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Garbage and recycling changes start today

Posted by Geeky Swedes on March 30th, 2009

Don’t forget that all the new recycling and yard waste changes start today, and that your collection day may have changed. You should have received a notice in the mail with your collection day listed on the label, and the garbage collectors should have placed a collection day sticker on your garbage can. You can also check online here.

Yard waste will now be picked up every week, and you can put food scraps such as meat, fish, bones, shells, cheese and dairy products into your yard waste carts. You also can recycle a ton more stuff than before, including paper and plastic cups, deli trays, aluminum foil, plastic plant pots and lids that are at least three inches in diameter. And you can put glass right into the main recycling cart instead of separating it. For more information, click here.

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  • angstadt
    And we all get to pay twice as much for all this green-ness.

    Thanks, Nickels. I can't wait for the next election.
  • Ep
    angstadt = Hater
  • elenchos
    I can't figure out all the wingers who are so eager to remove Greg Nickels. Do they not realize that every candidate with any chance of defeating him is further to the left?
  • priviledges
    wahhh! I have to pay for my own filth.
    pity me. must be the mayor's fault.
  • bmvaughn
    I'm all for this if I actually finally get a clean green bin which the city has yet to provide. Until then, into the trash it goes!
  • Goofy Norwegian
    I e-mailed the address given by the city trying to find out if/when there'll be another system where we have a truck delivering smaller bins for weekly food waste. The response was a keeper. I can't wait for the "free" health care too soon. I guess they "allow" a one time change, but in the summer the large 1 is fine for grass/food scraps, but during the other times a smaller unit would be much better. Anybody else out there got one of those smaller cart thingees, and if so, who'd ya talk to? She's right when she tells us the other contenders are farther to the left!
  • foo
    I'm more than happy to pay more for this - I've cut my garbage amount by 50% with all the new recycling and yard waste options, and hope to move to the micro-can for garbage soon. So it will end up costing me about the same after this change. Friends in other cities would KILL to have our services! They have to drive their recycling etc in their OWN CARS to the dump. Now that's not pleasant - or good for the environment, and you can't even recycle much there, just newspapers and cardboard and glass bottles.
  • AmyJ
    Goofy -- would you post the response? I find that response perplexing as they bill a different rate for the 96 gal. can v. the 13 gal. can -- and I doubt they'd be interested in keeping track of which gallon can you put out so they can bill your account correctly.

    I can understand how this is a difficult transition for people who have not had to subscribe (and pay) for yard waste service.

    You will be amazed at how much kitchen scraps/food waste fills your can.
  • Long Timer
    Just got my micro trash can delivered last week. We've been doing the veg & fruit food scraps for awhile but adding all the other stuff put us right where we need to be. We line our kitchen trash can with brown paper grocery bags, this week our kitchen trash totaled a whole 1/2 bag !!! We didn't even fill a micro can. I remember before 'clean green' & recycling bins when I used to put out 2 - 3 trash cans a week, 1/2 of it yard waste. There are 2 adults, 2 dogs in the household. The dogs matter because dog poop is still garbage.

    This is so cool !
  • mary
    We've used a micro-can and the largest yard waste for a while now. We only fill up the yard waste when we garden, the food-waste part is miniscule for us. Does anyone know how much more a month this new weekly service is in comparison to the bi-weekly?
  • John
    I don't see how someone can complain about having to pay people to come to your house and get rid of all the shit you produce over the course of a week. It just magically vanishes and you don't ever have to deal with it anymore. THAT MAKES ME SO ANGRY!!!
  • b-lite
    In other cities where I have lived, including most recently Denver, garbage pick up is included in your property taxes and property taxes are much lower than here. So based on my experience, paying separately for a service other cities provide without extra fees is a rip off, especially when the fees keep creeping up.
  • gooner
    does anyone know if i can still use my glass recycle bin?

    some weeks, if i add in my glass recycling, the current bins are going to be too small and i would prefer to keep using my glass recycling bin if i can.
  • Ballardian
    MARY: Pricewise I believe what we used to pay
    for the bi-weekly 96 gallon container
    (5.35 per mo) is about
    what you'll pay for the 32 gallon container
    and the 96 gal will be 6.90. The 13 gal minimum food
    scrap container is 3:60 if I remember right
    Prices are on the link in the article

    Gooner: Not sure about using your old glass bin
    I had mine out there a few weeks ago and I think the
    same guy who brought me a new micro-can for garbage
    -mine was damaged- apparently just took it.
    If you wanna keep it I suggest a big Duct tape label of some kind
  • chopper_74
    Apparently, because i was resistant to the change in service, my garbage collection has not changed.
    Long live Allied Waste...and thanks guys ;-)
    btw, since day one, I have requested compost collection, because I saw it as a way to reduce my footprint, and be more responsible to the community. Waste Management did not have that option then, for commercial collection, and Allied did, tho, as it wasn't exactly allowed by the city, we've been 'covert' in that area. A lot of times, doing the right thing isn't easy. The city, I believe , is why we have an extra trillion tons of waste coming out of this city.
    Yeah, love the MC Cheese. (double, with bacon)
  • chopper_74
    oh, about fifteen years ago, at my home in King County, gave me a recycle bin, in addition to the one I'd used for years. This bin came with a doubling of my bill.
    (ok, separate trash, good thing. Double my bill for my effort? Bad thing.)
    I canceled the recycle bin, and took my recycling to post commercial fiber international, and made enough cash to pay my trash bill.
    I wonder why the city's trash collection isn't as 'cash neutral' as mine was?
    I'll let the 'pointy headed' folks figure that out.
    Good luck....
  • Nubbee
    They took the trash from the front of my place, missed the recycling. Which was overflowing.

    Thanks.
  • foo
    SIGH. They never came for the recycling bin, which all their new literature told me would be picked up from my house yesterday. Like Nubbee, mine was full to overflowing. Calling today when I get a break from work....
  • Edog
    @ 17 Yes, it appears that they've used this an a opportunity to skip recycling collection for a few weeks.
  • angstadt
    They failed tp pick up recycling this week -- everyone on my block has overflowing recycling bins, and bundles of flattened cardbord, all sitting out in the rain. Nice job, morons.

    So, going over 3 weeks without recycling, and paying almost twice as much for the "service" - nice improvement. Thanks, Mayor Gridlock!

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