Do you mind if someone takes your recycleables from your curbside bin?

IACRenter_IHB

IACRenter_IHB

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Just read this<a href="http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-outthere16-2009jun16,0,2611118.story?page=1"> article in the LA Times</a> discussing how one Santa Ana neighborhood is placing locks on their curbside recycle bins to prevent people from dumpster diving. What are your thoughts on this issues? Do you feel homeowners should be able to control where their trash ends up? Or do you think this is some kind of overkill against folks who are just trying to make ends meet?



<em>Just to clarify the poll a bit more</em>:



<strong>YES</strong>--I do mind; No one should be taking my recyclables



<strong>NO</strong>--I don't mind if folks take stuff out of my recyclables
 
I voted no in the poll. I don't really understand why the article says it's against the law for anyone but the city or the property owner to remove items from the recycling bin once it's out on the curb. I thought the same rule applied to recyclables as it does to trash. I once had to call the city I was living in because... umm... SoCal's dad, "Grandpa SoCal", a non-starving but slightly peculiar retiree with an odd fascination for this pass-time, was upsetting the neighbors who threatened to call the police on him. So I called the city but they told me there was no ordinance on the books, so I don't know. Maybe there is or maybe it's just different from county to county. I believe any city would be profiting from the redemption value of these recyclables so it would make sense for there to be a law of some kind, or for them to provide a container that locks. It would not bother me, though, if somebody wanted to peek in the can. As long as they're not peeking in my windows, I don't care.
 
I put my recyclables out in a separate bag next to the dumpster in the alley. I did the same by putting them next to the street trash cans when I lived in NYC, so that the homeless could get them easily.



There are hispanic men who come by every day looking for them.



I try to put them out on the weekends, when the men are replaced by whole families. I feel most sad for the kids who have to spend their weekends looking for cans.
 
I don't really think I like the idea of someone going through my trash just in case they find some kind of documents I forgot to shred. I wouldn't want any one to steal my identity, not that anyone would really want to. Besides, you never know if they person rummaging though your trash is really looking for bottles or if it's actually BK collecting more demographic information.
 
The issue is controversial but I think that the main problem for many residents in these areas is that some of the people who are dumpster diving are also making a mess and not putting the trash they don't want back into the trash cans. I think that everyone here would agree that this is not okay. This is only one reason. There are others who just don't want dirty poor folk rummaging around their neighborhoods at all hours. I don't really know how I would respond if I lived in a neighborhood with this problem, but I'd imagine that it would become increasingly more annoying.
 
The bigger crime, IMHO, is the cities are forcing recycling and not compensating the home owners for it. There are programs and companies that will pay for the right to haul the trash and recycle.
 
[quote author="No_Such_Reality" date=1245227883]the cities are forcing recycling.</blockquote>


What do you mean, NSR? Do some cities fine the resident for not using the recycle can?
 
[quote author="SoCal78" date=1245228605][quote author="No_Such_Reality" date=1245227883]the cities are forcing recycling.</blockquote>


What do you mean, NSR? Do some cities fine the resident for not using the recycle can?</blockquote>


They're trying.



But again, they've giving lucrative contracts away when they could be having providers paying homeowners to pick up their recycling and trash instead of paying wastemanagement to do it.
 
[quote author="No_Such_Reality" date=1245227883]The bigger crime, IMHO, is the cities are forcing recycling and not compensating the home owners for it. There are programs and companies that will pay for the right to haul the trash and recycle.</blockquote>


It may sound stupid but this is one of the reasons that I put whatever I damn well please in any of my trash cans. The company makes the money for the recyclables even though the resident is the one separating the trash. They sift through the trash and recycle the stuff no matter which trash can I put it in. My city insists on raising the trash rates about every 6 months and I know full well that the company and possibly the city is raking in the dough. I'm kind of done doing their job and having my rates raised constantly as a thank you. I'd rather do what Freedom does and give it to someone who needs it but I don't have anyone coming by my house. I'm really not interested in doing it myself, honestly it's just too much of a hassle for my busy life and since I know the company is doing it anyway (and making the money), I really don't feel guilty about it. This may change in the near future as my kids hear more and more about recycling, hopefully by then I can let them do it and keep the money :)
 
I keep my recyclables in my apartment and walk them down to the cans collectors when I see them. If I were in a personal residence I would just label a small container "free cans" and place the bag of recyclables there. Once the bag is taken, I doubt following can collectors would go digging through my other trash. If neighbors don't want can collectors coming through their block, kindness and courtesy is an easy remedy. Tell the can collectors that everyone is going to place their recyclables in one container at the end of the block so they don't have to go digging from trash can to trash can.
 
In our city the waste management sorts all the recycleables, so you put everything in the trash and they recycle what they can. I see people going through the neighborhood on trash day and pulling out the items that have deposits that can be redeemed. This really bugs me! I just think that this method gets more recycled and it should be as profitiable as possible so that the waste managment company can continue to ensure that everything that can be recycled is.



There was an Asian man that used to wake us up in the middle of the night in CDM on trash night. He would go through everyone's trash looking for stuff, not recyclable, but just stuff and this really annoyed us. I don't think he was poor, but just part of what he does is to go through the trash of the "rich" people. Everyone on the flower streets in CDM puts stuff that they want to get rid of that they don't believe is necessarily trash next to the garbage cans in the alley. This is the free stuff that almost always gets picked up by someone, but going through the trash with a flashlight at 2:00 am is unacceptable.







TMARE,



Your trash isnt' included in your property taxes? It is here.
 
This issue is getting some discussion over on the Orange Juice Blog, very one sided discussion. The writer of the blog lives in my neighborhood and I don't think he's ever had to deal with the issue personally. It's pretty easy to condemn others in another part of the city for their lack of compassion but they don't live there. I actually like the idea of putting it out for someone else to take, I'm pretty pissed off at Waste Management and I'd be perfectly happy to give it all to someone who needs the money.
 
The trash business is a strange one... For you accounting types, I think of it as having a negative "cost of goods sold" on their income statement. A collection fee is charged at the front end -- to collect the garbage at the curb. A tipping fee is charged at the back end -- to dispose of the non-recycled materials at a landfill. In the middle, the recyclable materials are removed (usually at a transfer station or "materals recovery facility") and sold. Three income streams, no cost of raw materials, but very high labor, fuel, and maintenance costs; and high start-up costs. In a city like Irvine, the collection fees charged are negotiated by the City, which awards a contract to a private company. In our case, that is Waste Management, Inc. which is the "big dog" in that business. Other companies are competitive, however, and operate in other areas of the Southland. Removing the really good stuff (like cans) from the recycle bin makes it harder to justify the effort to recycle the rest. Or, looking at it a different way, they would be able to justify higher collection fees when they negotiate their contract terms with the City. On the other side, recycling actually hurts the company's landfill tipping fee income. Less trash in the dump means less revenue. Don't get me wrong... recycling, no matter how and by whom, is a good thing. It just has some unintended consequenses on the trash collection business economics.



I'm uncomfortable having anybody rifle through my trash cans, because I couldn't tell the difference between someone looking for cans and someone looking for paperwork for identity theft. If the recyclables are going to be recycled anyway, I'm not a fan of the private party entrepreneur.
 
When I was an undergraduate, me and my buddy saved beer cans for a whole summer to get the CRV.......we got a whopping $14 for having to endure those stinky cans taking up the whole patio all summer. After that, I'd dump the recycleables on the grass strip so the homeless guy wouldn't have to rifle through the cans to get them. He showed up every day at the same time, I just made sure I put them out 10 minutes or so early.



One of the sorority girls who lived in the next unit over was horrified when she saw me do it. She hissed at me "You're littering!"



I responded - "I am not! Come back in 10 minutes, they'll be gone." I think that is the moment she decided she hated my guts. She was not particularly attractive so no major loss.



Anyway, it's my trash stream and I'll decide who gets the benifits of it, dammit.
 
If someone is desperate enough to need to get the recycles from the recycling bin, they are welcome to it. It is too bad the world is bad enough that they need to do it. Consider the alternative:

1. Waste management truck gets recyclables

2. They recycle, take a cut, give some $ back to city

3. City bureaucrats drawing salary managing city finances allocate some to city services

4. City services clerks drawing salary approve some money going to the down and out

5. City accountants drawing salary then issue check to the down and out

6. Banks take a cut for processing checks, etc and give some $ to the down and out



It's gotta be a lot more cost effective for down and out people to just pick up the recycling themselves ...



Gleaning link - <A href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gleaning"> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gleaning</A>
 
I have mixed feelings. I don't really care if homeless people take my recyclables to cash in (cans, bottles) as long as they stop there. I would prefer that folks don't sift through my actual trash to see what else they can find. I have found a solution to this problem, though. I always end the trip out to the curb by dumping all the used cat litter at the top of the trash can. If that doesn't stop someone from sifting through, I guess nothing will.
 
Totally off topic recycling joke:



http://worldoftimepass.com/funny-jokes/stock-market-crash-recession-jokes/



Stock Market Crash - Recession Jokes



f you had purchased $1000.00 of Nortel stock one year ago, it would now be worth $49.00. With Enron, you would have $16.50 left of the original $1000. With WorldCom, you would have less than $5.00 left. If you had purchased $1000.00 of Delta Air Lines stock you would have $49.00 left. If you had purchased United Airlines, you would have nothing left.



But, if you had purchased $1000.00 worth of beer one year ago, drank all the beer, and then turned in the cans for recycling, you would have $214.00. Based on the above, the best current investment advice is to drink heavily and recycle. This is called the 401-Drinking Plan.
 
For you people who are worried about identity theft, may I suggest:



<img src="http://www.gadget-box.com/images/USBpaper-shredder.jpg" alt="" />
 
[quote author="Anonymous" date=1245279356]If someone is desperate enough to need to get the recycles from the recycling bin, they are welcome to it. It is too bad the world is bad enough that they need to do it.

</blockquote>


The city pays the trash collector / recycler, not the other way around. The cost of recycling exceeds the added revenue. Trash, as a whole, just isn't that valuable. Even waste segregation, as practiced in Irvine, doesn't sort into enough categories to make recycling a profit-making enterprise on its own.



Is the guy driving a pick-up truck (or pushing a grocery cart) along your street any more deserving than the worker at the recycling facility? The former will cherry-pick only the most profitable items from the trash. The latter would not have a job unless there is remaining value in the trash. I've seen the lines of those workers. The trash is dumped onto a raised conveyor belt, and people stand on the sides, in assembly line fashion, busily tossing plastic bottles into one bin, newsprint into another, metal into a third, glass in a fourth. Hard, dangerous work. (Broken glass, needles, etc.)
 
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If you are part of the TL,DR crowd and just want the highpoints on how badly people have become brainwashed into sheeple over recycling, here is the gold:



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