More Trash In The News

Trash and Recycling is once again in the news with the Times Standard making it their headline story today. Mandatory garbage service rears its ugly head. One source is quoted as saying something along the line of, all it will take is for one city to take the lead and others will follow. I've always hated that monkey see- monkey do type of thinking. Most seem to think it won't happen anytime soon, at least for a year, though.

I find it interesting that they start off saying they're trying to get more garbage recycled and less going to landfills to meet State requirements and then go on to say they to collect more trash. Although they say recycling is included in mandatory trash pick up proposals, how's that gonna work? I suspect most people who don't recycle now will likely still throw their recyclables in the trash. They need to filter out the recyclables at the end of the cycle. I know when I go to City Garbage in Eureka, I see all sorts of recyclables in the regular trash pile. They used to have employees that would go through the trash as people dumped and remove recyclables. I knew one of the guys that did it and he said they'd get cash for the recyclables in addition to their hourly wage (I think). He said he came out pretty good rummaging through the trash. Maybe they should start that again, although I know it would be expensive.

Cost is always a consideration, as well. Looks like mandatory service would make garbage pick up more expensive for most folks. That kinda burns me up. I pay like $15.00 a month for one 20(?) gallon container pick up a week. That 20 gallon container is more than enough for the garbage we generate from this household. I think it's a bargain. I'd hate to have to pay more just because somebody with "do something disease" wants to screw up something that works well enough. Oh well. At least we don't have to worry about paying more for trash pick up for a year, at the least. We've got heating and gasoline bills to worry about now.

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This E- machines computer isn't too bad once I got DSL installed on it. Still drives me nuts, though. I got two independent diagnosis of the problem with my good computer: My power supply burned out and needs to be replaced. Cool. At least the problem is fixable. Hopefully I can get it fixed in the next two weeks.