To the editor:
In this space last week Warren Corman called for the exercise of some common sense in the way we manage our trash (as have others, though not in so many words); I heartily second the motion.
Similar to Warren, our 25-year-old, 30-gallon, $9.99 trash can is on track to outlast us and, like him and many others, we recycle at Walmart, compost everything (we do not send our garbage to the sewer treatment plant) and we use all our yard waste as mulch, kindling or firewood. Our can is set out for pickup no more than 20 times a year (so why would we want to pay monthly rent on an even larger cart?) We have no space to accommodate a 45-gallon cart — much less two of them — and the idea of the city spending $1 million on 22,000 carts (thus sending the existing 22,000 cans like ours to the landfill) is profligate in the extreme.
Everyone compares this “Great Recession” to the Great Depression; well, having experienced the latter (though not quite as much of it as Warren), I can assure you that we didn’t weather it by spending, rather by exercising common-sense frugality. We are still exercising it and we highly recommend it to other individuals, institutions and governments.
Comments
wounded_soldier 1 year, 6 months ago
Perfectly worded and the right thoughts. I third the motion.
skinny 1 year, 6 months ago
I forth the motion!
merrill 1 year, 6 months ago
Bill's letter is hard to speak against however most trash cans do not last a lifetime. It is the principle of the matter.
The receptacles that the city offers or similar ones can be purchased online or maybe through the local hardware stores. Animals do not get into these as easy.
Keep our solid waste pick up local.
If one wants to see the benefit of a beautiful recycled yard waste yard check out the yard of Bill Mitchell near KU.
Then again one might want to check out the beautiful yard waste wildscaped yard at Oak Hill and Prairie in the Brookcreek neighborhood.
Then again I am an advocate for Pay As You Throw. Not only would the big users pay their fair share it would likely encourage recycling. Keep recycling pick up vendors local!
Ron Holzwarth 1 year, 6 months ago
"The receptacles that the city offers or similar ones can be purchased online or maybe through the local hardware stores."
They would have to be almost exactly identical in order for the mechanized systems that actually do the heavy work of lifting them will work.
It's very difficult for me to imagine that it would be worthwhile to buy one online, considering the shipping cost for something that large, and the fact
Ron Holzwarth 1 year, 6 months ago
that I was told the cost is only $72 for the trash cart in the 90s. (whoops!)
pizzapete 1 year, 6 months ago
Totally agree.
parrothead8 1 year, 6 months ago
I'm on board with Bill.
oneeye_wilbur 1 year, 6 months ago
Mr. Mitchell should know full well by now that the University intellects are the very reason for the nonsense at City Hall. Educated idjits!
Mr. Mitchell, they want your money!
KansasConscience 1 year, 6 months ago
Let's see. Carts lead to faster and more efficient pickup. Isn't this better? Carts are dumped by a mechanized means, so the men working the trucks aren't forced to lift 50+ pound bags and cans. This leads to fewer injuries and lower workman's comp costs, which is good, right? Or, don't you want fewer injuries. Carts are covered and heavy enough so they seldom tip over. Regular cans are prone to tipping, thus spilling waste all over the yard (and your neighbors'). Bags placed in the open are easily torn open, which leads to the same thing. Not to mention both of them being susceptible to dogs and other animals (lions, tigers and bears and oh my). You can leave your cart outside, so the garbage doesn't smell in your garage.
@Bill Mitchell. Granted, you feel your existing can is on track to outlast you. I commend that. However, look at your surrounding neighborhood. Are other cans as well-cared for as yours? Will they live as long? Do they spill trash where yours doesn't?
We have one of those carts. It works great for us. We don't always fill it, but it's there if we need it. We've also noticed that since we've had ours, several people in our neighbor have gotten one also.
@oneeye. You said, "Mr. Mitchell should know full well by now that the University intellects are the very reason for the nonsense at City Hall." This is the same thing as saying, "Everybody knows..." Of what intellects do you speak and are you so sure they have their fingers in City Hall as deeply as you think they do? Your expletive, "Educated idjits!," implies you scoff at education, which further implies you aren't educated, can't be educated, don't/didn't want to be educated or any number of things. I pity you for that kind of attitude; an attitude that belies other comments such as, "If you're so poor, why don't you get an education and better yourself."
pizzapete 1 year, 6 months ago
It may be more efficient, but so what? Why should I have to rent a cart at $5 a month? I would be willing to buy a new cart for $20, but I shouldn't have to rent anything. Having us rent a cart is a total scam, we'll all be paying in rent 100 times what the cart is worth in just a few short years.
sunny 1 year, 6 months ago
Forcing us to 'buy' something. Hmmmm It's wrong on all levels. Most that are against the city forcing them to buy a simple trash can are in favor of the govt forcing Americans to 'buy health coverage'.
Ron Holzwarth 1 year, 6 months ago
"Forcing us to 'buy' something."
Car insurance and property taxes so that city services are available are the first things to come to mind.
Ron Holzwarth 1 year, 6 months ago
I just now learned something! When you click post, what is actually posted is NOT what is in the "Comment preview"!
Instead, what is posted is what is in the "Edit comment" box below it!
Ron Holzwarth 1 year, 6 months ago
Maybe the letter writer has a point. He could stand beside the curb waiting for the city trash truck to show up, and then he could heave his "25-year-old, 30-gallon, $9.99 trash can" way up and into the truck himself while the workers that would otherwise pull the lever to do it watch him heaving his own trash.
(But I wonder if he is tall enough to do it, he is going to need to lift it what, about 10 feet?)
And, since his "25-year-old, 30-gallon, $9.99 trash can" is on track to outlast him, he can hopefully look forward to many years of waiting beside the curb to get his exercise!
FlintlockRifle 1 year, 6 months ago
We like Mr. Bill (sorry) havn't room to store these critters, maybe the city will build me a shed at no extra cost to store these babys in---yew I will hold my breath
pace 1 year, 6 months ago
I don't store my container inside a shed , just put it by the compost bin in the back yard. Then roll it out where the crew hooks it up to the truck and dumps it. I use the small one. I wish I could put my recyclable in one rather than driving them across town, I don't have a lot of recyclables, mostly paper but I only go to Walmart once or twice a year, but I am not a big shopper. I do appreciate Walmart and 12th. st. for recycling, I appreciate drop off sites, but I would appreciate curbside collection more. Curbside collection makes the most sense for the most homes and life styles. If the world was designed around me, there wouldn't be any liquor stores. I am blessed by living in an older well treed neighborhood, There is wild life. I like the bin the city provides, it is easy to use, It is a safer cleaner system to use the carts. Curbside collection of recyclables would keep a lot of usable materials out of our trash, sent down the road to a landfill. Curbside collection makes the most sense to me. I don't like the idea we should invest our future based in the theory we want to hold on to our old cans, old system. I am not afraid of change, I am afraid of not changing when it makes sense.
oneeye_wilbur 1 year, 6 months ago
Why not have local businesses advertise on the carts and then give them away to shoppers.
A trash cart advertising Cramwell Solar, a trash cart advertising haircuts by "you know who" and a cart advertising bbbq pulled pork and a nice fancy cart adveristing finanancialservices. This way the local business foot the bill and the residents of Lawrence get the cart "free".
Will curbside be any more efficient at a cost than the current program to repair streets is, for example which everyone is paying for? And the benefits are yet to be determined after the next heavy snow and melting and thawing?
what the city will need to do is pass an ordiance describing how long the cart may be visible in neighborhoods and make certain that no more than two unrelated carts may be at curb at any given time.
The City Commission is taking up this issue because it is easy to force upon the public as opposed to dealing with governing and operation of the city and attracting new businesses.
Another classic example of an issue that will be studied to death and the end result will not be any better than the current operation.
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