Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with garbage

How to prevent people from throwing away their trash in a can not theirs?

Charmian — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 21:09:27 -0800

What to do about people putting their trash in trash cans which are not theirs? A friend of mine has a problem: she lives in a duplex, and some people, who are probably the people who live in the neighboring duplex, keep putting their trash in her garbage can, filling it up entirely. Although she has not seen them doing so, because their garage is right next to hers (she puts her garbage can outside next to the garage), she suspects they are the culprits. The garages are not visible from the street, making it unlikely that an outside person is doing it, and their garbage can is overflowing with trash, although they for some reason do not take it out to the curb.

She complained to the landlord, but the landlord doesn't seem to want to do anything since she doesn't have concrete proof it's them doing it. She put her garbage can inside of the garage, but she would rather not do that.

Any suggestions on how she can discourage people from leaving their trash inside of her garbage can?

Toronto electronics disposal?

LukeyBoy — Sat, 19 Dec 2009 06:40:08 -0800

Where can I dispose of broken tech and appliances in Toronto? I've got a bunch of old, dead computer parts, a busted laptop, a dead vacuum, and well the list goes on. I've been hoarding them since I can't just toss them in the garbage obviously. We're paying a disposal tax now on all electronics purchases and I thought that disposal centers went along with that but I can't seem to find them. Anyone know the best way to dispose of this stuff? Thanks.

Where can I find detailed statistics on the garbage sitting in landfills?

wandergeek — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 06:20:47 -0800

I'm looking for statistics on the types of garbage that's currently sitting in American landfills. Does anybody have any good resources for this? To be clear, I'm trying to find the percentage of paper, plastics, metal, etc as they contribute to the greater whole. Statistics from other countries are welcomed too.

When do you stop seeing seagulls at the dump?

Mayor Curley — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 10:41:15 -0800

In North America, how far inland do you have to be before you stop finding seagulls at garbage dumps?

Help me find the beautiful dancing napkin video!

wsg — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 11:28:55 -0800

Several years ago there was a captivating video on the web of a napkin or piece of paper wafting/dancing in the gentle breeze on a street sidewalk. It was caught in a little vortex. It was several minutes long and was quite beautiful. My google-fu has failed me and none of the search terms I can think of have turned up anything. Anybody remember this charming little video?

Which papers go in the rectangular file and which go in the circular file?

fiercecupcake — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 06:08:53 -0800

What important household papers and documents must I keep and file? What papers are OK to throw away? My wife and I are going to go through a ton of old stuff tonight that needs to be filed. What is important for us to hold on to? What is not worth our time to file?

We bought a house last year. We have two cars and no car payments. We have student loans.

Documents may include, but are not limited to:
- mortgage stuff
- water and utility bills (electric, septic maintenance)
- tax things from previous jobs
- insurance bills/statements (car, house, life)
- ??? whatever fun things have been stacked in piles

Please hope me. This seems daunting.

Help me find this grocery bag using trash bin., or something similar, please.

RunawayOctober — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 11:55:10 -0800

Help me find this grocery bag using trash bin., or something similar, please. I StumbledUpon this link and think it would be an awesome gift for my mother. She doesn't want to use reusable bags because she takes 8-10 empty aluminum cans to the recycle bin every morning along with a bag of cat poop/liter from cleaning the litter box. For convenience she uses two grocery bags a day for the job. If she's going to use bags I figured I may as well make it easy for her.

Looking for a very special garbage can

boombot — Wed, 21 May 2008 10:28:41 -0800

The cupboard beneath my sink would seem to be an oddball, I've never found a garbage can that will fit it perfectly - 20 inches high, 10 inches wide, 15 inches deep. I usually buy taller containers and cut them down. I'd love to find something built to fit. Is there a site you can go to find such a thing, or, even better, where you can input the dimensions of the container you're looking for, and then browse results?

Help me stop using plastic bags

backseatpilot — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 16:14:39 -0800

I'd like to stop using plastic grocery bags, but I use them as liners in all of my garbage cans (including the kitchen, where stuff thrown in tends to be moist food detritus). Any ideas on what to use as garbage liners in lieu of the plastic bags?

Help me fight the power and get rid of my stinky trash!

parilous — Thu, 03 Jan 2008 09:22:00 -0800

My HOA negotiated an exclusive contract with a garbage company -- and the garbage company has increased rates and decreased service. Help! I live in a planned community and the HOA (which is still partly under control from the developer via a management company) has negotiated an exclusive contract with Waste Management.

Unfortunately, WM has reduced service (waste pickup on Tuesdays; recycle pickup on Fridays) from the previous schedule (waste/recycle pickup on Tuesdays & Fridays) AND increased their rates.

I'd like to switch to another service (one that services 2x a week), but was told by WM that I cannot cancel service and that no other providers were allowed in the community due to the exclusive contract.

My problem with this situation isn't that I have too much trash, but rather my trash tends to be the decomposing/smelly kind (like broccoli, raw chicken, and cat litter) rather than the cardboard/recyclable kind. However, I can't keep my trash bin outside due to the HOA regulations, and I can't even keep it in the backyard. Thus, my garage is hella-stinky. (Yes, I bag my trash; yes, the container is closed. It's just that I live in the desert where, for most of the year, my garage is 80+ degrees.)

Another community in town has been having the same problem (and even admitted to not knowing that they were signing an exclusive contract) but they have not resolved the issue.

So, what do you suggest? A coup d'etat of the HOA would take time, but I have no interest in serving on the board -- I just want my stinky trash picked up more often. Could I tell WM that I'm moving and cancel service that way? What's the worst that could happen if I violate my HOA rules?

Do Not Mail List

destro — Wed, 14 Nov 2007 21:05:03 -0800

How do I stop paper junk mail? Is there an equivalent of the government Do Not Call List for regular mail?

Anything electronics components/etc worth harvesting from an old desktop image scanner?

Quarter Pincher — Tue, 09 Oct 2007 10:19:31 -0800

Is there anything worth mining/harvesting out of a random old desktop scanner? I was about to throw this heap away, when I decided to take it apart. There's a few long narrow mirrors, a mototech motor, what appear to be a few rings made of lead (?), the little tank-tread band, and the long narrow bulb. I could probably use the glass with a picture frame. Would there be any hidden treasures native to desktop image scanners that'd be worth trying to sell, like a specialty lens or something? A rare kind of capacitor? There seems to be a number of hunks of lead in this sucker.

What to do with smelly trash in the city?

olinerd — Sat, 15 Sep 2007 16:21:40 -0800

City-living n00b: what do I do with smelly trash on the weekends? I just moved to a new apartment in a walk-up in Boston; to this point, I've always lived in a house (growing up), a dormitory (college), or a large managed apartment building (since college). All of these have had either a trash room or a garage where smelly trash can go until trash day.

Fast forward to now, where trash days are Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. Due to strict neighborhood codes, my trash can't be out on the sidewalk until late evening before a trash day. Unthinkingly, I made dinner with chicken last night and threw the scraps into the trash. Now I have a very stinky kitchen and nowhere to get rid of the trash.

What do city dwellers do with smelly trash? Is there a secret I don't know about? Other than illegally throwing my trash into a public dumpster or can, do I have options? Or am I doomed to never eat chicken on a Friday night? Alternatively, any advice for defunkifying a bag of trash?

This is in Beacon Hill in Boston, if anyone local is familiar with tricks or city codes...

What household items should be kept out of the landfill?

Alison — Thu, 07 Jun 2007 07:50:20 -0800

What household items are hazardous to the environment when thrown away? I'm compiling a list of items that we should recycle or dispose of specially instead of tossing, like batteries and fluorescent light bulbs. Somewhere there has got to be a list of these items, but I am having a terrible time finding it through Google. So, a link to a list or suggestions for individual items would be great.

Bonus points are offered to anyone who can also tell us why something shouldn't end up in the trash.

how do I clean my garbage disposal?

indigo4963 — Wed, 10 Jan 2007 13:59:43 -0800

My "garbage disposal" is all gunked up. How do I clean it?

Elegant trash/recycling bins?

Manhasset — Fri, 20 Oct 2006 08:29:53 -0800

I have little under-cabinet space and and am looking for a somewhat elegant solution to trash/food waste/recycling. Because of the lack of under-counter space, I need something free-standing and preferably with a small footprint. Suggestions? Requirements:

- lid is a must
- small footprint (tall is much better than wide though short and not wide is fine, too)
- way of latching a bag of some kind on
- one can that solves two issues (ie, trash and food) is good. one that solves all three is grand.

I quite like this two in one can but: a) it's very pricey and b) it's meant for recycling, which means there's no easy way to attach a bag. Anyone make anything similar that's for garbage and food waste?

And... anyone know of an online retailer for Simple Human products that's super cheap? The cans are cheaper in stores than on the site so I assume there are places online that are even cheaper than brick and mortar.

Maggots!

ITheCosmos — Fri, 02 Jun 2006 04:47:18 -0800

How do I clean up maggots? This is awful, and I'm sorry for subjecting you all to this, but while I was away overseas, my roommate left a bag of garbage in our backroom (on a carpet) for about three weeks. She's moved out now. When I came back and took the garbage out, there was a puddle of stinky brown garbage juice under it, and, yep, some writhing maggoty-things blinking in the new light. How should I get rid of them? Should I wait a while until I know they're good and dead? This is a terrible state of affairs.

What can I do with a couple hundred pounds of sour oranges?

Optimus Chyme — Sun, 30 Apr 2006 13:16:17 -0800

What can I do with a couple hundred pounds of sour oranges? Here's the scoop. We have an orange tree that either had a really bad year or is ornamental or something, because the oranges look good, they smell good, but they taste like ass. I'm pretty loath to just toss them in the garbage, because that's a lot of sugar and other organic material to waste, but I'm not going to make gallons of marmalade and no one would want to eat them.

So. Can I just put them in a corner of the yard and let the birds, insects, and lizards go nuts or what are we looking at there? Because that's my only idea.

Bonus question: identify this tree so I know if I can get some good ones next year of if they're just lookin' oranges. Also, they're lumpy because they've been sitting out way too long.

flushing refuse

mookieproof — Wed, 22 Mar 2006 08:26:15 -0800

I have to pee. I also have to blow my nose. Is it more environmentally friendly to toss my snotty Kleenex into the trash or into the toilet (which I was going to flush anyway)?

How can I stop my rubbish bin stinking?

teem — Thu, 24 Nov 2005 06:10:21 -0800

Something in my rubbish bin stinks, and since I was away for rubbish collection day it's going to be there for a while longer. What can I do to get rid of, or at least reduce, the smell? That something specifically is 2 pounds of uncooked prawn heads and about a pound of ricotta cheese. Yeah, I'm an idiot. When I put them in my large rubbish bin outside I tried sealing them away in their own plastic bags but it didn't make the slightest bit of difference. The next day was boiling, and since then the smell makes me feel sick just to walk within 5 meters of the bin. This is particularly bad as a shared driveway falls within the stench zone.

I now have about a week until the rubbish will be collected, and I would quite like to avoid facing the consequences of what amounts to putting raw seafood in a box outside my door. How can I get rid of this smell?

What's the best trash can?

mkultra — Fri, 22 Apr 2005 06:48:55 -0800

What's your trash can of choice (for the kitchen)? I'm convinced they all suck- please, tell me I'm wrong. Our SimpleHuman step-operated one is an abomination- the pedal broke, it's too long to hold a standard white bag well (and their custom bags are too fragile), and it creates that annoying vacuum that invariably tears your bag when you take it out. I'm willing to spend a bit of money, but is it really necessary to go top-of-the-line just to be functional?

Here's my criteria- needs to not have any of the flaws mentioned above, and have a plastic liner.

Old refrigerator?

SpecialK — Sun, 20 Mar 2005 14:10:01 -0800

How do I dispose of an old dorm-style cube fridge that has died a horrible death and is not worth repairing? I know I can't just leave it out on the curb, because it has freon in it and freon is a hazmat. I also live in an apartment, and know for a fact that our disposal company says "No hazmats, nothing hazardous, nothing big, just NO." Where would you take a refrigator to get rid of it?
I'm south of Portland, Oregon. Google turns up nothing.

How should I pack my lunch?

krisjohn — Sun, 13 Feb 2005 23:49:28 -0800

I work a standard full-time job. How do I keep the amount of rubbish generated from lunch down to something I'm not ashamed of? [Would you like to know more?] If I put my lunch together in the staff lunchroom rather than going out for lunch, I typically have one of two things: Noodles or salad. I am not attached to the noodles, they're just very convenient. Noodles involve a Styrofoam cup, wrapped in plastic -- with two separate plastic flavour packs inside. I usually add tuna either from a foil pouch or a small tin. Lately I've been adding a single-wrapped processed meat stick. Salad involves a pre-prepared salad mix in a plastic bag with as many as three plastic bags inside (eg; dressing, croutons and bacon for caesar salad) plus a range of other items including tuna again, fetta (six serves to a jar), a separate single-serve dressing if it doesn't come with the salad and a range of items such as mushrooms or sun dried tomato strips all in jars that are also thrown out.

Lunch room facilities are minimal. There's no cutting board for example. I have limited time and I don't want to have to bring in something every morning. I have a small fridge in my office and I have at least got my drinks down from a 24-pack of Pepsi to filtered water (I have my own filter) that re-uses the same bottle.

I use a snap-lock (zip-lock) bag to keep the salad going after it's been opened. I can get about 1.5 serves from something labelled "serves two". If I put lettuce directly into the snap-lock bag it gets icky quickly. Normally I keep the pre-prepared salad in its original bag and put that in the snap-lock. This way the snap-lock bag lasts for weeks before it shows any sign of ick.

why do sanitation workers make more than police officers

Mean Mr. Bucket — Thu, 27 Jan 2005 07:21:13 -0800

Is there some sort of civic reasoning as to why sanitation workers generally make more than police officers? Insert preemptive 'taking out the trash comment' here.

Garbage Disposal/Dishwasher

Lola_G — Tue, 07 Dec 2004 07:17:13 -0800

Garbage disposal/dishwasher part deux. [mi] So last night, after attending a work holiday function...I decided to test out some of the suggestions from y'all regarding the disposal.

I reached under the disposal and found the reset button. I pushed it and then flipped the switch for the disposal it buzzed for a second and then died again. Then the water I was running in the sink started to fill into the dishwasher which I did not realize until it started seeping out onto the floor.

Well, in my slightly inebriated condition (perfect for home improvement don't you think) I neglected to clean out the filter in the bottom of the dishwasher which is now filled with food from the sink/disposal.

Do you think this could have caused the disposal to die right away? Is this where it needs to get air?

Any other suggestions or time to call the plumber? I will try again tonight without the help of alcohol. (Stupid me).