Dumb Neighbor wants to ruin cheap trash

Where I live the trash companies do not have a monopoly.

We have several choices from different local and national companies.
They are all fighting for our service.

I have Waste management. I pay 50 bucks a quarter and I have two gigantic bins (96 gallons)
They pick up every week. I have a long driveway and they get out and push the bins to our house.
Our trash rates have gone down every single year because of the fierce competition.

(I wish we had this with internet providers. One company basically has a monopoly out here and they suck and are expensive.)

So anyways, this neighbor thinks we have too many different trash companies in and out and is trying to get our village to "contract" with just one!
What!! Can you believe this idiot! So much for free market. How can people actually think this is a good thing? This is how all good things come to an end!

a reply to: JAGStorm

A town close to me does the same thing.
They put out a call for bids and choose one for a contract.
Not sure if it keeps the costs down or not.

But I do know that the latest company is doing a terrible job with trash not getting picked up for weeks.

originally posted by: JAGStorm
Where I live the trash companies do not have a monopoly.

We have several choices from different local and national companies.
They are all fighting for our service.

I have Waste management. I pay 50 bucks a quarter and I have two gigantic bins (96 gallons)
They pick up every week. I have a long driveway and they get out and push the bins to our house.
Our trash rates have gone down every single year because of the fierce competition.

(I wish we had this with internet providers. One company basically has a monopoly out here and they suck and are expensive.)

So anyways, this neighbor thinks we have too many different trash companies in and out and is trying to get our village to "contract" with just one!
What!! Can you believe this idiot! So much for free market. How can people actually think this is a good thing? This is how all good things come to an end!

Going with one provider might actually lower costs. The different companies will bid to win the business which drives down costs. In addition, the contract will come up regularly for review.

The best you may find on your own might be Waste Management at $200/yr. However, a competitor (or maybe even Waste Management) might agree to $175/yr if they are guaranteed the contract for the town.

a reply to: JAGStorm

Ya said neighbor seems like a bumpkin. I would say tell them about how the market works but they are your neighbor.
Kinda a pickle I guess.
That sucks dude......good luck
And also good on the workers that bring your cans back up your driveway. Very cool of them to do so.
They deserve a nice cool lemonade for doing that.

originally posted by: Bluntone22
a reply to: JAGStorm

A town close to me does the same thing.
They put out a call for bids and choose one for a contract.
Not sure if it keeps the costs down or not.

But I do know that the latest company is doing a terrible job with trash not getting picked up for weeks.

noooooooooo!!! I really hope that doesn't happen here. The thing I'm worried about is the one they will probably pick is the local company that is terrible. They have horrible trucks that litter everywhere.
One of them parked right by my driveway. I went out and told him if they park there they need to pick up the garbage that comes out. He said that the trucks don't let garbage out and right there a gust of wind blew some garbage out. He stopped parking there.

originally posted by: Allaroundyou
a reply to: JAGStorm

Ya said neighbor seems like a bumpkin. I would say tell them about how the market works but they are your neighbor.
Kinda a pickle I guess.
That sucks dude......good luck
And also good on the workers that bring your cans back up your driveway. Very cool of them to do so.
They deserve a nice cool lemonade for doing that.

Luckily not a close neighbor. I love all the neighbors that live next to me, they are great. The guy I'm talking about is a pill, another neighbor tried to explain free market to him.

I give my garbage men a big tip at Xmas, I think that encourages them to bring the cans back. I notice they don't do it for the neighbors. $$$ talks

a reply to: Edumakated

Going with one provider might actually lower costs. The different companies will bid to win the business which drives down costs. In addition, the contract will come up regularly for review.

That is ALWAYS that argument they used. Let's put it this way. I've lived all over, seriously all over the US. This is the first place that did not contract garbage and it is by far the cheapest, by a lot.
Somehow when contracts get involved there are kickbacks that the public doesn't see. HOAs do that crap all the time.
Then everyone gets stuck paying very high garbage, water, cable etc with zero choice.

Sometimes it isn't about money either. Maybe someone really likes how their service is working etc, now the choice is taken away.

originally posted by: Allaroundyou
a reply to: JAGStorm

Ya said neighbor seems like a bumpkin

No he didn't, read the O.P.

a reply to: JAGStorm

god, sometimes I think... you folk live in a completely different world.. a world where milk in your coffee doesn't exist, it's all these creamers.. where you eat biscuits with gravy, which to us sounds disgusting.. arnott's milk arrowroot and gravy is.. well, eugh.. and you all run around like sons of anarchy if you live in missouri.

And then there's things like this.. You have to pay someone, some company, to take your rubbish away.

It's all part and parcel here. Unless we live in whoop whoop 200 miles beyond the black stump. Every week, we get our bins collected.. twice a year, we get our large bads collected (old fridges, televisions, used nuclear reactors) and we get our garden things, like trees and trees bits less than 3m collected..

Man I'm glad I live in the best country on the planet..

*shines brilliantly, despite being out of beer and alone*

PS: that guy sounds like a dick.. if he had one, someone should kick him in it..

a reply to: gallop

I stopped listening when you said biscuits and gravy sound disgusting. It is food from the Gods!


You are not getting trash taken away for free. Somebody is paying. Either through taxes/fees etc. It's all an illusion.

originally posted by: JAGStorm
a reply to: gallop

I stopped listening when you said biscuits and gravy sound disgusting. It is food from the Gods!


You are not getting trash taken away for free. Somebody is paying. Either through taxes/fees etc. It's all an illusion.

Biscuits go in MILK !!!

I never said we get it taken away for free, I said it's part of the parcel. We pay rates. We do pay for it, but it's guaranteed.

a reply to: gallop

Biscuits go in MILK !!!

They sure do, Biscuits in pepper milk gravy!!! mmmm mmm so good you would slap yo mama!


We also have another trash option here that some farmers use, burn it!

We pay $65 a quarter here in MI. Cheap enough, but still costs more up here than it did in FL for single-homes (ironically, everything else is cheap here but garbage collection, which is double with the free market up here)

$260 a year in MI kinda feels like a jacked up rate when my single-home neighbors back in FL paid $130 to the sanitation department (Hillsborough County, FL versus Kent County, MI) They really do get a better contract deal than I do a "freedom of choice" deal.

I lived in a condo, so I don't know what the building paid for their service compared to apartment building collection up here. I can't even guesstimate on that one.

I'd say just don't jump to conclusions about cost & definitely don't throw the baby out with the bathwater. Municipal contracts can end up saving you a TON of money for garbage collection. Get involved heavily, and make sure the bids are same as or less than what you pay now per household before any real choices are made.

a reply to: gallop

where you eat biscuits with gravy, which to us sounds disgusting.

Can't knock it till you try it. Not all biscuits and gravy are created equally, and yes some are sub par... But a nicely browned and buttered biscuit with the right seasoned gravy is divine, and will also cure a whole host of ailments.

Someone is forgetting that "biscuits" in the U.K. are cookies...
In the U.S., "biscuits" are a bread, that is wonderful in gravy!
Two completely different things...

a reply to: Nyiah

Florida had awesome trash service. I love that they picked up twice a week.

originally posted by: gallop
Man I'm glad I live in the best country on the planet..

England?

originally posted by: JAGStorm
a reply to: Nyiah

Florida had awesome trash service. I love that they picked up twice a week.

Florida Man generates a lot of trash, has to be picked up more frequently than the rest of the country's does.

originally posted by: recrisp
Someone is forgetting that "biscuits" in the U.K. are cookies...
In the U.S., "biscuits" are a bread, that is wonderful in gravy!
Two completely different things...

Pour sausage gravy on a goddamned cookie and I'd probably eat it. I've heard that excuse before, but I think the real problem is nobody outside of the US understands the glory that is gravy.

a reply to: burdman30ott6

Um, I think Canada does. Don't they put it on everything? LOL

Yeah, I'm out in the country in MI, and we used to have a choice on waste removal. Then Granger actually bought up one of our independents.
Bye Bye choice.
65.00 a quarter now. I don't even fill up the bin most weeks, as we do burn our paper and boxes.