Sorry for the lagged reply, was out camping on a lake for the weekend. I suppose I won't mention the diesel cost to get out there (still can't quite fit toddler camping gear in the car, but we're getting closer - once she's on an air mattress, it should be doable for shorter trips).
We've debated this too. Our number one issue is that we don't want bears habituated to garbage anywhere around us.
We don't have bears - we have the occasional pesky wildlife (ok, a lot of it), but no bears, not really much in the way of raccoons, and generally it should be fine.
The concern is the stink, which I think can be attacked with a well sealed trailer and keeping the food waste out of the stream. The kid diapers at night are occasionally messy, but mostly just wet (she's in cloth most of the time, but we can't get a cloth to hold up overnight, so she's in a size larger disposable at night).
Luckily we are living the high life (lol) and using DH's work dumpster for free (with permission).
Definitely not an option for me - the dump is closer than work. ;) I work remote, so my actual coworkers are quite a few hundred miles away.
We have one friend in Idaho using an old box truck for his trash hauler. He's had bear issues though.
Northern Idaho, I'd guess? You have to be in the forested mountains for bears to be an issue. I'm down in the southwest corner, so mostly high desert. Bears simply aren't a thing here.
I think you're missing it. $7 in diesel probably means I wouldn't call your dump local at all.
Well, good for you. You're obviously not living out where I am. It's about the same distance to the dump as to a Home Depot, or a Costco. So... yeah, reasonable enough for me. Especially if I combine trips.
It's about 30 miles round trip to the dump and back, and the truck gets... oh, 13-15mpg, depending on wind and speed (if there's no traffic I back off and cruise at 45 for fuel ecnoomy). I consider that perfectly reasonable for where I live (can't hit any neighbors with a baseball, amazing views, family right near by). Yes, I spend a bit more on diesel than someone living in a city, and I'm fine with the tradeoffs. The laughably small amount I spent on my house compared to other areas pays for an awful lot...
My vote (given the information) is to keep paying the service at least for now if it is your only alternative. I don't value my time as high as some, but that seems like it'd be well worth the money in this instance. I'm assuming if your local dump is that far and there is no trash service, you're not paying taxes for trash service or a transfer station, which is usually baked into a higher mil rate in larger towns.
Correct. My option is the trash service I have (with no recycling), or hauling my own. Property taxes have nothing to do with trash service out here.
You're looking at multiple year payback on a trailer, to allow your trash to collect for weeks to months? After 2 years you're still looking at ONLY $150/year savings. I'd pay $150/yr not to have to go that far out of my way and do dump runs, and let my trash collect and smell, even if I didn't make that much trash.
Pretty much, yes. $1500/decade for a few hours of my time a year seems sane to me. I intend to live here the rest of my life, and stuff doesn't rust (super dry). So, payback of the trailer in 2 years and 40-50 years of saving money. Yes, trailers last 50 years out here. My inlaws run all sorts of stuff from the 60s and 70s around, and it's just fine.
None of this takes into account the trailer itself. I've looked (within a year) in LCOL areas for trailers. The ones in the price range you mentioned sucked where I live. The harbor freight ones also sucked. You're assuming almost no maintenance, but that may not be the case.
I'm looking at a pickup bed trailer with a camper shell/topper/canopy/(whatever you call that fiberglass thing). There's no brakes (I'm not concerned about that given my tow vehicle), the tires can be used scrap rubbish from the used tire places (super cheap), and there's pretty much nothing else to them. If the axle craps out, I replace it with a junkyard truck axle, which is also basically the cost of scrap metal. I'd rather have one of those than a HF trailer - the HF trailers are quite rubbish.
Plus, if I find the right one, I've got a gas tank I can plumb up, toss a battery in, and have a fuel tanker as well. I go through enough fuel on the property (most of my personal transport is on a sidecar motorcycle rig) that having another 30-50 gallons of storage would be useful to me. And, in the winter, that will fuel the tractor I clear snow with.
Now, if you want a trailer anyway and don't mind the stench and maggots that's a different story, but it seems like you're talking about it just being used for trash.
I am. It would be a dedicated trash trailer.
The mustachian answer is to become a no waste household - limit what comes in to the household to what you can dispose of on site (composting, and there are gardening uses for cardboard as long as you are careful with where the inky stuff goes) or send to recycling.
That would be nice, though "to recycling" also requires hauling it myself. The one trash service that offered mixed recycling (which made the bulk of our waste volume) stopped handling my road about a year ago, so I'm down to "trash service." And, as noted, paying a good bit for it.
Also, you could start campaigning locally for a cardboard recycling service. Given the amount of stuff people have delivered these days, the figures to make this financially viable probably stack up now when they might not have in the past. And if you are that keen on hauling waste, you might even be able to make it a side hustle yourself.
It's really not a very dense area. And the point here is to not make regular trips to haul trash/recycling.
My plan, at the moment (with wife-support, who actually thinks I'm sort of silly for having trash service out here and has said so since we moved), is a pickup bed trailer with a camper shell, split down the middle with some plywood. Toss trash on one side, cardboard on the other, and haul it when full (or full enough). I can hold my breath and shovel trash into the dump easily enough. Or poke it with a stick from the windows.
