Posted on 11/29/2005 8:59:34 AM PST by Awestruck
I woke up this morning to find a city worker peeking inside my trash cans, when asked just what the hey did he think he was doing, he replied, this isn't a warning, just information, but styrofoam doesn't go in the blue container! This is just one more indignity in the long line of city choke holds that goes on in Fresno, California. We have water nazis to make sure we water at the appropriate time and on the appropriate day, we have chimney nazis to make sure we don't light our fireplaces on an unnapproved day, and now, apparently, we have trash nazis, walking around checking our trash cans! To me this is an unnacceptable invasion of privacy and a further erosion of my rights as a human being. If our trash isn't safe from this nonsense, what's next?
The City of Folsom used to have prisoners sort the recyclables out of the trash. Most everybody made sure that they shredded their personal information.
My city has a trash inspector. He drives around the city looking into garbage cans and slapping big orange violation stickers when he finds recylables or yard waste in the garbage and vice versa.
Trash trucks do not collect cans with the orange stickers. The homeowner (usually at work) has to go another week and peel the sticker off before his trash is picked up.
It goes even farther than that though. A neighbor put up a basketball goal against the curb in his cul de sac so the kids could play ball. Trash inspector made them take the goal down as it was a "hazard" to automated can grabber gizmo on the trucks,.... but the streetlight posts that are closer to the curb aren't an issue.
***************
If you're crazy, I am as well. I'm glad we have a fireplace. It's more effective than shredding credit card offers, I think.
I wish they would figure out some way to recycle styrofoam. I'm a believer in recycling, as long as it's done in a way that doesn't use up more gasoline than it saves in waste disposal.
My advice,
get outta town.
I plan to in the future once my small town mandated no garbage pick-up unless you have it in one of those large square bins that mechanical levers can flip over.
The garbage men are so lazy here they even refuse to pick up garbage bags anymore.
It helped that city council here is populated with left wing union members.
Spray Gumout carburetor cleaner on the styrofoam. It will quickly dissolve into a gooey white liquid. Now, you can wash it down the sink!
Do you have mandatory recycling laws in your area? If you do, that's why they're snooping in the garbage, to make sure that no recyclables end up in the garbage or vice versa.
I have mixed feelings on this kind of thing. On the one hand I don't want trash nazis telling me what to do, on the other I get annoyed at the clods that put real garbage in with the recycling and make it so the whole load gets rejected.
Meanwhile, landfill space is limited and no one wants one in their backyard, but the stuff has to go SOMEWHERE.
The best thing would be for everyone to voluntarily take proper care of their trash (not illegal dumping, not screwing up the recycling, etc) but there are a lot of gomers in the US that won't bother unless forced to.
We bust our butts sorting our trash and have the true garbage down to 1 grocery bag a month, everything else gets recycled, composted or used to start the woodstove.
LQ
As an owner of 3 cats....LOLOLOLOL!
I live in a city in Canada where half of all the garbage is recycled/reused (and they are aiming for 90% or something impossible sounding in a few years). Very little of that is done by individuals - automated sorting facilities. It is revenue positive too, most of the work farmed out to private industry.
It is indeed going to get "worse" too. Get a paper shredder for all regular documents. For stuff that really bothers you, shred and then soak. If throwing out a HDD, make sure it is well wiped or destroyed (formatting is not enough) - thermal and/or chemical methods (careful with the HDD housing though, best to take the platters out) work best.
You aren't crazy for worrying about your privacy - but most of the issues can be solved with a little care. And this is true for everyone, even if you live out in the middle of nowhere. If your garbage isn't incinerated on your own property, assume someone will (eventually) go through it. Least of all your worries is the dude going through it in front of your house :)
That sounds like a bad idea. (Especially if you've got a well)
If your garbage is contained within areas of
curtilage(private property),regardless if it`s contained
within a
bag,box,container,etc,
it is illegal to search through it.
I think you just gave me an idea about what to do on Earth Day. It is so wrong in so many ways haha I love it!
If your garbage is contained within areas of
curtilage(private property),regardless if it`s contained
within a
bag,box,container,etc,
it is illegal to search through it.
In fact, police can search through your garbage can for evidence if you are suspected of a crime and it does not voilate any of your constitutional rights.
Put out my trash the night before pickup. The next morning, before pickup, I went out to add some more trash and found a small TV in my trash bin not designed for it. After some two weeks of investigation with two of my neighbors, we check our own trash and found someone was dumping illegal trash in our containers. We caught them. These jacka@@ have an illegal yard sale every week and what doesn't sell they just dump in trash containers, but not there's. Now if we were cited, who pays?
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