I’m really sick of coming home from work on Friday afternoons and seeing that my compost, or my recycling hasn’t been picked up. For some reason, the vast majority of the time my garbage is picked up with no problem at all, but whoever it is that picks up the compost just refuses to do it for me!
I bring my bin out on Thursday evenings, or before I leave for work in the morning before 7am, as I am instructed. I place my compost bin next to my driveway, as is expected. Problem is, the previous owners of my house used to put it in front of the house where there is no driveway, and I suppose this confuses the compost picker-uppers. I have called every couple of weeks for the last 15 months to inform them that my compost hasn’t been picked up, they apologize, and often send someone by to finally pick it up. So if they can do it when I call to remind them, why can’t they pick it up on the day it’s assigned to be picked up? Last summer my compost was full to the brim and covered in maggots because the truck didn’t pick it up for literally weeks. I do NOT want that to happen again, and I’d also appreciate not having to call every week.
After calling numerous times about it, I even asked if what I was doing was correct, and was informed that I was doing everything correctly. I never get a sticker on my cart for having the wrong stuff in my bin, they just drive right past it and don’t pick it up. Every. Goddamn. Week. —Thank God I’m Moving Soon
This article appears in Jul 7-13, 2011.
fyi, they pick up greencarts every week during the summer
Yes, I am aware. I actually had to inform the HRM call centre woman of that when I called yesterday because she said “Last week wasn’t compost week for you” when, in fact, it was, because weekly pick up had just started that week.
next time, stay home, wait to see them coming, and push cart right in front of truck and ask if they will miss it next time.
Why not just be proactive and push your cart out to the front?
Because the proper place to put your green cart is beside your driveway, and as I am doing what I am required to do, it is up to the people picking up the carts to do their part of the job too. Nobody else is required to drag their cart around the block in order to get garbage service, so why should I be? Especially when they can pick up the garbage most of the time, so it’s clearly within their abilities to complete their half of the deal.
OP, where do your neighbors put their green carts?
Tyey put their green carts at the end of their driveways.
Here’s the thing, I live on a corner lot. I’m a bit of an anomaly in that my driveway faces one street and my house faces another. Everyone else around me has driveways that face the same way as their house. I didn’t build it like that, my house was built 60-odd years ago.