[RP TownTalk] trash "cans"

Tue Aug 5 18:40:37 UTC 2008

I totally agree with Lou and had the same ongoing argument in Hyattsville where I live.  Our toter lives next door (very good neighbors) because I can't get it down our driveway without damaging a car or moving two vehicles out of the drive.  What has happened in Hyattsville is that people leave the toters near the street because they are too large to drag around.  The residents who have alleys and have their toters there have been fussed at by Code Enforcement for the toters being too far in the alley.  Sometimes our guys use the hydraulic lifts and sometimes they don't.  We also have elderly residents who have a hard time moving them around.  Several of us have been tempted to do an "art" display of an elderly woman lying under a toter on the ground being crushed.  Toters strike me as one of those quality of life issues that have trampled the citizenry to "save" money.  If it makes me unhappy, causes me more work, and looks ugly all over town,
 Hyattsville can't convince me it is in my best interest to have toters.  Thanks for letting a neighbor to the east blow off steam.  Nina

--- On Tue, 8/5/08, Lou King <lking at knob.com> wrote:

From: Lou King <lking at knob.com>
Subject: [RP TownTalk] trash "cans"
To: "TownTalk" <TownTalk at riverdale-park.org>
Date: Tuesday, August 5, 2008, 2:20 PM

Did I miss a memo????

(Those of of you that remember my rant about the SIZE of the recycle 
container can move on to the next email.)

I don't think I missed a council meeting covering Bates taking over 
trash collection for Riverdale Park - but when was it discussed that 
each single family home would be required to move around an APARTMENT 
SIZED trash bin?

{NOTE this is not the "Cranky Old Coot" speaking but, me, his serious

minded keeper.}

If I were not the healthy, strapping, young male that I am, and say I 
was my neighbor Mickie G.,  I would be unable to take out my trash! Not 
to say Mickie is a helpless little old lady, (if she heard me say that I 
would leave town for my own safety) but; For her to take out a bag of 
empty protein supplement jars from the bodybuilding store, she has to, 
with one hand, open the lid (that rises over my head), and use here 
other arm to jerk and clear her trash almost shoulder high (over 1 
meter) to get it in these new cavernous roll-on dumpster.

{I'm sorry, it is just not possible to speak seriously about such a 
ludicrous situation.}

Reading TownTalk I know that all my neighbors are concerned about the 
environment and expanding landfills. As such they all take their 
reusable (or recycled) bags to RP Farmer's Market and generate mostly 
compostable trash and make other purchases with an eye on the 
produce-to-packaging ratio. For example, myself, I have only half fulled 
the small yellow recycle bin sense mid-May when I tried to leave town. 
It is mostly dog food cans and is an old story. This is about trash.

In the winter I take my 30" tall trash can to the curb every-other week 
or so (more often in warm weather for obvious, odious reasons). I have 
to start using the green dumpster left at my house, the container will 
weigh more that my weekly trash! Wheels or not, I will have to drag this 
thing across my yard to E. Beale. This is easier than haling it up the 
drive to the front of the house.

What I think will happen with the trash "dumpsters" is what I have 
observed with the recycle bins-on-wheels. Several people in town 
don't/can't hide their big recycle bins behind their steps, by their 
back door as they did the smaller yellow recycle bins.  Drive through 
town. How many recycle bins do you see sitting our front? Where before a 
home owner/renter would buy a trash can sized for their needs, and that 
they could hale to the street.  We are now concerned with what to do 
with these "people" sized containers and obliged to uses over sized 
containers.

Personally, when I moved to town I planted a flowering, red berried cane 
by my back step to hide what I needed for trash from E. Beale. No, the 
new behemoths will not fit.

I just went out and checked, the trashcan I fill ever 
week/week-and-a-half is a 30 gallon container. The recycle bin from the 
county is 64 gallons and the new Bates container is bigger than that!

Now I "know" this is all for efficiency, etc. but have you notices
that 
the recycle truck workers don't have, or don't use, equipment to empty 
the recycle bins? What I see is two guys flipping open my neighbor's 
container, grabbing it and dumbing it in the back of the truck. There is 
a message here. OSHA -  or the trash collector, requires TWO workers to 
hale around the container to avoid injury. A single resident, on the 
other hand, is expected to move the same container to the curb. Why? 
Because the resident is not employed as a trash person and therefore not 
covered by OSHA.

In short what I see is a system designed for the convenience of the 
trash collection entity - customers (taxpayers) be damned.

Louis King

PS If you want to hear this rant again come to the working session, 25 
Aug.  I know it is a done deal. But I do wish to let the elected 
officials know how their efforts to save money have reduced the quality 
of life (and the view) in Riverdale Park and how that may effect my 
decisions next May. COC

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