I belong to a local online group that basically serves as a sort of news update and notice board for our entire "greater town" area. It's pretty comprehensive, given that close to 60% of all households in the area use it at least once a year.
Anyway, I have noticed that over the last few months there has been an increase in the number of people to moan and groan and complain about there being "large trash" sitting at the side of the road that allegedly is not particularly useful yet has been put out there by the property owner with a "FREE" sign.
Quite a few of the people making complaints keep asking the basic question "why don't they just take it to the dump like they're supposed to?"
But what's noteworthy about this trend is that about a year ago the local dump and recycling center upped the minimum haul fee from $5.00 to $20.00 for garden waste and for garbage from $10.00 to $25.00.
It doesn't take a degree in rocket science to figure out that a lot of people just aren't willing to pay that much money to dump off their old sofa or an office table and a couple of chairs, so instead they put them out on the curbside with a "free" sign and hope that somebody else will find a use for them.
In a sense, this is a good example of how actions can have unforeseen consequences. The original intent was that the increase in fees would increase revenues for our dump — which is not particularly viable, financially — but it's effective consequences has been that many people will not pay that much money to dump larger items, so they put them out on the road, so now we're having the unforeseen consequence that there is more large litter at the side of the road.
Without a doubt, this is also an indication of just how much or how little the local economy is able/willing to support.
Of course we live in a part of the world where it often rains, so that recliner people put out on a nice sunny day becomes a moldy mess nobody wants, shortly after it has been raining for a few days.
Personally, I'm not opposed to people putting tuff out with "free" signs, and I have even done a fair bit of "free diving" over the decades.
One of the other ways the dump price increases have manifested has to do with people's yard waste. It used to be a really good deal that you could take a truckload of yard waste over to the dump to add to be composted and it only cost $5.00. Now the cost is $20.00.
When this first was announced I predicted that one of the unforeseen results would be the more people would save up their garden waste, and simply have a backyard trash fire — which is actually illegal around here — and that has held up to be exactly true.
In a typical year, we would take about 20-25 pickup loads of garden waste (mostly weeds, rotten branches, blackberry vines and such) to the dump which would cost $100 to $125 annually. Under the current scheme that would set us back between $400-$500 and, like many people, I'm just not willing to pay that much money. What's more we can't actually afford to pay that much money.
Whereas I keep trying to minimize waste volume, we still end up with a bunch of "noxious" greenery that's neither good for slow composting or burning. And now it's just piling up. Likely, I will just end up soaking it and then throwing a black tarp over in in late spring in hopes of "cooking" the contents into oblivion with the help of the sun.
Not everybody will be quite so diligent, I fear.
Thanks for stopping by, and have a great rest of your week!
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Created at 2024.12.16 18:58 PST
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