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What in the fuck is this green bin the city just dropped off at my curb?

freyguy

By freyguy
in Daily Texan

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Guest Lobo

Guest Lobo

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Every other week, I have four trucks come through my little street-one for trash, one for recycling, one for lawn refuse/craft bags, and one for compost bin.  I pay nearly $30/month to "rent" those bins that are mandatory if I want my stuff collected.  I don't have a choice.  I can't skip the bin rental and manually walk out a few hefty bags and toss 'em into the truck myself.  Even though I already pay for the trash/recycling services with my City of Austin property taxes.  City government at its finest.  To make ends meet, my school district has to have the same bus haul the elementary school kids at 7am, then the middle school kids at 7:30am, then the high school kids at 8:00am because we don't have the budget for additional busses.  

I was also pleased to learn that the City of Austin continues to spend nearly $100,000 to maintain a ~1,500 pager platform for city employees who also carry city-issued cellular telephones.  Now that's a ballsy grift that makes the trash bins thing seem like a decoy.  

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CooterBrown

CooterBrown 18014

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The green bin should be half the size of the others. I don't think I've ever had it more than a quarter full.

On the other hand, they need to pick up recycling every fucking week.  I have a constant overflow of recycling and they refuse to pick up any boxes, even if you break them down flat as instructed, if they are not in the blue bin.  

 

 

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BradInATX

BradInATX 9208

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1 hour ago, CooterBrown said:

The green bin should be half the size of the others. I don't think I've ever had it more than a quarter full.

On the other hand, they need to pick up recycling every fucking week.  I have a constant overflow of recycling and they refuse to pick up any boxes, even if you break them down flat as instructed, if they are not in the blue bin.  

 

 

 

Pro tip - you can get more than one blue recycling container. Just call the city and they'll bring one out.

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freyguy

freyguy 4277

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I got no place to put this fucking thing.

I already have a stack of my own black cans for clippings, trimmings, etc.  They still allow you to put as many of those on the curb.  So what the fuck does this do, other than force another tax down my throat, and make me keep a can that doesn't do shit for me?

Damn I'm getting cranky at the principle of all this...

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BradInATX

BradInATX 9208

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21 minutes ago, crash_davis said:

so does the city charge for the green bin or an extra blue bin?

They didn't charge me. They told me they only charge extra for a bigger trash bin. This was probably three years ago but I had two blue bins going until we moved out of Austin last year.

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B00M

B00M 6416

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1 hour ago, CooterBrown said:

The green bin should be half the size of the others. I don't think I've ever had it more than a quarter full.

On the other hand, they need to pick up recycling every fucking week.  I have a constant overflow of recycling and they refuse to pick up any boxes, even if you break them down flat as instructed, if they are not in the blue bin.  

 

 

???

I choose a reasonably large box and use it to hold all the boxes I break down. 

From Austin recycling website:

  • Extra recyclables will be collected at no extra charge. Once your blue cart is full, place additional recyclables in a cardboard box or other reusable container next to your cart. If you would like to request an additional blue cart, free of charge, call 512-494-9400.
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SquishMitten

SquishMitten 10408

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Get a kitchen compost bin on Amazon and some green compost bags. If you make an effort, you'd be surprised how much stuff goes in the green bin rather than the trash. I rarely had less then 75% of the bin full, and I had a huge compost pile for leaves/yard stuff so it was pure kitchen/food stuff.  It's the one thing I actually miss from living in the city. On the plus side, we have recycling pickup every week.

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CooterBrown

CooterBrown 18014

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37 minutes ago, SquishMitten said:

Get a kitchen compost bin on Amazon and some green compost bags. If you make an effort, you'd be surprised how much stuff goes in the green bin rather than the trash. I rarely had less then 75% of the bin full, and I had a huge compost pile for leaves/yard stuff so it was pure kitchen/food stuff.  It's the one thing I actually miss from living in the city. On the plus side, we have recycling pickup every week.

We do the countertop compost bin. It works really well and does divert quite a bit from the trash can.  The green bin is also good for lawn clippings so you don't have to bother bagging debris.

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PantsTent

PantsTent 2002

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I'm with @freyguy. I already have my own bins for yard stuff (fuck those paper bags).  They try to sell this as a way to save on the trash bin by downsizing but then I have to go buy extra bins and bags for inside to collect it before putting in new green bin so it's probably a wash.

I suppose we can tell who lives in the 'burbs in this thread and are just getting these...

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irishtexan

irishtexan 11521

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we compost all of our food scraps. however, we've found you have to store everything in the garage freezer because if you put a full bag in the compost bin it smells fucking terrible after a few days, especially in the summer. I only use about 1.5 bags of "trash" a week.

had no idea you can put extra recyclables in a regular old household trashcan and leave it with the big blue bin, or that you could get a second blue bin for free. I've long bitched about the infrequent recycling pickup. thanks for the tips.

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ballrific

ballrific 215

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Forgot about how much I hated the city's waste services. The one thing I probably miss from Houston is the garbage service. No charge for extra bags or if your bin doesn't close all the way. CofA charged us $10 for both last month. And this will make you ragey...bulk pickup every week in htown, not once or twice a year

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Pasken

Pasken 1309

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18 hours ago, freyguy said:

city of Austin just dropped them off in our neighborhood today.  Is this another thing we inadvertently voted on but weren't told about?

Composting is now getting to the final parts of the city in the program. Bins going out for the next couple weeks.

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ChuckNorrisActionJeans

ChuckNorrisActionJeans 2678

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some oblivious motherfuckers on here....

everything that was once made from plant or animal material can go in. Even greasy pizza boxes. Food waste, etc. It goes to an actual commercial-grade composting site. Cuts down on landfill waste and makes......compost!

But do not put poop in it -- yours or anyone else's. It poo-lutes.

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CooterBrown

CooterBrown 18014

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we compost all of our food scraps. however, we've found you have to store everything in the garage freezer because if you put a full bag in the compost bin it smells fucking terrible after a few days, especially in the summer. I only use about 1.5 bags of "trash" a week.
had no idea you can put extra recyclables in a regular old household trashcan and leave it with the big blue bin, or that you could get a second blue bin for free. I've long bitched about the infrequent recycling pickup. thanks for the tips.

Get the extra blue bin. I’ve never had the recycling truck actually pick up recycling that’s not in the blue bin. Maybe my route driver just sucks.
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Guest Lobo

Guest Lobo

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Yeah, sounds like the extra curbside recycling is about 50/50 in that half the time they'll pick it up by hand and toss it in, and half the time they'll leave it there to rot.  I've got a couple of neighbors that are...how you say "robust consumers" that have two bins filled with empty boxes of shit they buy every week.  But if you live on a street where you know your neighbors, just do what we do...be a good neighbor and just throw around a text chain.  A handful of times each year...we actually have blue bin overflow so we see who has extra space in theirs.  And the other several times a year we have plenty of space, so they know they can put stuff in our bin.  After a few exchanges, no need for text...everybody just knows that if you have overflow...just go check out the Lobos, the Smiths, the Johnsons, etc. on Monday night and put in there what you need picked up on Tuesday.  No reason to pay $15/month for an extra bin...just be neighborly.  Plus always a good excuse to see somebody rummaging around your bins on Monday night, walk out with a beer to see what's going on and shoot the shit during pandemic.  Always room for a couple of beer cans in anybody's bin.  We also started a disturbing competition to see who could make the biggest compressed pile of oak brush for city pickup in January and July.  I still have cuts and blisters...those wounds run pretty deep.  I gotta hire this out next year, I'm getting old.  

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Guest Lobo

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If I wanted to doxx them, I'd talk about how I kinda, sorta think there might be a sordid swingers thing going on with a 2-3 households on this street.  But I ain't saying shit to any of the dads or my wife, but I sorta think.  Pandemic has offered up one good thing, we've all really come together as a community.  We always hung out and socialized and let the kids play like how we all grew up.  I hear stories of isolation from other friends and families but our little cul-de-sac is pretty much a sports panacea and adult booze fest several evenings a week.  But I'm getting some 'swinger' vibes from a few homes.  Maybe just boredom or we're all just over-analyzing?   I get why nobody would invite my hairy ass but the wife on the other hand...

Edited by Lobo
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swraith

swraith 347

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I have three blue recycling bins. I could get by with just 2...but I don’t pay extra for them so 3 it is.

I’m fairly certain the compost in the green bins all gets taken to the Organics by Gosh composting facility east of Austin. It’s not going to the dump.

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irishtexan

irishtexan 11521

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10 hours ago, swraith said:

I’m fairly certain the compost in the green bins all gets taken to the Organics by Gosh composting facility east of Austin. It’s not going to the dump.

I mean, I hope it's not going to the dump, and is actually being composted. Otherwise, what's the point?

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swraith

swraith 347

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https://www.organicsbygosh.com/

 

https://www.wastetodaymagazine.com/article/austin-city-council-approves-composting-contract/

Spoiler

Austin city council approved a contract to expand its curbside organics collection and composting program after a debate over how the council’s waste contracts were awarded, a report by the Austin Monitor says.

The new contract with Organics By Gosh, a composting firm in Austin run by a husband and wife, expands on a pilot program that processed organics collected at the curb from 14,300 homes at no cost to the city. The new program will service 200,000 homes by the end of the three-year contract and will cost the city $1.51 million. 

 

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freyguy

freyguy 4277

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1 hour ago, swraith said:

https://www.organicsbygosh.com/

 

https://www.wastetodaymagazine.com/article/austin-city-council-approves-composting-contract/

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Austin city council approved a contract to expand its curbside organics collection and composting program after a debate over how the council’s waste contracts were awarded, a report by the Austin Monitor says.

The new contract with Organics By Gosh, a composting firm in Austin run by a husband and wife, expands on a pilot program that processed organics collected at the curb from 14,300 homes at no cost to the city. The new program will service 200,000 homes by the end of the three-year contract and will cost the city $1.51 million. 

 

Composting for God...oh boy.

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