The general decline in standards today

[1961MJS]

Interesting. Everywhere I've lived, recycling has been sorted into two bins (one for metals and plastics, one for paper goods). Most places I've lived have also had a separate collection system for food waste and organic materials. There are also pickup days for yard waste.

I've never had to pay for garbage collection, although I know of a few communities around here that charge for trash tags. I've had the fortune to live in areas where my garbage pickup was just a municipal service, though.

Hi

Everywhere I've lived, I've paid for garbage removal. In Decatur AL, it was a municipal service. They picked up garbage twice a week, recyclables once a week, and yard waste separately once every two weeks. The recyclable glass was cooked locally into brown glass (met a guy who worked there). The yard waste was taken to the dump, composted, then taken to one of the local parks where you could go take as much as you wanted for your home. The yard waste composting was discontinued, according to the newspaper, because of the EPA. No details were given and OBVIOUSLY that makes no sense.

In Kansas, garbage collection is entirely private. There used to be 20 plus garbage collectors in Wichita alone. It cost more for once a week service than I paid in Alabama for twice a week. Recycling cost more, which REALLY irritated me.

In Illinois, where I grew up, garbage collection was also private, but we could burn leaves etc.

Later

 

[jamespowers]

We've had a container-deposit law here for 35 years now, meaning every beverage container except for milk bottles has to carry a refundable deposit -- water, soda, beer, wine, "juice drinks", "sports drinks" and liquor. With this law being in place for so long, everybody who lives here knows the value of a bottle or a can, and there's very little roadside litter. But people from away don't always realize what they're doing, and we have at least three people here in town who support themselves entirely thru raiding municipal garbage cans for empties. Nobody begrudges them that, as long as they don't throw the rest of the trash on the sidewalk when they dig.

I give all my empties to the high school, the Girl Scouts, or whoever else is having a bottle drive fundraiser when my porch gets full.

We have the same thing here. I wait for my sons' school to collect the stuff and dump it on them.

 

[jamespowers]

Hi

Everywhere I've lived, I've paid for garbage removal. In Decatur AL, it was a municipal service. They picked up garbage twice a week, recyclables once a week, and yard waste separately once every two weeks. The recyclable glass was cooked locally into brown glass (met a guy who worked there). The yard waste was taken to the dump, composted, then taken to one of the local parks where you could go take as much as you wanted for your home. The yard waste composting was discontinued, according to the newspaper, because of the EPA. No details were given and OBVIOUSLY that makes no sense.

In Kansas, garbage collection is entirely private. There used to be 20 plus garbage collectors in Wichita alone. It cost more for once a week service than I paid in Alabama for twice a week. Recycling cost more, which REALLY irritated me.

In Illinois, where I grew up, garbage collection was also private, but we could burn leaves etc.

Later

Garbage is a big business. It is also crooked as a dog's hind leg here.
I get garbage and green waste collected every week here. The stupid blue container every other week I think. I use that container to keep my firewood dry.

 

[sheeplady]

Are recyclables not typically separated out before collection?

Like everybody else said, it depends. I believe we are "required to recycle" but I am not sure. I have told we are, but plenty of people never put out a recycling bin and nothing seems to happen to them. We put paper, metal, plastic in a recycling bin for curbside pickup. We used to have to separate the plastic and metal from the paper, but not anymore. Where I live now we have curbside trash and curbside recycling pickup. Where we are going to be moving has curbside recycling pickup, but you have to hire your trash pickup or take it to a dump (the dump is free, but it's only open once a month).

We have a five cent deposit on cans and a lot of bottles so most people at least take those back to the store or give them to charity. You often see individuals who look like they might be homeless or at least really hard up digging through public trashcans looking for deposit cans. The deposit really adds up quick, so most people turn their cans and bottles in.

I would guess that the guy who was arrested for going through other's trash was going through actual trash cans because the people weren't recycling anything (I don't see why they'd have a problem going through a recycling bin IF he was neat and quiet about it). He'd only be after deposit cans and bottles. I wouldn't be surprised if these individuals weren't taking their deposit cans and bottles back because it happened in a rather locally well-known snobbish neighborhood.

But then I have neighbors who are absolute idiots when it comes to letting people have things. These neighbors have two teen aged strong boys who they have haul furniture out into the rain on the side of the road. I've never seen them put out anything in the sunshine, only the pouring rain so it's ruined. They also have a large SUV, at least one of the boys is old enough to drive, and we live all of a mile away at most from a donation center. I've even seen the father out trying to wack a basketball hoop with a sledge hammer before it was put out on the side of the road so the rim was all bent out of shape. Some people are of the mind that even if they don't want it, they still don't want anyone to have it either.

 

[LizzieMaine]

The people you really have to watch out for are the metal scrappers -- they'll steal anything that isn't nailed down. A close friend in New Hampshire had a lot of auto scrap around her yard -- her father had been a machinist who rebuilt Volkswagens as a hobby -- and the scrappers picked her clean by simply driving a truck into her yard at night and helping themselves. She's deaf, and they knew it, and figured they could operate with impunity. She and I went to the police in her town and they laughed us out the door -- "no point in going after them, there's no way to track them down, etc." The guys who run these metal yards don't care where the stuff comes from, and they don't care who's selling it to them.

The scrap metal business is a dirty, filthy racket, and the sooner it's cracked down on hard, the better.

 

[jamespowers]

The people you really have to watch out for are the metal scrappers -- they'll steal anything that isn't nailed down. A close friend in New Hampshire had a lot of auto scrap around her yard -- her father had been a machinist who rebuilt Volkswagens as a hobby -- and the scrappers picked her clean by simply driving a truck into her yard at night and helping themselves. She's deaf, and they knew it, and figured they could operate with impunity. She and I went to the police in her town and they laughed us out the door -- "no point in going after them, there's no way to track them down, etc." The guys who run these metal yards don't care where the stuff comes from, and they don't care who's selling it to them.

The scrap metal business is a dirty, filthy racket, and the sooner it's cracked down on hard, the better.

The metal crooks around here are even worse. They steal copper wire and pipe from buildings---occupied and otherwise. We had a power outage and incident at the local college because some nut ripped out a bunch of copper wire. :doh:

 

[V.C. Brunswick]

The people you really have to watch out for are the metal scrappers -- they'll steal anything that isn't nailed down. A close friend in New Hampshire had a lot of auto scrap around her yard -- her father had been a machinist who rebuilt Volkswagens as a hobby -- and the scrappers picked her clean by simply driving a truck into her yard at night and helping themselves. She's deaf, and they knew it, and figured they could operate with impunity. She and I went to the police in her town and they laughed us out the door -- "no point in going after them, there's no way to track them down, etc." The guys who run these metal yards don't care where the stuff comes from, and they don't care who's selling it to them.

The scrap metal business is a dirty, filthy racket, and the sooner it's cracked down on hard, the better.

And guess where most of that scrap metal goes? You guessed it, China! Sadly the US is one of the largest exporters of scrap metal.

The metal crooks around here are even worse. They steal copper wire and pipe from buildings---occupied and otherwise. We had a power outage and incident at the local college because some nut ripped out a bunch of copper wire. :doh:

I'd love to hear about one these bottom feeders getting zapped by a live wire while trying to steal it.

 

[vintageTink]

Here in Tacoma they talked about putting RFID chips in the recyclables container so they'd know that you aren't doing it. We're charged for it anyway, and you get fined if you don't.

 

[Stanley Doble]

There is a difference between the scrap metal recycling business and stealing. Stealing is bad, recycling is good.

 

[hatguy1]

I have just returned from a small group tour around Sussex and Kent, in South East England, visiting the various preserved railways, one line we went on was the Kent & East Sussex, which was good but the staff were angry as the night before one of their stations had been vandalised by the local yobs/school kids who amongst other midless acts, had stolen or damaged some of the old fashioned lamps, which will cost the railway quite alot to get replaced. There is not much chance of catching the blokes that did this and even if they do, there won't be much of a penalty inflicted on them.

Talking about this later on a discussion came up about the general decline in standards and examples shown to children these days compared to 30-40 years ago. The opinion was that these days both parents have to work so leaving kids unsupervised and allowed generally to roam around on their own sometimes unchecked.

In schools too the teachers seem to have to spend far more time doing reports, performance figures, league tables etc and less time teaching the children, also when most of the group were at school the teachers were allowed to give unruly kids lines or dententions etc, (As I remember to my cost!). Now days there does not seem to be any way to keep order. Some of my group were saying that perhaps a return to some of the old ways would not be a bad thing.

We did sound like we should of been on the TV Programme, Grumpy Old Men, especially after the beers had been flowing for a while.

Yes, "back in our day" we were ALL taught a moral standard of right from wrong and there dam well were consequences associated with the wrongs. Nowadays this wussified moral code and values system is "anything goes" and someone's self-esteem is more important than teaching them how to be a PRODUCTIVE citizen of society. History is full of doomed societies where the social contract and moral code go down the tubes. Eventually the society itself follows and becomes either a shadow of its former self or outright descends into anarchy, ruin and disappears (e.g., ancient Greece/Rome).

 

[vintageTink]

I don't expect schools to teach kids much in the way of anything, especially not morals.

 

[HudsonHawk]

The people you really have to watch out for are the metal scrappers -- they'll steal anything that isn't nailed down. A close friend in New Hampshire had a lot of auto scrap around her yard -- her father had been a machinist who rebuilt Volkswagens as a hobby -- and the scrappers picked her clean by simply driving a truck into her yard at night and helping themselves. She's deaf, and they knew it, and figured they could operate with impunity. She and I went to the police in her town and they laughed us out the door -- "no point in going after them, there's no way to track them down, etc." The guys who run these metal yards don't care where the stuff comes from, and they don't care who's selling it to them.

The scrap metal business is a dirty, filthy racket, and the sooner it's cracked down on hard, the better.

Here in Texas, scrap metal places are required to keep detailed records, which include the name, address, ID number of the seller, the make/model/license plate # of the vehicle delivering the scrap, and a photo of the person selling. The seller is required to provide these along with signing an affidavit affirming that they are the legal owner of the scrap. It's not perfect, but at least there is *some* attempt at regulation.

 

[AtomicEraTom]

Stealing copper pipe and wiring out of houses was going on in Milwaukee big time recently.

 

[Gregg Axley]

Garbage is a big business. It is also crooked as a dog's hind leg here.
I get garbage and green waste collected every week here. The stupid blue container every other week I think. I use that container to keep my firewood dry.

Sucks as a recycle bin since I don't do that, but it works great for holding large jugs of old oil from my cars.
I heard the other day at work, aluminum bleachers are being carted off and sold by thieves.
Well you'll need a car bigger than a Hyundai to do that, something akin to a trailer and truck is more like it.
Yes it's crooked because as a business owner, what are the odds people are throwing away whole sets of bleachers...weekly?

 

[HudsonHawk]

Sucks as a recycle bin since I don't do that, but it works great for holding large jugs of old oil from my cars.
I heard the other day at work, aluminum bleachers are being carted off and sold by thieves.
Well you'll need a car bigger than a Hyundai to do that, something akin to a trailer and truck is more like it.
Yes it's crooked because as a business owner, what are the odds people are throwing away whole sets of bleachers...weekly?

Here in Houston people stealing manhole covers and storm water grates is a big problem. On several levels. Another problem is the stealing of wiring from the lights at local parks and Little League fields.

 

[DJH]

The people you really have to watch out for are the metal scrappers -- they'll steal anything that isn't nailed down.

Yeah, we have pikeys around here that do that. My wife worked at a salon where they took all the AC ducting.

When our daughter was in middle school one got his come uppance by trying to steel a reel of electrical cables without checking it wasn't live.

Not stealing any more

 

[sheeplady]

Here in Houston people stealing manhole covers and storm water grates is a big problem. On several levels. Another problem is the stealing of wiring from the lights at local parks and Little League fields.

Yeah, they started having news articles on the stealing of grates and manhole covers I think in 2011 here. What I don't understand is how do they sell these things? Obviously they are stolen- they said they even have ID numbers on them. The buyers must be just as big of crooks as the ones who stole it in the first place.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Yeah, they started having news articles on the stealing of grates and manhole covers I think in 2011 here. What I don't understand is how do they sell these things? Obviously they are stolen- they said they even have ID numbers on them. The buyers must be just as big of crooks as the ones who stole it in the first place.

That's pretty much it. The police don't bother to enforce the laws unless something really outrageous happens, and it's easy for the yard operator to play dumb and say they never saw whatever it was that was reported stolen. While some places are finally getting around to regulating scrapyards, there are plenty of places a crooked scrapper can go where there's little to no regulation. New "Live Free or Die" Hampshire being one of the most egregious examples.

One of the things stolen out of my friend's yard was the rusted remains of a 1948 Youngstown dishwasher. We gave the police a detailed description of it, and noted that if such a distinctive, recognizable item turned up at any of the local yards it's a pretty good chance that the load in question was stolen. They laughed us out the door, because they knew they weren't going to do a damn thing about it.

It wasn't much to them, but to my friend -- who is living on disability and genuinely struggling to get by -- it was a serious blow. She'd been banking on selling the scrap herself, and is still extremely bitter about the whole business. And she has lost all respect for her local "police."

 

[dh66]

Yeah, they started having news articles on the stealing of grates and manhole covers I think in 2011 here. What I don't understand is how do they sell these things? Obviously they are stolen- they said they even have ID numbers on them. The buyers must be just as big of crooks as the ones who stole it in the first place.

Scrap yard owners are like pawnbrokers. There is some loophole throufh the liscensing they have that absolves them from responsibility. You or I buy a hot stereo from john q. crackhead and we'd be complicit in a felony, but the good old pawnbroker is just doing business, he has no way to know what's stolen and what's not. Suuuure. "Recycling" yards work the same way. I've been in the plumbing trade for well over 20 years and have had miles of copper pipe disappear from jobs. I'm quite sure the scrap yard man couldn't tell all that shiny new pipe from old stuff coming out of a building being torn down, but he's protected by his liscense - the burden of proof is not his worry.

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[HudsonHawk]

That's pretty much it. The police don't bother to enforce the laws unless something really outrageous happens, and it's easy for the yard operator to play dumb and say they never saw whatever it was that was reported stolen.

Actually, the thieves typically just cut up the manhole covers and grates and sell the parts separately, making them very difficult to identify.