Arlo and Janis by Jimmy Johnson for January 15, 2013

I have a hard time convincing some people that the can has to stay on the property. On the edge of the driveway, or the edge of the yard. NOT IN THE STREET, or in the gutter. Not even just a bit.

Besides, it might run over my mind down there.

Here it has to be placed on the street, or they won’t empty it…

When I first moved to Okinawa, it took me weeks to figure out the proper trash strategy. I’ve done recycling on mainland Japan and in Germany, but Okinawa is very different. Some days you have to use the trash bag with your city’s name on it (and you can’t buy a trash bag from another town or they won’t pick it up), with the correct trash inside. Otherwise, they will either leave the whole bag behind, with a note in English telling you what you had in there that was wrong, or taking part and leaving the wrong stuff behind.

There is no limit how far people will go to exercise control over others. We haul our trash to the transfer depot. An attendant stalked around barking orders when it first opened. He was gone the next week. :-)

The truck can’t grab and empty can if it is facing in the wrong direction. Due to buget cutting, city no longer employs an extra person to do that.

How’s that attitude workin’ out for ya Arlo?

In our town if you put the can in your yard at the edge of the curb they will pick it up and everything is OK, but if you put it on the street in the gutter then they usually dump a good bit of it in the street or just drop the can wherever and if it get crushed or broken, then OH WELL.

Funny I just put it in a box all taped up like I got a UPS delivery and it is gone the next day…

The rule in our neighborhood is exactly opposite to the instruction imprinted on the Trash, Green Waste & Recycling Containers. The reason is the local trash company does not have the automated lifters that the instructions are for, rather its all a manual lifting process by the collection personnel .

Our trash runs every Tuesday. The same rules apply as to where and how to place the cans. Our recycle runs the 2nd and 4th Tuesday. This all seems easy enough. Well, when the recycle didn’t run Jan. 8th. 2013, we called to ask why. The reason given was that because the 1st Tuesday, Jan. 1st, 2013 did not come after the first Monday of the month. Therefore: it will run the 3rd Tuesday. I still don’t know if it is going to run on the 4th or 5th Tuesday next. How political red tape, is that??

if I don’t put my can on the curb, then someone will park in the street in front of it so the garbage-men can’t reach it! And they don;t seem to care which way it faces, but I still put it handle-out…

There is no lower form of life than the government employee. NEVER forget and call them government workers. I have yet to see any do actual work.

Ours have to be at the curb, handles in, which completely blocks the sidewalk. Tuesday is Wheelchairs In the Street day,

I am with Arlo on this one. In my neck of the woods, the garbage collectors will not pick up recycled cardboard in the recycle bin unless it is smaller than a standard piece of paper. So, you have to spend a helluva long time shredding the damn cardboard down into small pieces. This same company “outlawed” trash cans over 25 gallons (damn near all of them are, except for some special ones). So, all the garbage cans most folks had are obsolete and will not be picked up at the curb. It is supposedly “too heavy” for the garbage collectors. Now, what most folks do is put out 20 or so smaller white garbage bags, so the poor trash man has to pick up 20 individual bags instead of emptying 3 trash cans. Foolish!

I live on about a 2 mile stretch of country road where I’m the only customer on Tuesday mornings. My wife and I recycle a lot so there isn’t much true trash some weeks, and I don’t put it out. Well, the driver has now determined he knows better than I do which days I will put it out and he doesn’t even bother coming down the road and tells his boss that I didn’t have it out. I had it out last time at 8PM the night before and he didn’t come. It’s a game we’re playing with each other. Oh yeah, the trash company also charges for delivery/pick up fuel reimbursements, so I’ve asked for a refund on that. I’ll pay the monthly fee, I won’t pay for fuel not used. I just put out a totally filled container yesterday and it was picked up. I’ll sit by the road next week and see if he comes by because I believe he’ll be thinking that I won’t have anything.

Even I am not that stubborn!

Our neighborhood is unusual for this area (and most others). We used to have private pickup and when township took over they agreed to the same pickup. We get Mon & Thurs garbage pickup. Household garbage cans in sight of the street is picked up at the perimeter of the house (perimeter pickup). The garbage men walk through carrying a giant garbage pail and dump ours into theirs. I learned quickly that if we do not bag and seal the bag closed, it will dumped all over our driveway when they do this, so I have to use plastic bags for everything. Household trash, on the other hand, has to be placed at the curb on the same days and cannot be more than 4 ft in length. Items such as cardboard boxes (including pizza boxes) are trash and will not be picked up if left in can for perimeter pickup. Lawn stuff is picked up in summer on Wednesdays, left at curb, again, nothing other than 4 ft in length. Recyclables are picked up from special green bucket from garbage dept on Tuesdays. When first issued it was a manageable size box. We live on a 4 lane main road. We leave at curb, garbagemen throw it in the street, it got pretty mangled after a number of years and I needed to replace it. Called town, went to pickup new one (their fault, but I have to shlep). New ones are huge, about twice the size of the old one, so I kept taping the old one together. Husband’s parents did not recycle. Her house was being sold and I switched our newer one for her smaller one. Within 2 years they killed this one and this time took it away. I now put out cans etc. in a cardboard box next to the papers, they take the box with the recycles, and I have nothing to bring in any more.

What a stupid jerk.