I’ve never seen anything offering a choice. I assume it’s part of the town’s contract with the trash company. I’m sure it’s on the town’s web site somewhere. They pick up trash and recycling (don’t have to do anything to the recycle other than put them in the correct bin) once a week, regardless of holidays and such. Once a month they have “big trash” day – we put stuff out over the weekend, they pick it up some time during the week. The restrictions are simple and obvious – amount is “about what you could fit in the bed of a pickup truck”, no hazardous stuff, and anything with doors (appliances, furniture) needs the doors disabled or securely locked or something (I put a fridge out once, and I just took the door off). Bigger stuff, or hazardous stuff, you can deliver yourself, or call and arrange a pickup. As town governments go, they do all right.
Gladstone tried to “city-fy” the trash pickup about 5 years ago. Whoo, you’ve never seen so many senior citizens (and others, like us) up in arms about taking away their ability to choose their trash company. The city people said that there were too many trucks on our roads and they could get a good price by negotiating for the whole city (of something like 40,000). The residents said screw you, take care of our roads and stop griping, and we think competition will take care of the prices. The city people came back with a deal from some company waaaay down south (so the “green” factor didn’t really play out) and the price was more than most residents were already paying. Ultimately the residents won after some very contentious meetings (one of which Terry Kimball Crooks attended). Now we have a choice of about 5 different services and our prices are rock bottom, and the service from the companies is top notch because they know a simple phone call is all it takes to switch. I like where we ended up.
How many kids are you getting rid of??
2 long-beds worth.
Town of Gilbert comes and picks up our junk once a month. If you have special junk, you can call and make arrangements. Pretty handy.
Is that part of their contract with the trash company? Do you get a trash company choice or do you have to use the city one?
I’ve never seen anything offering a choice. I assume it’s part of the town’s contract with the trash company. I’m sure it’s on the town’s web site somewhere. They pick up trash and recycling (don’t have to do anything to the recycle other than put them in the correct bin) once a week, regardless of holidays and such. Once a month they have “big trash” day – we put stuff out over the weekend, they pick it up some time during the week. The restrictions are simple and obvious – amount is “about what you could fit in the bed of a pickup truck”, no hazardous stuff, and anything with doors (appliances, furniture) needs the doors disabled or securely locked or something (I put a fridge out once, and I just took the door off). Bigger stuff, or hazardous stuff, you can deliver yourself, or call and arrange a pickup. As town governments go, they do all right.
Gladstone tried to “city-fy” the trash pickup about 5 years ago. Whoo, you’ve never seen so many senior citizens (and others, like us) up in arms about taking away their ability to choose their trash company. The city people said that there were too many trucks on our roads and they could get a good price by negotiating for the whole city (of something like 40,000). The residents said screw you, take care of our roads and stop griping, and we think competition will take care of the prices. The city people came back with a deal from some company waaaay down south (so the “green” factor didn’t really play out) and the price was more than most residents were already paying. Ultimately the residents won after some very contentious meetings (one of which Terry Kimball Crooks attended). Now we have a choice of about 5 different services and our prices are rock bottom, and the service from the companies is top notch because they know a simple phone call is all it takes to switch. I like where we ended up.
I just kinda like to keep government out of as much as possible.
Open competition in a free market is almost always the best choice.