.

Cook on August 11, 2010 at 8:39 PM

We do it in Toronto. It works okay.

MichelleZB on August 11, 2010 at 8:41 PM

What if you have dirty diapers? Our garbage can would be twice the size we need for garbage, except it fills up every week with bags of diapers, since we have an infant.

On Capitol Hill I'm sure this isn't an issue, but in some neighborhoods I can't imagine the stench of house after house of hundreds of diapers fermenting in closed garbage cans over two weeks. Maybe for such households they could give out hermetically sealable cans.

Also, I wish we could have a separate compost bin from yard waste bin: we routinely fill our yard waste bin with actual yard waste most weeks, and so other compostables can't be put out (only because extra bags cost a fair amount more).

Simac on August 11, 2010 at 9:28 PM

We do this in Olympia. Got bigger bins. Works fine. And the city managed to avoid several rate increases because of the savings.

Moag on August 11, 2010 at 9:57 PM

Capitol Hill appt bldg: our recycling is picked up every other week and the garbage twice a week I believe and it's still not enough. We have trash and recycling especially spilling on the street. Don't reduce the trash pick, but do recycling at least once a week...

on August 11, 2010 at 10:32 PM

If the City would start recycling Styrofoam, I probably wouldn't even need the small garbage can I have now.

COMTE on August 11, 2010 at 10:42 PM

@19 Would a change like this encourage you to use cloth diapers, or do you think your diaper habits would stay the same?

AK on August 11, 2010 at 10:51 PM

We don't even have compost bins at my apartment complex. And yes, it's in the city.

Greg on August 11, 2010 at 10:58 PM

We have three adults in our household, have the smallest available trash bin, and still set it out only every two weeks or so. Bring it on!!

jakevdp on August 11, 2010 at 11:16 PM

Totes fine with me. As is, I generate more recycling than trash. Recycling/yard waste weekly, trash bi-monthly. Thx.

Jeff on August 11, 2010 at 11:18 PM

Get rid of recycling and trash pickup altogether. If people absolutely need to buy stupid disposable water bottles and TV dinner boxes they can use their own land as a dump and try to sell their plastic on ebay.

on August 11, 2010 at 11:23 PM

Two weeks of rotting stench.

The city is obsolete.

Supreme Ruler Of The Universe on August 11, 2010 at 11:55 PM

Bring it on.

gnossos on August 12, 2010 at 12:16 AM

@28, it's not rotting because the rotting stuff is in the food waste, which is the yard waste. You wouldn't know that, because you live in a toilet suburb. If you're smelling something rotting, it's your soul.

Fnarf on August 12, 2010 at 5:11 AM

@28: "The city is obsolete."
boop boop boop--- boneheaded suburbanite right wing talking point alert---boop boop boop

pissy mcslogbot on August 12, 2010 at 6:07 AM

This solution would be fine with me. We barely fill our trash bin each week—2 small bags maximum—and we often forget to take out the recycling (which comes every 2 weeks) and those occasional monthly pickups are not a problem. Honestly, the only trash and recycling I get comes from my mailbox! if the freaking junk mail would stop (yes, I'm on lists but it doesn't matter) I wouldn't have barely any trash at all!

People buy too much packaging. Maybe less pickup will inspire them to not buy so much waste.

mitten on August 12, 2010 at 6:13 AM

I'm up for it- we forget to take it out almost every other week anyway.

on August 12, 2010 at 7:23 AM

That's how we do it in Renton. Of course, we're a bonehead suburb, so we're probably doing it wrong. Please Seattle, show us the way.

on August 12, 2010 at 7:40 AM

I'd be more favorably inclined if we had trash bins with some heft. The ones we have are feather-weight and the garbage hauler insists on folding the lid and pushing it to the bottom of the container, so it won't blow away in the breeze.

And with 8 people in our household (families doubled up due to the Great Recession) we'd definitely need a larger bin.

Citizen R on August 12, 2010 at 9:04 AM

This is an attempt to cut city services, cloaked in 'environmentalism'. I'm not holding my breath that the city would double the size of my garbage can or slash the rate in half. And yes, my yard/food waste and recycling bins are crammed full before every pickup.

Joe M on August 12, 2010 at 9:26 AM

What Jeff @26 said. Our garbage is half full and our recycling is overflowing every week. Make recycling pickups every week, garbage every 2 and we're all good.

on August 12, 2010 at 9:35 AM

Every other week would be great. It would typically take us a month to fill up our mini-'can'.

dirge on August 12, 2010 at 9:47 AM

I rarely fill up my mini-can, so I'm all for this. But one thing that hasn't been mentioned is why are recycling bins overflowing and needing to be picked up more frequently? We need to BUY LESS, and when we do buy things, we need LESS PACKAGING. Remember, the slogan is REDUCE, REUSE, RECYCLE. The city needs to address all three parts.

elaineinballard on August 12, 2010 at 11:06 AM

Until something is done with business and apartment/condo building collection changing to encourage recycling and composting, nothing will matter.

Will in Seattle on August 12, 2010 at 11:19 AM

i only take my garbage out every 2 weeks on average anyway and even then it's rarely full. So, I say yes! But maybe there should be refresher info sent out on exactly what can go into recycling and yard/kitchen waste, my neighbors seem to have no idea and I'm guess they aren't the only ones.

olive oyl on August 12, 2010 at 2:16 PM

I already put my Micro-can out less than or about once a month! It's easy when most of the stuff that would normally go in it in Seattle is now recyclable, yard waste-able, or reduce-able, meaning you don't have to buy anything with lot of waste associated with it! All it takes is a bit of forethought and I hope the idea spreads! Reduce, Reuse, Recycle to
be cliche!

seashell on August 16, 2010 at 3:46 PM

Seattle Weighs Bi-Weekly Trash Pick-Up

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