Go easy on my trash can! (Christmas: new house, buy, cost) - Jacksonville - Florida (FL) - City-Data Forum

EricBoyd · 10-11-2010, 03:30 PM

The first trash day we had at the new house, I come home to find that my trash can was in the ditch off the side of the road. It had apparently been left in the street by the trash crew, then someone must have hit it. (I'll venture to guess the collision was done on purpose.

) No big deal, since that one was a few years old and was missing the handle. So, I go buy a new one, same style, $15 @ Home Depot. Well, this one only lasted two weeks before taking some damage. I'm blaming this one on the trash guys. The wheel assembly was very loose and the handle was broken in half.

I wanna know, do these trash guys have a vendetta against certain residents, where they feel they must do whatever they can do damage the trash can? I mean, seriously, the thick plastic handle on the thing was snapped in half! I can't imagine the force it would take to do that.

5 or 6 years ago, I used to have one of those 50-60 gallon heavy-duty cans, with the attached lid, and heavy duty wheels. It probably cost $60-70. It was a really good can. The trash guys would open it, reach in and pull out the trash. I think there may be a limit on the size of can, but I never got a notice of complaint from them (they will leave a notice if your trash placement isn't done right). Well, one week, I had noticed they had left one bag in the bottom, and it happened to be the bag containing nothing but dirty infant diapers.

Now, I can understand why someone wouldn't want to go grabbing for the thing, but I'm sure these guys have smelled worse. So, the following week, I took the time to print a simple note that stated, "Please empty entire can," thinking that'd get them to do just that, and take all the trash. Well, that simple note was apparently too challenging, and I came home to a missing trash can. It seems they took the note to mean, "go ahead and take the entire trash can, I don't need a perfectly good $70 trash can." Of course, I called the city and they brought me a cheap replacement. Grrr...

So, this long post about trash cans has a purpose. What can be done to get these guys to go easy on the trash cans and set them in places where they won't get hit by other cars?

Thanks for reading....

grsPAFL · 10-11-2010, 04:16 PM

In Chicago you could tip the guy at Christmas and he'd remember you all year round (fabulous garbage service and snow plowing --- so long Richard Daily). It was always the same guy. Here it's rarely the same guy/crew. And I probably don't tip here for that reason.

Wonder if there are any trash collectors posting on City-Data?

Dappleganger · 10-11-2010, 04:18 PM

One morning we saw a trash man (WM) throw, not toss, a can about 15 feet into the driveway and it broke into several pieces. He jumped onto the truck and they just drove on to the next section of homes. I was absolutely aghast. It is quite rare that any of the cans are ever put back into the yard, they're nearly always in the road and mixed up w/other houses.

grsPAFL · 10-14-2010, 06:39 AM

Load your dirty diapers in last - on the TOP of your can. A weeks' worth of dirty diapers (assuming you have a diaper genie type receptacle) can be quite heavy. Because it is partially liquified with activated gel, among other things, it will conform to the bottom of your garbage can. This makes it difficult for your G-man to shake out.
I highly doubt this was intentional - why would a trashman want to be greeted by a now 2 week old bag of reeking diapers.

You seem like a nice person, I've read many informative posts of yours, but your note was condescending.

I, too, have a heavy wheeled garbage can. We only use 3 mil or better cinch sack type bags. Our G-man will not pick up that can. He pulls the bags out and flings them one at a time into the truck. There is so much bending over, twisting, jumping up and down from the truck, that I do not begrudge the poor garbage man for shattering a can now and then. Also, in this Florida sun, a plastic garbage can has a definite expiration date. A year is a long time for a simple can with integrated handles, plus they're only like 10 or 12 bucks at Ace.

We are serious about garbage in our family. So buy good garbage bags - they pay dividends - and be nice to your g-man.

EricBoyd · 10-14-2010, 07:13 AM

Fortunately, we're well beyond the diaper stage, but thanks for your tip. I can't exactly remember where that bag started out (top or bottom), but they never had a problem emptying all the trash at any other time. I'm certain I would have re-bagged the diaper genie's sausage links, though, and it wouldn't have been that big. I was adamant about keeping that stuff OUT of the house.

JimRom · 10-14-2010, 05:33 PM

I spent a brief time as a trash man in St. Louis, MO. From that experience, I can say they probably didn't leave the bag on purpose, they were just in a hurry and didn't look too closely in the can. I can remember days where I forgot to even stop at a house, much less grab all the trash.

I will say, the people in STL did tip the trashman well. I made $600 cash in the week before Christmas that year. Not to mention the free beer and sodas that people gave me. And no, I didn't drink while driving the trash truck

EricBoyd · 10-15-2010, 07:50 AM

Here's an example of today's "missed trash". I purposely did NOT place the 3 boxes sitting to the left of the trash can, by the recycle bin, so it would hopefully be obvious that they should be taken with the trash. I guess it wasn't obvious enough. I'm afraid if I put a sign on it, then my trash can would have disappeared. LOL Seriously, though, isn't the rule about boxes for recycling such that they should be broken down? Well, I didn't break those down, because they had the styrofoam packing material inside. So, I placed them next to the trash can and NOT the recycle bin, hoping they'd take them. Didn't happen...oh well...

http://media.share.ovi.com/m1/s/2506/98a51dc753c74366b4c70c6dbf1b565e.jpg (broken link)

AliciaMaria · 10-15-2010, 07:19 PM

I think we have the same garbage guys then, Eric! This happened to us last week.. when I came home in the evening and pulled my trash can back up to the garage, the lid (one of those attached flippy lids) was angled completely differently from the can.. it looked as though the can had been thrown or hit so hard, that it warped the main body of it, causing the lid not to fit flush over the can.. (does that make sense??)

I had to force my lid back on to the can, after kind of maneuvering it back into the proper shape.. It's okay now (thanks rubbermaid!) but I cant imagine what went into messing our cans up so badly.. and we only put our trash out once a week instead of twice.. we really dont produce that much garbage (at home anyway..) I dunno.