When we moved into our first home in 1998, the city trash pickup was scheduled for twice a week and heavy trash pickup  every Friday.   Over the years, the trash pickup schedule continued to change for the worse and I wonder if it’s a result of the sub prime mess and possibly tax revenue collection.

A few years after we lived in our neighborhood, we got notice that trash pick up would change to every Friday with heavy trash pickup every Friday.  A couple of years after that, we got notice that trash pickup was still every Friday but now heavy trash pickup would be every other Friday.   A few years after that, we got notice that trash pickup would be every Tuesday with heavy trash pickup the last Friday of the month.

So we went from heavy trash pickup every Friday to every other Friday to the last Friday of the month and our regular trash pickup from twice a week to once a week.

The city now offers alternative services such as: take your own trash to the landfill; buy an extra trashcan (w/ monthly fee); other paid services.

The city has now sent out notice that they may offer heavy trash pickup for a fee and may soon change heavy trash pickup to every other month.   Needless to say, we now get to see heavy trash (branches, bags of leaves/grass, occasional fridge or water heater) sit out in our neighborhood every once in a while.    I don’t blame the residents either because if the last Friday happens to fall on a holiday then the schedule gets all out of whack and it takes 3 weeks for the cycle to renew again!

Ironically, the cost of water & sewer services along with our property tax bill has continued to go up with service level and quality of life continuing to go down.    Now that we are potentially in the market for a new home, we are factoring in garbage collection schedule as a key component of what we’d like to have with our new home.

Ultimately, we may simply opt for something like this company for trash collection services if I can find my way of not paying the city bill for the same service.  It’s given me an idea to maybe create something called a “trashpod” where we drop off a large pod (container) that can be filled up with trash then hauled away by a pod collector (The Pod Harvestor 3000).

Anyone interested in creating the TrashPod 3000?  Ideally, the trashpod would have compartments for recyclable material too!