Blackhawk wrote: ↑Tue Sep 20, 2022 10:53 am
Our local trash won't pick up large items. Have a coffee table to throw away? That's a trip to the city dump and a $40 fee.
Wow--there's a fee to use the dump?
Our local trash/recycling center is a ten-minute drive away, and it's free. Just pull up and toss your trash or recycling into the correct truck. (This is in addition to the weekly neighborhood pickup, of course.) They do ask to look at your license to see that you live in Philadelphia.
We also have scrappers in the area. If you put out something metal (chair, an old appliance, bedframe, etc) on trash day, it'll be grabbed by a scrapper who has scheduled their own route to stay ahead of the city truck.
It's all by municipality here. The way the local DPW works is dictated in part by your property taxes. I get weekly pickup of garbage of up to 80 gallons, bi weekly no sort recycling of up to 80 gallons, and weekly lawn refuse from spring to autumn. I have rules to follow. As example, electronics cannot be thrown away the county will provide recycling days three times a year for them, which is about 3 - 5 hour wait. No sort does not recycle glass. Appliances will only be taken if you call and get a tag. This used to be a $50 fee but that went away. Etc... You need to learn the rules though I suspect many don't follow them. My parents in the next county, in a rural municipality, have to drive their trash to a dump and pay for disposal by the unit. (Oddly enough they still have to pay Ann Arbor property taxes, even as they don't get the services in their township. That makes no sense to me)
We also have scrappers in the area. If you put out something metal (chair, an old appliance, bedframe, etc) on trash day, it'll be grabbed by a scrapper who has scheduled their own route to stay ahead of the city truck.
This is very true here as well. I got a fridge to my lawn to be tagged and removed and a scrapper took it before I got the tag slapped on it.
Last edited by LordMortis on Tue Sep 20, 2022 4:51 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Holman wrote: ↑Tue Sep 20, 2022 4:34 pm
Wow--there's a fee to use the dump?
It's the same in Sopranoland. You're either paying for municipal pickup and paying via your local property taxes -or- you need to contract with a private hauler and pay their annual fee for pickup and transport. There's also facilities in each county where you can take items neither service will pickup (microwaves, computers, cans of paint, etc...) but you're going to pay a flat fee either by weight or related to the hazardous nature of the item.
We're allowed to put out one large item per week, such as furniture, an appliance, a mattress, etc., but not hazardous stuff like TVs. And yeah, sometimes scrappers haul it away early.
YellowKing wrote: ↑Tue Sep 20, 2022 9:35 am
The sheer joy of saying "Nah I don't need this anymore" and then being able to walk five feet to the driveway and just chunk it was indescribable.
I would love to rent a dumpster before we move but my wife would rather attempt to keep things out of the landfill through attempting to find new homes for our stuff. I don't think our stuff is that good.
YellowKing wrote: ↑Tue Sep 20, 2022 9:35 am
The sheer joy of saying "Nah I don't need this anymore" and then being able to walk five feet to the driveway and just chunk it was indescribable.
I would love to rent a dumpster before we move but my wife would rather attempt to keep things out of the landfill through attempting to find new homes for our stuff. I don't think our stuff is that good.
You'd be surprised.
When we moved into the new house 5 years ago, I vowed to not bring a single thing except personal belongings from the old house to the new.
After a couple of garage sales and some posts on Offerup, we managed to get rid of virtually everything.
You just have to keep in mind that any amount you get for stuff you were going to dump is a bonus and price things accordingly.
I have stuff I'd give away for free, and I've tried a few years back (mostly through Freecycle). I hate clutter, and I have random things - anything from dishes to network routers - that are perfectly good, I just either have too many of or will never have use for. I'm way too lazy and antisocial to do a garage sale, though...
Garage sales, freecycle, really cheap Facebook marketplace, and donations to charities all still involve me doing a lot of sorting and carting around of stuff. I'd rather trash it and not spend the energy. The calculus might change if I found a charity that took just about everything that matched my values but I don't like Goodwill or the Salvation Army.
When we moved a few years back, they were the only charity that would take furniture. We gave them enough furniture to fill a two car garage - dining room set, futon, sleeper couch, dressers, china hutch, etc.... it was absolutely bonkers the stuff they were willing to take. Could not give it away to anyone and it would have cost me hundreds of dollars to pay someone to haul it to the dump. I know this because the guy I tried to get to do it was in estate sales and he said no one wants this stuff anymore so he ends up just tossing it all. It was beyond depressing and I can only hope someone somewhere is actually getting legit use out of what we donated.
All the other stuff we couldn't move? That went into a 30 yard roll-off dumpster. Would recommend downsizing, but yeah...stressful.
A few years ago we moved into a new house and brought in my in-laws to live with us. This involved keeping, selling, and disposing of the contents of three other fully-furnished houses (one in Philadelphia, one in Brooklyn, and one on Long Island). At one point we owned twelve beds, five living-room couches, four dining-room tables, etc. I think we had a hundred dining plates of various sizes.
We kept enough for the new house and tried our best to use charities for most of the rest. (Selling items one-by-one on Craigslist or wherever wasn't worth the effort and didn't fit our accelerated schedule.) We were fortunate that all of the buyers for the other houses were young families interested in adopting at least some of the major furnishings.
The rest we donated, although I think we still have enough plates, pots, glasses, and flatware stored in the basement for whichever child first moves out to set up their own household.
By calling the alderbeing, they use discretionary ward funds allocated for troubleshooting local issues like trash cleanup and rat control. Say the magic categories where they have control, and you get help. Tree removal is contracted out and so there’s usually no way to get expedited. Pothole removal is a hot line (which you can have neighbors spam). But trash and rats are on their radar because we’re close to the river and CTA rail — both critter highways.
We also get noticed, so they call us come election season. Usually to ask about the level of neighborhood support or to put up a sign.
"If the facts don't fit the theory, change the facts." - Albert Einstein "I don't stand by anything." - Trump “Bad men need nothing more to compass their ends, than that good men should look on and do nothing.” - John Stuart Mill, Inaugural Address Delivered to the University of St Andrews, 2/1/1867 “It is the impractical things in this tumultuous hell-scape of a world that matter most. A book, a name, chicken soup. They help us remember that, even in our darkest hour, life is still to be savored.” - Poe, Altered Carbon
I have to pay for garbage pickup from whatever area provider I choose (Waste Management as they bought my first and second providers and I don't think I can get cheaper).
$386.25 for the year (I pay for the full year, get a discount; and I call to complain about the crazy price increases every year, usually get anywhere from $40-$100 or so knocked off the bill). 96 gallon can for garbage (picked up once a week) and 64 gallon recycling (every other week).
Used to get 1/quarter free big item pick up. I was not good about taking advantage of it before they quite doing it, so now I demolish crap and put it in my can piece by piece as we have room for it.
Working on getting rid of a desk and a dresser and bits of the wooden bed (the one I was told to break more pieces and send photos so I could get a refund w/o having to return it - pretty sure I posted about that in another thread). Got the little pieces done, bigger pieces are going to require some effort to take apart. Then the recliner and desk chair (wheelie office chair that's broken down).
Groot became our trash collector recently, and now apparently we need to buy stickers for things that do not fit into the trash bins. I am not pleased with Groot.
I wish I could somehow send all our unwanted stuff to Daehawk to sell.
Wife also likes to find alternatives to the landfill, and I hate to scrap anything that's useful and has value to someone else. But re-homing stuff takes a lot of effort, even to give it away. So we don't get rid of much.
We call the Vietnam Veterans of America for pickups a few times a year, but they mostly want clothes and books.
Kraken wrote: ↑Tue Sep 20, 2022 9:50 pm
I wish I could somehow send all our unwanted stuff to Daehawk to sell.
Wife also likes to find alternatives to the landfill, and I hate to scrap anything that's useful and has value to someone else. But re-homing stuff takes a lot of effort, even to give it away. So we don't get rid of much.
We call the Vietnam Veterans of America for pickups a few times a year, but they mostly want clothes and books.
Uber does trucking now. Maybe you can use them to send a shitload of crap his way?
Kraken wrote: ↑Tue Sep 20, 2022 9:50 pm
I wish I could somehow send all our unwanted stuff to Daehawk to sell.
Wife also likes to find alternatives to the landfill, and I hate to scrap anything that's useful and has value to someone else. But re-homing stuff takes a lot of effort, even to give it away. So we don't get rid of much.
We call the Vietnam Veterans of America for pickups a few times a year, but they mostly want clothes and books.
Uber does trucking now. Maybe you can use them to send a shitload of crap his way?
I won't rule that out (if he wants to deal with it). Of course, that will require us to sort the wheat from the chaff, which realistically we won't do until we have to because we're both too busy and lazy. I wouldn't send him junk, just things that have some value. I could fill a U-Haul trailer with random objects of middling value.
The last time I ever had a yard sale, I had people haggling with me over 25 cents on a shirt I probably paid $50 for. That's when I realized the whole thing was bullshit and I'd seriously rather throw the shirt in the trash than deal with that nonsense.
<DUH>
Posted about my trash situation, but forgot the relevant/mildly entertaining part.
One time I put my trash out (the night before pick, always, too big for critters to knock over in the yard), came out to get the can the next day, can was gone. Checked with Waste Management to see if for some reason they took the can away. Nope.
Someone just stole my trash can full of trash. A rather sizeable 96 gallon can that was fairly full. Think they took the recycling bin too (that was originally just bin, maybe the size of a laundry basket, this was the point they replaced it with the 64 gallon thing).
I was dumbfounded that someone would steal a full trash can. I can guess maybe they wanted to sort through my trash for identity theft or something, but I'd think they'd just take a bag or two discreetly for that. Waste Management suggested someone might have stolen it to use it (there's a rental charge for the trash can, like $2/month - but since they don't complain whatever I do with it and it's optimized for their trucks and they hated the ones I had before (as did we because they were smaller, coons/other critters knocked them over fairly frequently), I'm fine with paying for it as part of the package). They said it wouldn't work because they'd check out the cans when the people tried to get service.
Whatever, never heard more about it and that was well before covid. If it was identify theft, must not have found anything useful as 5+ years later, no impact on credit rating/report.
Our trash and recycling bins have serial numbers. If one of mine went missing, I'd expect the town to send an army of inspectors to find it. They'd probably try to buy me off with new bins but I would insist on justice. Death to trash thieves!
Kraken wrote: ↑Wed Sep 21, 2022 12:38 am
Our trash and recycling bins have serial numbers. If one of mine went missing, I'd expect the town to send an army of inspectors to find it. They'd probably try to buy me off with new bins but I would insist on justice. Death to trash thieves!
Yeah, I think serial numbers was why WM thought whoever stole mine were not going to have much success.
Holman wrote: ↑Tue Sep 20, 2022 8:29 pm
A few years ago we moved into a new house and brought in my in-laws to live with us.
Luckily it isn't quite that bad for us. Mostly its just one household that has expanded to fill space moving to a smaller house 600 miles away and coordinating it with my MIL's move to the same area. She just move out of our finished basement into a 2 bedroom apartment. She could be ready to move again in two weeks and I'm sure she could find a senior friendly apartment for independent living pretty easily in Philly. We on the other hand have all the issues of finding a walkable, transit friendly, small yard house in the Philly area without breaking the bank while trying to get rid of stuff prior to the move.
stimpy wrote: ↑Tue Sep 20, 2022 3:30 pm*This is a disclaimer.
In no way am I comparing the migrant problem to the rat problem. Nor am I equating migrants to rats.
Nor is it meant to bring politics into this thread. It's merely an attempt at humor. Not that I'm laughing at the migrant or rat problem.
I added a smiley emoji to emphasis my intention to make a funny. If anyone is offended by my post, I am deeply sorry and I hope this disclaimer brings you some sense of solice.
OK you got me.
I was happy to see Detroit not in the top 5, knowing how many rat advisories there have been in recent years in the metro area. I even had a blight notice posted on my door and was asked to no longer compost, though I've never had a rat problem. Woodchuck, mice, and friggen squirrells, yes. Rats, never seen signs of one. (I don't mind the bunnies). Then I clicked on the link...
What Detroit rats lack in numbers they make up for in size. Detroit rats are freaking huge.
And I'd argue that the reason Chicago is number one is because we have some dedicated census takers.
Biking through Chicago’s gritty alleys has long been an act of defiance for young people, said Alex Wilson, an early Rat Patrol member. The crew started in the late ’90s when roommates Matt “The Rat” Bergstrom and Nathan Tolzmann would night bike in alleys, “challenging each other for who can spot the most rats,” Wilson said.
“Rat Patrol changed my life,” Coyote said. “I was in high school when I found out I could hang with a bunch of anarchists who live for free and have the time of their lives making things out of garbage. They’re super punk rock. And it’s a community.”
" Hey OP, listen to my advice alright." -Tha General "No scientific discovery is named after its original discoverer." -Stigler's Law of Eponymy, discovered by Robert K. Merton MYT
Spent the weekend in Chicago staying at a very nice (and expensive) hotel in The Loop. First night there while walking to a nearby bar we saw a parade of rats scurrying across a parking lot. Drunk girl nearby called them "cute".
I can't remember if I shared this when it happened, but a few years ago my wife went outside on the deck to put food out for the neighbor's outside cat Lily who would come over to visit from time to time.
Lily happened to be there waiting, so my wife was sitting there softly petting her while she ate. All of a sudden I hear a bloodcurdling scream coming from outside, and my wife runs in the house, terrified, screaming "I PETTED A POSSUM! I PETTED A POSSUM!"
My wife did not have her glasses on, and apparently "Lily" was in fact a baby possum who was probably extremely freaked out that a human was gently petting him while he gorged on cat food. She didn't realize it until he started walking off and she saw the tail.
It always reminded me of that Adventures in Babysitting scene.
The wife LOVES possums, even though her nickname for them is "Bitey".
She puts food out nightly for the local ones.
Me? I think they are one of the ugliest things on Earth
We have opossums that nest in our attic every year, and routinely have to live trap them and haul them away to less us-inhabited areas. During the brief time, Michelle or the kids invariably name them. We had one named Bitey as well.
Blackhawk wrote: ↑Wed Sep 21, 2022 1:40 pm
We have opossums that nest in our attic every year, and routinely have to live trap them and haul them away to less us-inhabited areas. During the brief time, Michelle or the kids invariably name them. We had one named Bitey as well.
Probably the same one. How many possums go by Bitey?
Blackhawk wrote: ↑Wed Sep 21, 2022 1:40 pm
We have opossums that nest in our attic every year, and routinely have to live trap them and haul them away to less us-inhabited areas. During the brief time, Michelle or the kids invariably name them. We had one named Bitey as well.
Probably the same one. How many possums go by Bitey?
stimpy wrote: ↑Wed Sep 21, 2022 1:31 pm
Me? I think they are one of the ugliest things on Earth
I think most people would agree with you. They really are ugly but not quite so ugly they're cute.
That sound of the spoon scraping over the can ribbing as you corral the last ravioli or two is the signal that a great treat is coming. It's the washboard solo in God's own
bluegrass band of comfort food. - LawBeefaroni
stimpy wrote: ↑Wed Sep 21, 2022 1:31 pm
Me? I think they are one of the ugliest things on Earth
I think most people would agree with you. They really are ugly but not quite so ugly they're cute.
Only recently did I learn that Possums and Opossums are not the same animal. They are not all that closely related.
Actual Possums are flat-coated and with furry tails and live in the Australian part of the world and look like fat wingless bats. There are cute Australian animals, but these are pretty low on that list.
If you're in North America, you have Opossums, although most of your older relatives probably call them Possums. These are the ones with the fur-less tails and the fluffy grey coats and the long noses.
IMHO, Opossums are cute, especially in their waddling-across-the-lawn mode. They only really get ugly in their hissing-from-the-bottom-of-your-garbage-can mode.
I had never really internalized how lucky I am in my neck of the woods to have nothing that really tries to get into the trash. I can throw trash away all week long into the can with impunity, and there are no bears, raccoons or opossums to disturb it.
We used to have possums, but in the last few years with more development around us there doesn’t seem to be many in our area. I had a family of them raised under a concrete planter I have. My last dog, a 100lb black lab hated them. They would use the fences like a highway and go from yard to yard looking for dog/cat food or vegetables.
