Making Life Easier for Your Waste Collector and Everybody

You know, there’s a lot of people who make a community function and contribute to its appeal. I believe my neighborhood has been very fortunate because the crews that collect our trash and recyclables do great work.

One day I asked the crew that came on trash morning how things were going.

It was one of those hot mornings and the two on the back of the truck looked at me and said, “Eh, pretty good.”

I asked what made their job more difficult than it needed to be. Wow! Did that unleash their tongues? One major complaint was that people do not always follow the rules. Trash isn’t always bagged and some people use privately-owned containers that exceed 32 gallons. People also put recyclables in the trash. They also wish some people would clean out their stinky containers when they really get ripe, usually because of things not being in the bag.

I asked our Orange County recycle collector the same question. His response was similar. People place their carts incorrectly, people put their trash and other items that aren’t recyclable, people lay things next to the cart or put them on top and then get angry when they don’t pick it up.

In the greater scheme of things, these are easy to fix. Talk with our public servants. Find out what challenges they face and how we might help to help them. Oh and remember, you’ve got to roll those carts back after collection. Chapel Hill can fine you $25 per day for leaving your carts out. Some non-profit charity can use that profit a whole lot more.

— Fred Black

Fred Black hosts Non-Profit Showcase on WCHL.

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