Time to Change Trash Collectors

No, not the hardworkin' youth and men who stop by my house and all the others on my block on Wednesdays and Fridays. They work with precision, hardly any trash spilt on the asphalt. Lifting those yellow and green cans and luggin' newspaper bundles up and in, as well as those black, grey, brown, and green buckets filled to the brim with full garbage bags and debris. I certainly wish them a fattened paycheck and better benes for their critical services, services that some communities make residents pay for directly out-a-pocket. Ah, I love payin' property taxes for such good service, never failing. 

Except the time early one Saturday mornin' seeing a Company man directing the garbage truck to speed backwards down the middle of the street, to save time and travel picking up missed cans.  To suddenly watch as the massive truck smashes the driver's side rear-end of my red Civic, as it tries to pass - goin' backwards. How the youthful driver begged us not to call the Hamilton Police, but we did, and the Company's regional manager was also called and drove up, to record the event. How the driver  received a ticket for careless drivin' and we all went to municipal court. How we met with the youth and the prosecutor privately, and he again asked for leniency, and the prosecutor said, "this will end his career." And so we dropped the charge, our testimony, and the driver left with a warning, not points. Even tho I thought it wrong to do so in the moment yet Jan had convinced me.

How do we learn lessons from our mistakes and be much more careful? But Jan convinced me it was an "accident," not this poor boy's fault, yet people cause accidents too.

And I had to dun the Company's insurance carrier weekly to pay for the damage -- which they finally did.

Or the homely lookin' necessary guys in green pants and coats on the Trenton downtown streets every weekday, with long-handled bin and petite broom, sweeping up the detritus left by uncaring pedestrians or tossed from vehicles, or dropped by children -- and ignored until these homely men pick it all up. Pick up to keep our city streets clean, beautiful. I've been to cities with pristine sidewalks and streets, London outskirts, Stockholm, Zurich, Rome - not so much. And how hard we try to keep our highways clean here, with orange-suited men of all colors and sizes, with extra long dark, thick plastic bags that hold cans, and Doritos bags, McDonald's plastic cups and food wrappers, gum wrappers, and road debris. We all see them in the medians and sides of our highways. Thank goodness for them also.

Not a bad idea chargin' businesses a surtax because of their mass trash bits, even tho not their fault they're strewn everywhere. No the customer's fault, too many, who'd rather pay the trash tax when they pay at the counter, rather than not litter.

So I was at Wawa on QB and Youngs Road Sunday, buying Salem 100s. I had parked by Nino's, possibly Hamilton's best bakery where I was concerned, to ostensibly buy a hand-sized, delicious, melt-n-your-mouth fresh, Nut Ring, at Janet's rare request. As I exited I unwrapped the pack out front, threw the wrappings into a large red trash can, lit up, and walked past the other stores back to Nino's enjoyin' my smoke. My "Stupid!" cigarette.

I find a bench along the way and sit while I finish. A thought occurs, That was a very unusual trash can. Interesting me enough to walk back and scrutinize it's red-metal shape. 5 ft long, 3 ft wide and 3+ ft tall, wide enough for two clear plastic bagged, square plastic buckets inside. One large rectangular opening for trash, circles cut in the top and side for recycle next to it. Handles on doors to open and empty bags. "Why does this strike me so?"

I enter a Note in my Iphone "Recycle", type in color, dimensions, symbols on outside, thoughts. Shouldn't all stores, city streets have such receptacles? Hard to miss, efficient? Instead of just this one for Wawa, shouldn't there be at least 3-4 along this long shop-filled sidewalk to replace the 'Only trash' buckets placed along it's length? How could people miss them? It's so hard to catch and find litterers. I wonder how many are ever caught and fined the $25 -- to $100. Couldn't there be laws dictating use by all fast food and fast coffee/cigarettes stores mandating use of these stand-outs? That would surely be a boon to trash collection and recycling.

Competition still works in the manufacture sale and maintenance of these red babies. Other competitive companies contracting with stores, gov't and strip malls for their placement and emptying. Perhaps even a credit for pounds of recycling collected in their bag(s) against the rental contract for these red giants?

There'll forever be a market for a better mousetrap, plan or program, won't there?

And Jan and I really enjoyed our Nut Rings.

By Rodney Richards copyright 2013. Subscribe for free and leave a comment or contact me at 1950ablia@gmail.com.