My neighborhood civic club just voted to have a private waste management company pick up trash twice a week?

Question

This company is more expensive than the city's waste management service which would have only picked up trash 1x per week. Now the private company is increasing the cost of the recycling pick-up, so the civic association is voting on whether to drop the recycling program. I want to weigh in on this issue at the next meeting. Any ideas on what I can say to keep the recycling program going even though it will be more expensive?

Answer 1

Hi Janet. That seems ridiculous since gas prices are @ $5.00 a gallon. How are people going to be able to afford the cost of the pick up. I would have to agree with the first post and say, Hold a neighborhood meeting. Maybe hold it at a church and get information that they can identify with. Sign a petition and maybe it will change. Keep the faith.

Answer 2

I don't know.  People are so broke it isn't funny.  They aren't going to want to pay.  Unless you live in an affluent neighborhood, I can't think of anything....:-(

Why did they choose a private company in the first place?  Was something wrong with the city pick up?

Answer 3

Offer to pay the difference yourself. Of course.

Only Environmentalists refuse to pay for their own ideas.

Answer 4

I would talk to some of your neighbors before the meeting.  See what interest there is in recycling.  Also use it as a chance to eduate them a little bit.

One option might even be to do a petition for most of the neighborhood.   Not every homeowner will attend this meeting, but if you can get maybe 60%+ of the homeowners to sign and say they want recycling, how could the HOA Board of Directors say no?

If they turn down the recycle option,  can you find some other company (perhaps a nonprofit?) who can send a truck to a central pick up point in the neighborhood to remove all the recyclables?   Call around and see what other trash haulers are doing, too.

Answer 5

It is always the poor and large families who suffer at the end isn['t it ?

My neighbourhood is different. Garbage was first picked up twice a week; then once a week. Then the amount of trash bags got reduced to 4 and pick up every second week. In between, had to pay for "blue" boxes for recycling.

Not telling you during wintertime and the complications it brought.

Recently the city has brought on  a new program BUT have to pay extra taxes ( no choice). People order one large bin - blue- and there are 3 sizes to choose from. from around CAN$199 to $299 -or up - I think for pick-up once a week/every two weeks.

Just a few days ago, I got a notice that there are doing the same thing with the normal rubbish. Pick your size and the price will range from $199 to $399 per year also. Pick up once a week also (every 2 weeks though)

But both programs are every two weeks so one week : you put the recycling bin out and the week after : the normal garbage.

They do not do both in the same week.

By the way : people have no choice BUT adopt this program and pay on top of the regular taxes anyway which go up every year predictably.

So homeowners just have no choice but pay extra to the city. Which I think is very unfair.

Last year a law was introduced that - at least in my neighbourhood - the city would not take care of mowing the lawn on the sidewalk anymore. Of course, no reduction in taxes but people now had the duty of taking care of it themselves which is basically city property which we pay for anyway. If people don't : you get fined !

People have no right to cut down trees on their property either. You have to get permission from the council first ...and pay yourself for ex if the tree is dead and threatens to fall in the neighbour's back yard....

Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhh....... so many laws here ! More and more and more taxes  added also for the privilege of being told what to do. Some do not make ANY sense but bring more money to the council's funds.

Some would be the equivalent of new law for ex ( kind of a silly example but..) : everybody HAS to go to the restaurant once a week - get taxed for that honour of being bossed around - and pay for the food, the cutlery, the waitresses and manager's salary and their property tax as well.

Well.........at the end..........it is always people with less money who do not have any choice and suffer.

Good luck !!