A Question That’s Bothering Me
on 08.09.06, 01:09pm in life • comments (13)
Last night, I was in the garage putting some things in the recycle bin and doing some general cleanup when noticed a horrific smell from one of the cans.
Which leads me to the question: How do you throw out a garbage can?
I mean, if I put the can out, will the garbage guys just take it, or do I need to put a sign on the can that says "throw me away". I asked Liz, and she just laughed at me.
Phil Weber (August 9, 2006 @ 1:41 pm)
That’s actually an old George Carlin bit.
Steve (August 9, 2006 @ 8:33 pm)
Is it really? Too funny.
DWAnderson (August 9, 2006 @ 9:23 pm)
I just did this yesterday. I attached a sign to the trash cans saying they were being thrown away. Worked like a charm!
David Brabant (August 10, 2006 @ 1:03 am)
That’s an easy one. You just put it in a BIGGER garbage can. Which, of course, force us to think about an interesting philosophical question: doesn’t that “strategy” recursively leads to a garbage can size inflation? Isn’t the Universe the ultimate garbage can?
Grover Saunders (August 10, 2006 @ 7:31 am)
My parents bought us one of those gigantic square cans on wheels for christmas (TANGENT ALERT: Is anyone else baffled by how expensive trash cans are? Holy crap!) and our old small round can still sits behind it for this exact reason. I’m too lazy to make a sign, but I know if I just stick it up there, it won’t get taken. I think I’ll just leave it behind when I move.
Beau (August 10, 2006 @ 7:52 am)
A couple years ago, my now-ex wife bought a couple new fancy garbage cans. Problem was, they were not the kind/size apparently approved by Rabanco, so they wouldn’t pick up trash that was left in them.
So, I was left with trash cans that I couldn’t return (they were used once), and to this day haven’t been able to throw away because they are too big to fit inside the “approved” cans that Rabanco will service.
I still have those f*cking useless cans.
Beau
Kevin P (August 10, 2006 @ 6:26 pm)
Garbage collection? Ah, yes… reminds me of my LISP days…
hvac (August 11, 2006 @ 1:28 am)
Poor Geeks!
Three ways that are all fail-safe.
1. and 2. take a quick click photo and put it on craigslist in the free area, say it will be on the street at Your Street number then leave it on the curb with a sign saying “Free Please Take”! You will be amazed how well this works, CG folks will take anything! Really
3. Is actually a secret and not known to most Geeks, but I’ll share. There is a place called the city dump, or the dumps for short, you pay a small fee and it’s gone. Oh you have to take it there, they don’t pick up.
Cody (August 30, 2006 @ 7:15 am)
You can also cut the can up (a well employed axe) or crush it (a good sledge) and bind it or call your garbage collection service for a “large item” pickup.
Stephen Speicher (August 30, 2006 @ 11:41 am)
That’s too funny. I’ve been wondering the same thing for the past month. We’ve got a trash can that has been used exclusively for (bagged) dog poo. Over the course of a year it’s developed a stank that’s all sorts of nasty. Anyhoo… I just thought that it was funny that someone else was going through the same thing.
Cheers,
Steve
Sam (August 30, 2006 @ 8:53 pm)
Huh - never had this problem. The garbage men were all too happy to take my old garbage cans away. Of course this might have something to do with their rusted-out bottoms…
Pitchfork (August 31, 2006 @ 12:27 am)
Just move over to Germany. Here the garbage cans are just rented, you don’t have to buy them and you won’t throw them away
Aske Holst (September 1, 2006 @ 2:23 am)
In Sweden the garbage cans are rented too and you pay for the size and pick-up interval you want. The funny thing is that you are required by law to get your trash picked up, even is you don’t have any, I guess it’s to avoid poeple dumping stuff.
About a year ago there was a case about some guy out in the woods who lived wholly organic and recycled everything. He was required to pay for a minimum of 6 pick-ups a year of the smallest can. He complained of cause, but it turned out that the fees for all the paperwork to get exempt from pick-up would cost more than the garbage pickup, as you had to re-apply every few years…