Saturday, February 18, 2012

All about Garbage and Pinterest

I was out and about on Friday and one of the places I went to was our Municipal Offices to pay for my garage sale table.

As I was talking to the lady we got on about garbage pick up.  There was an article in our local paper saying that the Township is going to hand over garbage pick up to County at the beginning of 2013.  They will be limiting our garbage to one bag per week, and as we get garbage pick up every other week, that will mean two bags per pick up  So far so good as far as I am concerned.

However the other requirement will be that we HAVE to put our garbage in a large clear plastic bag.  No more of the regular black garbage bags.  From what this lady was saying they need to see what you put in your garbage bags.  So as I have a white kitchen garbage bag in my kitchen bin, I will have to tip it out of that and tip the contents in the clear bag, instead of just dumping everything; bag and all in the clear bag without emptying the contents.  I don't get it? I don't see why this is a must?

I know we are fortunate that we have garbage pick up as we live in the countryside.  I recycle whatever I can, and I make sure I follow all the rules required for our garbage pick up.  But this seems just plain silly to me?

Do you have garbage pick up  If so how much garbage are you allowed to put out weekly?  Do you recycle and does the municipality pick that up?

So is anyone into Pinterest?  I'll be honest with you I don't get it.  Dd MADE me join and patiently spent at least an hour on the phone walking me through it.  Truthfully I still don't understand it and can't really see the point of it, but DD is determined to drag me into the modern age regardless.  I have the same problem with Facebook, I don't get that either and if anyone is my friend on Facebook, I am a boring friend as I never post on there.  I use Facebook for entering competitions and that's about it.

32 comments:

JohnD said...

We are 'in town' - we have 2 Sulo bins - a 250 litre for recyclables - plastic bottles, glass (unbroken), cans, paper and cardboard - NO GREEN WASTE - this must go to the composting station and they charge you by the trailer load - $8AUS.

That's a fortnightly kerbside pick-up.

Then we have a 200 litre general household waste - NO PAINT CANS, OIL, MOTOR PARTS, etc - and that's a weekly kerbside pickup.

Waste collection is charged for in our general rates - can't recall how much but around $200AUS p.a.

Angela said...

Garbage - here in my corner of Leicestershire we have THREE wheelie bins [regular, paper and garden refuse] two flip top bins [foil&cans&plastics, and glass] and two more official [supplied] bags for textiles and batteries.We have a weekly collection - but regular is weekly, flipbins and paper fortnightly, garden, textiles ans batteries monthly.
Are you following all this? I have to check each Wednesday to see which bins my neighbour has Put out cos he ALWAYS gets it right!
Having said that, I admire their efficiency in sorting and recycling like this.

Having spent Tuesday night and Wednesday morning sorting my rubbish, I do not have time to get involved with Pinterest - which LOOKS jolly pretty, but I suspect is a great time waster

weekend blessings x

Fran said...

At the house we have a weekly rubbish collection (no limit) they also collect the recycle box (glass, tins, foil etc) and the recycled paper/cardboard bin. Here in the boatyard we have a big rubbish bin with separate bins for tins, glass, paper etc. However I quite often fish stuff out of the bins to use up at the allotment! Xxx

Valerie said...

I can't comment on the garbage situation - ours is okay in the UK. However, I did look at the link to Pinterest and agree with you. What IS the point? There was one for making cleansers to remove make-up, supposedly a cheaper way. By the time she'd bought all the products she was probably spending even more money. Like you say, I don't get it.

Cindy@NorthofWiarton said...

I love Pinterest, Gill, much better then Stumbleupon. Good topic to blog about, I will include it in mine today along with an excellent explanation link a friend shared just yesterday on facebook. You might enjoy as a hands-on visual. I much prefer and do much better with visuals, hands-on & one on one learning myself. Enjoy the day !

Maggie said...

Gill, i don't 'get' Pintrest either, so your not on your own.

We get our rubbish collection once a week still, and we are given enough black bags to last the year, anything you use over that you have to provide yourself. We are limited to 3 bags per household, i think you are allowed extra bags if you have small children, for nappies etc. We do have a re-cycling collection every two weeks, but it's only for paper, glass and cans, no cardboard or plastic. Other boroughs have different arrangements, some have large wheelie bins and more re-cycling options, for waste food. I must admit i hope our council doesn't follow that option, i don't want a garden full of wheelie bins!

Clint Baker said...

Just do like they did in a town down this way. Everybody in the town took their trash one morning and sat it a town hall. A few weeks later they increased the bags to 5.

Debby said...

I'm with you on the pintrest deal, my girls want me to join in but so many I have talked to say they spend hours on the boards pinning things. I don't have the time to spend hours looking at stuff to buy, I have enough stuff as it is. Facebook I do a bit, it's a great way for me to keep up with photo's of friends who are far away children and grands. Your garbage pick up seems crazy to me as well. Maybe they are trying to track who is recycling and who is not. We have 3 bins on wheels, garbage, yard waste, recycables we put to the road once a week. Most of the time I don't need to put but the garbage out. They all have a chip in them so the county can track the anount you throw out, just another goverment intrusion it seems to me

Nancy said...

Gil -- I can't imagine being told how I can package my garbage, but I don't live in the city. We have a large dumpster that gets picked up twice a month and we can literally put anything we want in it. :)

As far as Pinterest, I think of it as a place to get inspiration and to save things I like and want to remember from the web. That's all. I don't use it often, but I have gotten some great ideas from it.

Kaisievic said...

We have a small wheelie bin pick up once a week and a green bin once a fortnight and a paper/glass recycle bin once a fortnight. But with a family of six, it is never quite enough.

I am not sure what Pinterest is, but I am on FB.

hugs, Kaye xoxox

Dc said...

We get a weekly general rubbish pick up (and have no more than 2 small pedal bin bags in it), and a fortnightly recycle and garden rubbish pick up. The first two are 'free' paid through our annual taxes, the garden bin we have to pay for annually. Apparently, we are supposed to be moving up to a fortnightly general pick up but as they are planning on doubling the size of bin to accommodate this, can't really see how it is going to encourage people to recycle!

DeniseinVA said...

Before we moved into our present house, we rented a year after our move from California. There was no trash pick-up in that area, and we hauled our own trash to the dump. When we moved here I was thrilled to find that we had three trash days and four pick-ups. One day for just trash, one day for yard debris and one day for both recycling and trash.

Other half just told me he has recently joined Pinterest. Don't know much about it yet.

I am also on Facebook but thinking of getting as don't even like it very much and never post. Good way of keeping in touch with son though. None of the friends my age are on it, were but got off faster than I did as it left them cold too.

Christy said...

At home (Eastern ON) we have to pay for every bag of garbage we put out. Recycling is free.
At the cottage I believe the bags that go to the dump need be clear. They want to see that you are not throwing recyclables into the garbage.

EG CameraGirl said...

Yes, we have garbage pickup and we are allowed 2 large bags every two weeks (eg. one bag a week but it's picked up every other week). We also have recycling EVERY week and food waste EVERY week. We use the recycling every week but not the food waste as we are vegetarian so can compost all our veggies.

I guess the clear bags means the county doesn't trust everyone to do what they are told. Hmmm. I'm thinking the county has a reason to believe that. ;)

I don't get Facebook either, Gill. I have an account for the same reason you do.

As for Pinterest, I have browsed a couple of times. I look forward to hearing what you think about it once you've belonged for a whole. :))

The Witch said...

Gill,
We have a excellent garage and recycle program. Ours is a cart system one green for compost and the other black for waste. The carts are dumped on alternate weeks so really nothing ever piles up. The recyclables are placed in a clear blue bag which are picked up once a month. This includes papers,can's,plastic containers and plastic bags which have to be placed in separate blue bags. They also have Spring and Fall clean-up days which are for extra yard waste and junk. You see a lot of bikes going out on these junk days which is very sad to me. Some I have saved and given to others who want one for around the cottage.
The cost for this is $199.85 a year on our tax bill.
You can also drop off your recyclables if you find they are really gathering up for no charge at your local waste facility along with paints,tires,propane tanks and just about anything else though there is weight charges for some items like appliances etc.
Facebook I don't use and I have never tried Pinterest.

Evelyn said...

I don't get pinterest either. i do fb when I have time.
garbage pick up-no limit to number of bags, weekly pickup (how can anyone with a family limit to one bag a week?) we have recyling once a month, I use clear bags for that but sometimes I have 10-15 bags full1 plastic, cans, paper. I have teenagers and go through alot. wish they made it weekly not monthly

Evelyn said...

gill I think i have you on fb, will have to check

Jane and Chris said...

Two bags per week,textiles twice per year,containers and paper alternate weeks. Bags out at 7am (not overnight)so the animals don't eat the garbage.
I don't do Facebook and I can't see the point in Pinterest.
That's me...boring.
Jane x

Piece by Piece said...

I am in a city, where we have weekly pick up of garbage. Two green/black garbage bags is the limit per week. If we have more than two we have to buy tags to put on the bags. The "green bin" is compost, this is picked up every other week. I don't have a lot because I have a compost bin in my garden. On the opposite week of the green bin, we have pick up of the "blue" box which contains paper and a "grey" box which contains cans and glass, which have to be washed and labels removed. There are exceptions as to what can be put into these contains, but to much info to put here.

If packaging was reduced on a lot of products, we would not be having this dicussion.
Patricia

Meri said...

Garbage..pet peeve around here. We have to pay $40 a month to the recycle guy. Its a program we can't opt out of. Stuff must be in the blue bags, we only have maybe 1-2 bags a month so the fee is pretty high.

Pinterest has my interest because its visual. I hate FB and twitter but do like that you can see something that may have caught your interest. Its like flipping throuh a magazine with out having to own the magizine. I can share items with family members and friends and they get the "Picture".

Anonymous said...

I live in an apartment...tote my garbage out to the dumpster...where a garbage truck comes and dumps the dumpster...it costs me a nominal amount each month to pay for my fair share of the garbage pick up!

Some of my Facebook friends got me started on Pinterest! I had hoped that I'd be able to keep in touch with "old" friends (on Facebook) from where I lived before moving to Florida. Some of the younger ones have proved to be easy to connect with! Actually I keep in better touch (on FB) with internet friends I made back in the late 1990s. And I friend I hadn't talked to in almost 30 years found me and we keep in touch on FB (more her daughter than her).

Pinterest...more fun than playing computer games...I've been "collecting" cobalt blue/turquoise and it's very calming and practically mindless! LOL

chksnowqueen said...

We are allotted garbage tags (stickers) paid for through our taxes that must be placed on each bag put out weekly (about 56 of them for the year). No limit on how many you put out each week, but when you are out of tags, they are $2 each to purchase more. They carry over from year to year and we always have many leftover. There are only the two of us though.

No charge for curbside pick-up of recyclable goods in blue and black plastic bins; paper, cardboard, glass, metal, and some plastics.

Have been on Pinterest a few times, but see it as a huge frittering away of time. Not my cup of tea.

Christine

Evelyn said...

I think there should be a limit based on number of people in a household, for example a family of 7 will generate more garbage then a single person. thankfully there is no limit here as to how many I can put out or you would see me in the wee hours of the morning sneaking them into other peoples piles

simplicityinthemaking said...

We here in the boonies of Ontario get garbage pick up once every two weeks, which gets bumped when Monday is a stat holiday ( this week). I am allowed one bag per pick-up and must tag anything beyond that at $2.50 per bag, tags from the township office. We do have weekly recycling of just about everything. We don't have a problem with the system because we remember hulling garbage once a month to the dump and paying for the trip and the load. Now it is easier. We have less then one bag every two weeks, a family of five.

megan blogs said...

At my old location, we had weekly trash and recycle pick-ups, although when we first moved there, there were no recycling pick-ups, then once a fortnight. We were also allowed to burn our trash, which a few of the farmers did. The farms gave way to housing developments, and kerbside trash pick-up mandatory, with homeowner's trash hauler of choice.

In my current location, nearly everyone takes his own trash to the dump. All trash must be placed in special yellow plastic bags, the 'pay as you throw' programme. Recycling is free, so the more one recycles, the fewer yellow trash bags one needs.

I have a compost bin so compost garbage, i recycle everything that i can, and used kitty litter is the main component in my yellow trash bags.

I've not heard of Pinterest. I do use facebook to keep in touch with some friends and acquaintances, although i don't post anything really personal there.

megan

Karine said...

Clear plastic garbage bags and nothing else? I find that to be a silly rule as well! I live in the city, so we get garbage pick-u; twice a week, as much as we want. I just bring my stuff down to the garage and dump it in the bins and then the superintendent takes care of hauling it out to the cub. Our building has four big black garbage bins and three big green recycling bins and I recycle way more than I throw out!

Jane said...

City dweller here, except for when I'm in PEI and then witch's comment goes for me too as she lives on PEI. So far in the city we have no bag limits. Happily they've just expanded the recycling program to include a lot of stuff not included before. Still waiting for compost recycling. I like Pinterest for recipes, craft ideas and home decor. Facebook I use occasionally - a lot of my friends use it so I try to catch up once in a while.

~Kim at Golden Pines~ said...

We have trash pick up and are allowed one big wheeled container a week. We hardly fill it, because my husband really feel strongly that we should recycle everything we can, so we do. But the trash complan charges us EXTRA to pick it up--Isn't that really ridiculous?? We don't pay for it, my husband takes it in--He's good like that....

As far as Pinterest--I saw that you were following me...I looked and saw you didn't have any 'pins.' I have to admit that I like it. I love the recipes that I've found, and have tried a few. There are also some good ideas for things for the home too. But I do have to agree, it's a little mindless, but there are times I just need to sit and veg and it works for me--But that's just me.

Kim said...

We have a 3 bags limit every 2 wks. We have a weekly blue & green bin pickup. We do not have to use the clear bag, but they want to implement them so they can see that ppl really are recycling eveything they are supposed to.

I am on Pinterest and absolutely LOVE it! It is so addicting. If you click DIY & Crafts, you will see so many great ideas. I even post my own blog there and increase traffic. It is a virtual pin (cork) board for all those things you see online and want to try.

Anonymous said...

I wonder why they need to see the contents of the garbage? We have a 2 container limit here but i don't think its enforced ... I see TONS of people putting out more then that. If we had to buy garbage tags Im sure people would follow the rules. Maybe one day!

Rose said...

We pay for our own garbage pick-up--are allowed 6 big bags per WEEK--the big black plastic bags. We could probably go a month on that.
Our garbage men will also pick up about anything we put out there, except are not allowed to pick up leaves, tree limbs, etc...but the city picks those up.

I do not recycle, as it would cost more than it is wort to take it some place to recyle...that was on the southend of a town hear us...about a 40 minute drive one way.

If we had a place here in town to deliver it, I would recycle though.

Rose said...

I meant to say...I don't make a good facebook friend either...and I for sure don't get being 'friends' with people I don't know nor have ever heard of....and I am not going to be.

I have looked at Pinterest and just don't really have any desire to join. At least with Facebook I can see that for some...they make contact with friends they have not seen or heard from in years.

{{{SIGH}}}

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