96 gallon trash cans - love 'em or hate 'em? (Houston: fit in, home)

[bluelion_ms3]

hmm, i haven't heard of these 96 gallon trash cans in my area....is this in the Houston/Harris county area? i live in Montgomery County/ Spring area. right now, they pick up twice a week and we use our own trash cans....

[Oskar_Z28]

I think that's the standard City of Houston trashcan. If that's it, then I never had a problem with it. It's big, but I just hide it on the side of the house behind some bushes.

[travelguy_73]

I love the 96-gallon cans that City of Houston provides. We have used them for years, and have had trash pickup 1x a week for years. The one downside is that many old homes don't have garages large enough for them, nor are there many places to hide them. We put down pavers next to our detached garage and run it (and the equal size recycle can) around between the garage and the back fence. Hidden and if they do smell, no one knows it.

Given how careful we used to have to be about bagging everything and not overloading the cans (so they could be lifted by the trash guys), these are a dream. You can really load them up!

[texas7]

We had thick brown bags provided by the city (for a fee that they charged us on our water/sewer/garbage bills) and they were great but now they want to provide these 96 gallon things that will stink. These tract home neighborhood homes are too close to one to have everyones' can setting between them ripening during the summer! Are also looking at moving and the area we are looking at already uses the big cans.

[phaze]

We have republic waste services come by 2x a week and we have a 96 gallon tank. I wonder if our waste/water bill go down if we opt to have it come by once a week. I rarely fill that thing up.

[NTT]

Well, just got a notice that the auto trash collection is starting soon in our neighborhood. Hopefully, this thread is still around so I could leave my experience.

[texas7]

Everyone is complaining that the areas that have them -- because they are so big, the people just leave them in the driveways as eyesores.......

[plaidfrogg]

Honestly, I've never known another way other than 1x/wk trash pick-up, and I grew up in DFW. In SoCal, we also had the city-issued 96-gal cans with 1x/wk pick-up. Homes near downtown were small with tiny garages, so cans were usually kept alongside the houses. We were in a pretty diverse, urban neighborhood with no HOA and I don't think I ever saw cans left out more than a day when folks were away.

Since we've moved here, we've had 1x/week pick-up of the 96-gal containers and it's been fine for the most part. Every once in a while we have extra trash at which time I think it would be nice to have 2x/wk service, but that's really so rare it's hardly an issue...and even then we just hold back some things for the next pick-up or put some in our neighbors' bin (with their permission).

As to the concerns for weekly service not being frequent enough for overflow and/or odor, I can say it's really not been an issue for us. As a family of 4 (with frequent guests) the only times our bins are overstuffed are around holidays or when we're working on a big home project. We recycle quite a bit which gets picked up separately, and yard clippings also have their own containers and/or bags, also picked up separately. On Fridays, 3 different trucks come through: recycle, greenery, and household trash.

Regarding odor, again it hasn't been a big deal for the most part. If it's more than a day before trash day, any meat/dairy food waste that can't go down the disposal goes in the freezer to avoid stench and maggots. Our only problem has been with the can we 'inherited' when we moved to this house last summer....it *reeked*. Still does, actually, when it's hot outside. But thankfully, the smell is only evident when we open the lid. It could use a good bleach and scrub...and yes, the size of the bin makes that trickier.

Lastly, I feel the big bins are less of an eyesore than the random assortment of containers and bags folks might otherwise put out. Granted, I live in an area with HOA so it's mandated that bins not be put out too early or left out too late. Most folks here put them out Thursday afternoon/evening and bring them in by Friday evening. As for size, the city-issued bins have wheels....my 6 y/o is able to wheel it back to the house when it's empty.

In short, the big bins have been just fine. I've never known 2x/week service, but without more information it seems wasteful. My only gripe is that I'd like to go back to Monday service instead of Fridays. Oh, and to whomever was worried that trash days falling on holidays.....service is just pushed back by one day. So if the usual pick-up day is Friday (like ours) and that happens to be July 4th, then trash is picked up Saturday, July 5th. Not sure how it works for areas with Saturday pick-ups...maybe pushed to Monday...but not a full week.

Hope that helps!

[NTT]

Originally Posted by plaidfrogg

... Oh, and to whomever was worried that trash days falling on holidays.....service is just pushed back by one day. So if the usual pick-up day is Friday (like ours) and that happens to be July 4th, then trash is picked up Saturday, July 5th. Not sure how it works for areas with Saturday pick-ups...maybe pushed to Monday...but not a full week.

Hope that helps!

Yes, your comments helped. My anxiety had eased up some. Thank you. I'm still worry that the size of the trashcan is more than I can handle .

[blkgiraffe]

They're too big??? We thought they were too small at my house. We use to fill that thing up weekly. Had to use the neighbors trashcan sometimes. Those aren't just in Houston, but all over Texas.