In the USA, you usually pay for garbage collection services which are private companies that provide you trash and recycling bins and they pick them up from your house on a regular schedule, usually once or twice a week. If you live in a rural area, really rural, you might need to handle your own garbage. In these cases you either haul it in your truck to a dump where you either pay a flat rate to dump, or pay by the pound (they weigh your car before and after), or some places allow you burn trash if you’re really in the middle of nowhere.
Sometimes payment for these services is included in rent, HOA fees, or sometimes you hire/pay seperately.
This varies heavily by location. I’m not sure “usually” comes into it. In and around cities it’s not uncommon for the city government to handle trash collection. Farther out into the 'burbs or in rural locations you might have to hire a private trash company.
It can also be included as part of your taxes as well. I used to live literally 1 street over from where the official city limits were (a whole 1 mile from downtown), and while the city provided trash/recycling services within that boundary, anyone outside had to pay like $30/mo for a private service that only did trash pickup, and had to pay another $12/mo for recycling.
In my new town, we’re on the very outskirts of the city, but it’s all provided by the city as part of our property taxes. We get recycling, trash, and compost services. Best part is you even get 1m³ compost and mulch from the city from the compost service. We grew an absolutely insane amount of vegetables from it last year, it was really awesome.
This is never something I’d have even thought about being privatised, I guess I just assumed it was always in the interest of local authorities to make sure there isn’t just shit piling up everywhere and pay for it through taxation. It’s also surely much more cost effective to centralise.
Today I not only discover that isn’t the case, but that you also commonly have to pay extra to recycle. Like what?! Do poorer people have to just not have their bins collected? Or make a choice about whether things get recycled?!
This has absolutely blown my mind!
If you take it to a refuse & recycling centre yourself (I assume those exist with public access), do you have to pay for that too?!
Do poorer people have to just not have their bins collected? Or make a choice about whether things get recycled?!
Yup. As always, it’s very expensive to be poor, and you wind up having to haul stuff to the dump yourself, taking the time, fuel, etc to do it.
I didn’t pay for recycling with Waste Management, because I knew that 95% of it would go to landfill anyway, so why bother? It’s literally just a way for people to greenwash their disposable lifestyle and WM profits off it.
If you take it to a refuse & recycling centre yourself (I assume those exist with public access), do you have to pay for that too?!
Yes. Even in my town, there’s still an additional fee for taking certain things to the disposal/recycling center. It’s only a couple of dollars, but it’s also mostly for stuff that’s hazmat.
It’s hard to choose to recycle here. Not only is it expensive, but it feels like they change what they can recycle every 2 weeks (exaggerating but still).
Also, sorting and rinsing everything takes a lot of time when you have to work 3 jobs just to afford your apartment. For me personally, though, I don’t work (can’t) but I have so many doctors appointments that I might as well. And my disabilities make it hard to take the extra time to sort.
Sometimes - well, not in my town, but I’ve seen it happen - the same truck picks up both the trash and the recycle. So there’s not really a point to sorting it in those places since it all goes in the same truck. In places where they do put them on different trucks, “recycling” centers have been caught selling the items to other states or even other countries, and most of the time is rerouted to landfills.
A lot of people in my town put their recyclables in plastic bags, which obviously can’t be recycled, so then it ends up at the landfill anyway.
The funniest bit is their garbage men are painfully bad, watching them is like comedy - lifting bags out the bins with their hands, spilling it all down the road, all flying out the truck as they drive down the road.
In the USA, you usually pay for garbage collection services which are private companies that provide you trash and recycling bins and they pick them up from your house on a regular schedule, usually once or twice a week. If you live in a rural area, really rural, you might need to handle your own garbage. In these cases you either haul it in your truck to a dump where you either pay a flat rate to dump, or pay by the pound (they weigh your car before and after), or some places allow you burn trash if you’re really in the middle of nowhere.
Sometimes payment for these services is included in rent, HOA fees, or sometimes you hire/pay seperately.
what the hell
This varies heavily by location. I’m not sure “usually” comes into it. In and around cities it’s not uncommon for the city government to handle trash collection. Farther out into the 'burbs or in rural locations you might have to hire a private trash company.
It’s the same in my EU country (at least for single family homes, I don’t know about apartments)
The private companies are contracted by the municipalities and I don’t think you can legally avoid paying the garbage collection tax/fee.
Afaik they don’t give you the option of dealing with your own trash, because that would mean a lot more trash in the forest.
What, too much freedom for you to handle?
It can also be included as part of your taxes as well. I used to live literally 1 street over from where the official city limits were (a whole 1 mile from downtown), and while the city provided trash/recycling services within that boundary, anyone outside had to pay like $30/mo for a private service that only did trash pickup, and had to pay another $12/mo for recycling.
In my new town, we’re on the very outskirts of the city, but it’s all provided by the city as part of our property taxes. We get recycling, trash, and compost services. Best part is you even get 1m³ compost and mulch from the city from the compost service. We grew an absolutely insane amount of vegetables from it last year, it was really awesome.
This is never something I’d have even thought about being privatised, I guess I just assumed it was always in the interest of local authorities to make sure there isn’t just shit piling up everywhere and pay for it through taxation. It’s also surely much more cost effective to centralise.
Today I not only discover that isn’t the case, but that you also commonly have to pay extra to recycle. Like what?! Do poorer people have to just not have their bins collected? Or make a choice about whether things get recycled?!
This has absolutely blown my mind!
If you take it to a refuse & recycling centre yourself (I assume those exist with public access), do you have to pay for that too?!
Yup. As always, it’s very expensive to be poor, and you wind up having to haul stuff to the dump yourself, taking the time, fuel, etc to do it.
I didn’t pay for recycling with Waste Management, because I knew that 95% of it would go to landfill anyway, so why bother? It’s literally just a way for people to greenwash their disposable lifestyle and WM profits off it.
Yes. Even in my town, there’s still an additional fee for taking certain things to the disposal/recycling center. It’s only a couple of dollars, but it’s also mostly for stuff that’s hazmat.
It’s hard to choose to recycle here. Not only is it expensive, but it feels like they change what they can recycle every 2 weeks (exaggerating but still).
Also, sorting and rinsing everything takes a lot of time when you have to work 3 jobs just to afford your apartment. For me personally, though, I don’t work (can’t) but I have so many doctors appointments that I might as well. And my disabilities make it hard to take the extra time to sort.
Sometimes - well, not in my town, but I’ve seen it happen - the same truck picks up both the trash and the recycle. So there’s not really a point to sorting it in those places since it all goes in the same truck. In places where they do put them on different trucks, “recycling” centers have been caught selling the items to other states or even other countries, and most of the time is rerouted to landfills.
A lot of people in my town put their recyclables in plastic bags, which obviously can’t be recycled, so then it ends up at the landfill anyway.
Idk, there’s a lot more but basically it sucks.
yeah we got like 6 companies that take care of trash in my neighborhood
I probably should shop around I’ll bet one of them is cheapest
6 different companies?l that just sounds super efficient
U.S. truly is a hypercapitalist hellhole. I’m so glad I don’t live there.
The funniest bit is their garbage men are painfully bad, watching them is like comedy - lifting bags out the bins with their hands, spilling it all down the road, all flying out the truck as they drive down the road.
Even our trucks are bad :D