The Money Mustache Community
Learning, Sharing, and Teaching => Ask a Mustachian => Topic started by: abhe8 on June 10, 2014, 09:42:03 PM
-
we live in the county, so we have private trash pick up and it seems expensive. do I have any other options? FWIW, we dont' have much trash (for a family of 6), usually 1/2 to 1 big black bag per week. we recycle paper/cardboard/plastic/glass/metal in the next town over.
eta; we pay $18 per month
-
No clue if this applies where you live, but every county around here has multiple convenience centers/compactor sites/whatever they want to call it to drop off trash, recycling, electronics, oil, etc. You just have to haul it yourself.
-
If your allowed take it to the dumpster at work. Ask the right person and get permission. Lots of people I know do. I don't cuz of stinking and messingup my car, they commute in pickups so I think I'm still far ahead.
-
I'm outside city limits and would have to pay for a trash service if I did not take it to a convenience center myself. It really is ridiculously easy. I double bag everything so there is no "trash juice" in my car and then drive it about 5 miles every 2 weeks. Just google the state and county you live in for solid waste and I'm sure you will find a place to take your trash. It really isn't nasty either, you just pitch your bags in a dumpster and you are done!
-
I have friends who take their own trash to the landfill in a Prius. Their technique involves:
--Cloth diapering, so none of those around. (My kids wear disposables when we travel and I always feel really bad throwing a diaper in their trash, knowing they will have to take it to the dump.)
--Recycling everything that can be recycled--not sure if they have this picked up or not. They live in an "inner suburb" type area.
--Composing all vegetable scraps.
--Freezing meat scraps--of which they are very few--so they don't go bad and stink.
-
Check your county website for convenient centers if you're interested in dropping off. Also, Google for trash service by your ZIP Code and see if there any competitors to the service you're using. Generally, there are. If googling doesn't work, watch the ends of your neighbors driveways for a week and see what their trash cans say. That's how I found my company. For what it's worth we pay a cost similar to what you pay, $54 every three months.