The Gun Counter

Okay, today was trash pickup day. Stick with me for a minute while I explain the profundity of city government here. El Paso used to have what they called "cadillac service". Men would come up to the side of your house, pick up the cans and take them to the truck. Very nominal fees. A number of years ago, city waste service raised the price and required homeowners to bring cans to the street. About 10 years ago they went to automatic pickup with two men per truck instead of 4(to cut down on disability claims and cut cost) and, you guessed it, raised the rates. Two years ago, El Paso decided to join the *spit* Green Revolution and start recycling. We got a blue can for recyclables and a rise in rates for collection. Amazing that they are trying to save money and resources so we have to wash cans before putting them in the can, then the can gets washed again at the recycling center.

This all leads up to what happened. I went down to pick up the trash can, two different trucks ya'know, and found the garbage hadn't been picked up. I called the waste people and they said they'd get in touch with me. Half an hour later I heard the recycle truck go by. I went out to move THAT can back by the house and found the recycle truck had picked up BOTH cans, trash AND recyclables.

I went out to move THAT can back by the house and found the recycle truck had picked up BOTH cans, trash AND recyclables.

No extra charge there buddy!

Come on - you're surprised? This IS government you're talking about right?

I forget where I read it, but a while back I read on the net about a city with a recycling program with seperate cans and so on... except they were dumping it all into the landfill anyway because the recycling part of the operation cost more money then it was worth.

I think recycling is a bunch of bull excrement.

We have recycling pick-up here twice a week. But my town has no garbage pick-up. We have to pay a private contractor to pick it up.

I throw everything into my dump trailer, mix it with construction debris and bring it to the transfer station every few weeks. The garbage Nazis haven't caught me yet.

I'm surprised they'd throw out the cans -- AFAIK, all forms of metal recycling is cost efficient.

Aglifter wrote:I'm surprised they'd throw out the cans -- AFAIK, all forms of metal recycling is cost efficient.

Yep. Go take a look at the price of steel, aluminum, and copper. ESPECIALLY copper. Price a roll of 12/2 Romex wire.

What really throws environuts for a loop is this:
For the most part, paper is not at all worth recycling.
Furthermore, most paper these days is grown in the paper companies' tree farms, where they plant according to projected demand.
So the more paper you use up, the more trees they have to grow.

Rod wrote:
This all leads up to what happened. I went down to pick up the trash can, two different trucks ya'know, and found the garbage hadn't been picked up. I called the waste people and they said they'd get in touch with me. Half an hour later I heard the recycle truck go by. I went out to move THAT can back by the house and found the recycle truck had picked up BOTH cans, trash AND recyclables.

What? You didn't know that both streams go to the same place?