I recently moved from a very nice suburb of the midwest to a high-falutin' New England town that borders a dump of a city. I'm used to getting my leaves vacuumed off of the curb, any and all trash including couches and hazmat picked up, and my sidewalks plowed by a dude channeling his inner Otto Mann while he blasts around in a tracked Bombardier. All this accomplished by well paid city employees who get compensated by a very reasonable tax rate.

Now I pay almost 12k per year in property tax, a percentage of my vehicle's value every year for plates, and a fucking tithing to a douchebag governor. What do I get for those dollars you ask? Yard waste that needs to be gift wrapped in a goddamn bag for pickup, the privilege of clearing my own 300' of sidewalk or facing imprisonment, and having to pull a permit if I want to clean my gutters.

Last week my recycling bin was stuffed to the brim. I came out in the morning and recyclables were all over my tree lawn. At first I thought perhaps it spilled when the truck tried to dump it, but nope, the truck hadn't come by yet. This morning I catch this fucker waist deep in the bin rummaging. I tell him to beat it, he does. All the while mumbling about coming back. You see, the state in its infinite wisdom charges me 5 cents per can / bottle. They then hope I won't take them back. My commie neighbors think that it is our duty to separate them and leave them in a different bin for the street urchins.

SERENITY NOW!

I am not being a smart ass but why did you move?
When I lived in New Jersey it was a crime for anyone other than the town to take your recycled items. They say the materials were used to pay for the program.
We were required to recycle no exceptions. If the town recycling manager found any recyclable material in your regular trash you would first receive a warning than after that a fine.
The manager would drive around town and do spot inspection of your garbage.

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I am not being a smart ass but why did you move?

Career advancement for myself, and the wife. It's a valid question, I never would have moved here otherwise.

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Originally posted by Rev. A. J. Forsyth:

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I am not being a smart ass but why did you move?

Career advancement for myself, and the wife. It's a valid question, I never would have moved here otherwise.

Congratulations for you and your family.
I moved to Florida in 1999 and it was a huge difference from what I was used to when it came to municipal services.
In New Jersey services were much better but taxes were through the roof compared to where I live in Florida.

Here in AZ we have bulk pick up twice a year where you can leave a pile about the size of a small car on the curb and the city comes by and collects it.

Each time, without fail, the trucks and vans from God knows where arrive in the night and they rummage through the piles looking for anything they can use (sell?). That in itself would be fine but they usual make a huge mess and you have to go reorganize your pile or risk getting a fine.

I think these are the same people that ship their little miscreant kids into our area at Halloween too.

They creep through the neighborhoods here in rusted out Mazda mini-trucks pulling a trailer full of recyclable metal they've scavenged.

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I think these are the same people that ship their little miscreant kids into our area at Halloween too.

Same here, I witnessed this phenomenon last year. They trashed their 'hood, and now want to do the same to mine.

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They creep through the neighborhoods here in rusted out Mazda mini-trucks pulling a trailer full of recyclable metal they've scavenged.

Up here it's rusted out early 90s Grand Cherokees and Blazers.

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Originally posted by fiber optic:
They creep through the neighborhoods here in rusted out Mazda mini-trucks pulling a trailer full of recyclable metal they've scavenged.

There is no creeping here. You can hear them coming with their exhaust note a mile away.

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Originally posted by 71 TRUCK:
I am not being a smart ass but why did you move?
When I lived in New Jersey it was a crime for anyone other than the town to take your recycled items. They say the materials were used to pay for the program.
We were required to recycle no exceptions. If the town recycling manager found any recyclable material in your regular trash you would first receive a warning than after that a fine.
The manager would drive around town and do spot inspection of your garbage.

Interesting how that would stand up in court as long as it was placed at the curb.

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Originally posted by fiber optic:
They creep through the neighborhoods here in rusted out Mazda mini-trucks pulling a trailer full of recyclable metal they've scavenged.

I don't mind the guy that drives through our neighborhood the night before garbage pickup. He never digs through the garbage cans and leaves things back in a pile if he moves something. If I have something worthwhile for him, I put it alongside so he can see it and take it. At least he is hustling to make a spare buck or two.

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Originally posted by Black92LX:

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Originally posted by 71 TRUCK:
I am not being a smart ass but why did you move?
When I lived in New Jersey it was a crime for anyone other than the town to take your recycled items. They say the materials were used to pay for the program.
We were required to recycle no exceptions. If the town recycling manager found any recyclable material in your regular trash you would first receive a warning than after that a fine.
The manager would drive around town and do spot inspection of your garbage.

Interesting how that would stand up in court as long as it was placed at the curb.

When we lived in New Jersey we had back yard pick up of our garbage two days a week.
The inspectors would work with the trash collectors to see if any recycled materials were in the regular trash.

Back a few years, we had cats. Lots of cats soiled rotten. My wife fed them canned food, then washed out each can and lid. Then we'd recycle them at the curb. We were good citizens. But one night I was sound asleep and I heard a siren, not the kid doing 60 in my 30 zone, but a stationary one. I got up, looked outside and there was the local with his lights on, too. So I pulled on some pants and went outside. It seems some bastard decided he was a field goal kicker and did his best on the poor little green plastic tub. Cans and lids all over the street. The cop said he didn't think it was funny, but I should clean it all up. I agreed and placed them all in the normal garbage can. No reason for me to recycle if someone was going to trash the place.

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Originally posted by rtquig:

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Originally posted by fiber optic:
They creep through the neighborhoods here in rusted out Mazda mini-trucks pulling a trailer full of recyclable metal they've scavenged.

I don't mind the guy that drives through our neighborhood the night before garbage pickup. He never digs through the garbage cans and leaves things back in a pile if he moves something. If I have something worthwhile for him, I put it alongside so he can see it and take it. At least he is hustling to make a spare buck or two.

It's the bermuda triangle effect. Anything metal that goes out to the curb disappears within a few hours. I've never seen anyone actually take stuff, but I've also never seen the item still at the curb the next morning on my way to work.

The last item was a truck bed. My brother swapped his rusty one for a clean one from a yard (surprisingly easy swap). He didn't want the old one, so we pushed it to the end of the driveway. I have no clue how someone took it away, it was an 8ft bed so a standard pickup wouldn't easily manage it, it wouldn't easily fit in one of those over-crowded scrapper trailers, not to mention it took 4 people to move it. I didn't hear a sawzall or anything, it just disappeared in the night.

I was once shacked up with a chick who was the queen of yard sales. She did a couple a month and made good money.
But.... A handful yard sale browsers would cruise the sale but not buy anything.
When the sale items did not sell, the queen put the leftovers out at the curb.
Along come our browsers late at night to help themselves.
Never failed.

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Originally posted by 71 TRUCK:
I am not being a smart ass but why did you move?
When I lived in New Jersey it was a crime for anyone other than the town to take your recycled items. They say the materials were used to pay for the program.
We were required to recycle no exceptions. If the town recycling manager found any recyclable material in your regular trash you would first receive a warning than after that a fine.
The manager would drive around town and do spot inspection of your garbage.

Sounds a tad totalitarian...

Where I lived before it was usually old Chinese dudes who would search the recycling, take the cans and put the rest back in the bin.

I prefer the way my rural county does it instead of curbside recycling pickup: a centrally located roll off box we can stop by and throw all recyclable materials into without sorting or other nonsense like leaving it at the curb for people to rummage around in.

I have access to a big dumpster for 8 hours a day, four days a week. I can pretty much drop whatever I wish in it.

NO trash pick up, one has to drive to the site, but it's on the way to town.

We try to recycle but it's such a PITA that I'm happy the Wife will do it....meaning drive the other way, to Helena and drop the recyclables at THREE different locations.

Then I visit my Mom in NJ and taking out the trash almost requires a degree. A cheat sheet for sure. Papers go one day, certain recyclables another day, REAL trash a third day. It has to be packaged a certain way, etc. PITA.

Then again for the ridiculous taxes she pays at least they do come to the house.

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Then again for the ridiculous taxes she pays at least they do come to the house.

Back when the area around me actually produced goods instead of just consuming them, they would send a dude up your driveway on a Cushman and pick the trash up from your garage.