See title. I realized that trash collection systems sometimes differ between streets… so this is just about where you live, whether it is one specific street/building or an entire country. No need to mention exactly where if you don’t feel comfortable.

For where I currently live. Government makes colored trash bags (plastics/metals, papers, organic, general waste, etc) that people can buy at local supermarkets, and these bags are required for trash collection. On collection day we just… place the bags outside of the houses/apartments. Some places buy their own trash bins too, but they are rare.

The place I live in seem to take recycling very seriously. I’ve heard from colleagues that putting the wrong things in a bag sometimes result in the “trash police” sending a fine to where you live. Allegedly the police do that by looking at where your last letter/Amazon/random delivery address (in your paper recycling bag) was sent to…

My understanding is that it is a surprisingly effective recycling system… but with the downside that 1) the city doesn’t look particularly great on/after trash collection day, and 2) sometimes the local wildlife will rip open the trash bags

Edit: some more details regarding where I live if anyone is interested. Most people only use four colored bags that are collected per week: blue (plastic, metal, something else…), yellow (paper-based recyclables), white (“residual”, essentially non-recyclable items), and orange (kitchen waste). There are also bags for garden waste and heavy waste, but they are not picked up from residential addresses. Glass is either returned to the supermarket (beer bottles) or disposed of at specific dropoff bins. Things like batteries/electronics are specific, I just take them back to the store. There are also pink bags, but they are only used by businesses

  • Horsecook@sh.itjust.works
    6·
    6 hours ago

    I live in an unincorporated area of the county, where trash collection isn’t mandated by law. The county has a contract with a private trash company, I get mailed a punchcard that allows me to dump 52 carloads of household trash, free of charge, at a nearby private waste transfer facility, a large warehouse where trash compactor trucks dump their loads for reloading into larger articulated trucks for hauling to a landfill. I back my car into a truck bay, and toss the trash onto the warehouse floor, where a frontloader moves it around and crushes it. There are also large bins to toss segregated recyclables into.

    My neighborhood also has trash collection. We have a mutual service company, which predates the concept of a homeowner’s association. Every household owns a share in the company, for which we have to pay our share of the company’s operating costs each year, and elect board members to run the company. The company was founded to provide water, and has expanded its service over the years to provide sewer, road paving and snow plowing, and weekly trash collection. Unlike a HOA, the company has no control over our properties. The company owns a baby trash compactor truck built on a pickup truck chassis, which collects trash on Mondays and mixed recycling on Tuesdays, and hauls it to the nearby waste transfer facility, where they pay to dump.

    I burn my paper waste in my fireplace, and compost my food waste in my former cesspit. There is a bear that visits my neighborhood Monday mornings to raid trash cans and browse my compost pit.