[Aka]

I've lived down in Waterloo for about a year and a half now, and we always had an extra large blue box that we'd fill up each week. However over the past month they've stopped accepting the box and left us some paper on top stating we needed a municipality provided blue box.

Why the sudden change in policy? and what's wrong with a large recycling box? We'd fill up a normal sized box much too quickly, and we even crush things and flatten things quite well. Recently we've had to just throw out (in garbage bags) stuff we would have otherwise recycled, because they wont take our recycling.

It seems very strange they would do this, because, while the blue box they want us to use is free, it's really not, because we'd have to take x amount of time off work to get it, costing us x amount of lost dollars. And we already have a box, it's just non-standard in height.

Does anyone else have this problem? Are the guys who come to my area just douche bags?

-Aka

[Oscar The Grouch]

I'd say its a douchebag. That or he is union and in the union they aren't allowed to handle non-regulated boxes. They want you to buy a box probably because it will help raise the constrained budget revenues.

First off, was the note typed up on municipal letterhead? Was there a bylaw or policy info listed?

If neither are listed, you should contact the public works/waste disposal department at the city for an explanation and clarification.

[mo_focus]

bc a blue box is around 7-10$ each and you might need 2. So if he did that for every house they would raise so much money :D

they wont raise taxes, but they would do small things like that to raise money. sneaky bastards i tell ya!

[hardk0re]

They want us to recycle, but they make it very difficult. Which is WHY allot of people just wrapped their "recycling" in black bags.

[ZTWsquared]

hardk0re,Nov 30 2008, 11:43 AM Wrote:They want us to recycle, but they make it very difficult.  Which is WHY allot of people just wrapped their "recycling" in black bags.
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Here in Peel Region they are at least making an attempt to make it easier - we don't even have to sort our recyclables anymore (except for food that goes in the green box), and we can put stuff like cardboard in other cardboard boxes or newspapers just bundled and left by the road.

I also use blue bags - just like garbage bags except see-through blue - they hold twice as much as the box and I can use as many as I need to ... I don't even use my blue or grey boxes any more.

[Frost__2001]

if anything call and complain to the city ask them about this they might be able to help, also I know in guelph they don't use blue boxes at all, as they use nothing but bags. clear, blue, and black only.

[NefCanuck]

Playing Devil's advocate for a minute (Hey, it's what I do for a living :P) I can think of several reasons why they would want you to get an "official" recycling box.

1) Compatibility with the pickup equipment, the recycling trucks are built to accept only certain sizes and types of boxes and every non standard box slows down the run as they have to deal with the oddballs.

2) Weight, whether through a union negotiated contract or health and safety principles of the employer the workers may in fact be limited in the amount of weight they are expected to lift, again oddball containers make it harder to judge safe or non-safe.

and those are only the reasons I can think of off the top of my head...

NefCanuck

[castone]

Frost__2001,Nov 30 2008, 06:14 PM Wrote:if anything call and complain to the city ask them about this they might be able to help, also I know in guelph they don't use blue boxes at all, as they use nothing but bags. clear, blue, and black only.
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yeah in Guelph we have to sort our garbage
green bags(food and such)
clear bags(plastics)
blue bags(everything else).

I know you can pick up blue boxes in cambridge for free right behind mcdonalds on hespeler rd. I have gone there a few times.

[Aka]

I'm pretty sure the blue boxes available from the municipality are free, so it's not a money grab.

It seems I'd misunderstood, I'd not read apparently the right paper. The one I'd read said we'd put something we shouldn't into our recycling (we didn't someone else put it in our box) and since then they hadn't accepted ours.

However, Dad just tells me there was a second piece of information saying our box wouldn't fit their equipment. Which I can understand, but I do wonder what they did for the past year and a half, it's the same trucks...

[Aka]

Another question

http://www.region.waterloo.on.ca/web/regio...33;OpenDocument

this is their recycling instructions. Does that mean I can put 1-7 plastic types in my bin, or is there something I'm missing? Because if I can, that's pretty damn nice!

[NOS2Go4Me]

It's random union douchbaggery. I bought a larger recycle box for home and then another "standard" one, so now we have 3. I've taken all three to the curb on occasion and never had a problem getting it emptied.

I'd be an asshole and call the mayor's office, telling him you'll be burning all your recycling that isn't taken away and inviting the media. I bet there'll be some changes PDQ around there. I know our mayor would freak if our recycle guys didn't take stuff away.

[Aka]

Already picked up the 'standard' box today. And now that it's like everyone elses I have to label it.

Mostly unrelated... but I found a make-shift bong in our recycling bin... yay highschool nearly next door.

[Aka]

And it's been stolen already.

Great.

[OAC_Sparky]

Looks like someone got the same letter that you did, lol.

[Aka]

I put our address on everyside of it in permanent marker... it'll be out there next week. However I still need to go get another damn bin for next week. Then they can steal that one...

[Oscar The Grouch]

Aka,Dec 2 2008, 03:26 AM Wrote:And it's been stolen already.

Great.
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5 bucks says the garbage men picked it up.

[darkpuppet]

some interesting conspiracy theories around unions and such in this thread.

While I'm no big fan of unions, the strain and efforts that garbage collectors go through literally destroy their body. It's the kind of wear and tear that if they can avoid it, I'd say more power to them.

The standard size bins make life easier for them, and in theory, easier for the taxpayer. However, until everyone has the bins and the number they need, there's going to be these problems.

The majority of the problems with the new bins is the public's ignorance of them. It seems to be a lot of effort to have people actually think about their garbage instead of just tossing it out.

[Flofocus]

Aka,Dec 1 2008, 05:04 PM Wrote:I found a make-shift bong in our recycling bin[right][snapback]277500[/snapback][/right]

does it work good?

[NOS2Go4Me]

darkpuppet,Dec 2 2008, 02:04 PM Wrote:some interesting conspiracy theories around unions and such in this thread.

While I'm no big fan of unions, the strain and efforts that garbage collectors go through literally destroy their body.  It's the kind of wear and tear that if they can avoid it, I'd say more power to them.

The standard size bins make life easier for them, and in theory, easier for the taxpayer.  However, until everyone has the bins and the number they need, there's going to be these problems.

The majority of the problems with the new bins is the public's ignorance of them.  It seems to be a lot of effort to have people actually think about their garbage instead of just tossing it out.
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If they're only going to lift "standard bins", hypothetically, then additional bins should be available at a ridiculously cheap cost to the homeowner so as to encourage recycling. Homeowners shouldn't have to pay ridiculous costs, repeatedly, just to be able to have their recycling removed from the curbside.

We don't have size-mandated bins around here. Recycling gets taken away. Noone steals our bins, recycle guys do their jobs. If they're (Toronto-side or anywhere) not lifting correctly in the course of doing their work, then that's not my problem. If I don't lift a server or a printer correctly at work, I don't go after IBM or HP. I smarten the f*** up and lift s*** correctly. It shouldn't be any different anywhere else.

Oh wait... unions. :rolleyes:

[Aka]

Flofocus,Dec 3 2008, 03:10 PM Wrote:

Aka,Dec 1 2008, 05:04 PM Wrote:I found a make-shift bong in our recycling bin[right][snapback]277500[/snapback][/right]

does it work good?
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Wouldn't know, I recycled it in the new box.