This varies heavily by location. I’m not sure “usually” comes into it. In and around cities it’s not uncommon for the city government to handle trash collection. Farther out into the 'burbs or in rural locations you might have to hire a private trash company.
It can also be included as part of your taxes as well. I used to live literally 1 street over from where the official city limits were (a whole 1 mile from downtown), and while the city provided trash/recycling services within that boundary, anyone outside had to pay like $30/mo for a private service that only did trash pickup, and had to pay another $12/mo for recycling.
In my new town, we’re on the very outskirts of the city, but it’s all provided by the city as part of our property taxes. We get recycling, trash, and compost services. Best part is you even get 1m³ compost and mulch from the city from the compost service. We grew an absolutely insane amount of vegetables from it last year, it was really awesome.
This is never something I’d have even thought about being privatised, I guess I just assumed it was always in the interest of local authorities to make sure there isn’t just shit piling up everywhere and pay for it through taxation. It’s also surely much more cost effective to centralise.
Today I not only discover that isn’t the case, but that you also commonly have to pay extra to recycle. Like what?! Do poorer people have to just not have their bins collected? Or make a choice about whether things get recycled?!
This has absolutely blown my mind!
If you take it to a refuse & recycling centre yourself (I assume those exist with public access), do you have to pay for that too?!
I’m not much a defender of capitalism, the abuses have become rampant over the past few decades. But the general idea is sound.
But talk like this is also a problem. No, hell no, your garbage collection is not free. What makes you think that? Just because you don’t get a bill?
I have two options in my hood. Competition keeps 'em honest, keeps prices low. If I charged my neighbor her half, it’s $17.50/mo. It’s so cheap I just let her use my cans for free. (EDIT: Noticed they raised it since my last comment. $50 for two cans, twice a week pick up. $25 bucks each household.)
So be honest, how much do you really pay? The amount is surely itemized somewhere in your local taxes. In any case you can look it up. I showed you mine, show me yours.
I made another post here. Be curious how your experience differs from mine. Maybe counterintuitive, but I’ve found private trash collection to be more environmentally friendly, for the reasons I gave above.
Of course…? Trash collection has to be paid for, either privately or publicly, e.g. taxes. There’s an Australian commenter below who pays almost double what I do as a yearly tax. In any case, you can always opt to deal with your own waste.
For example, I could burn, recycle and compost most of it for free. I make mulch from yard waste, ditch metal by posting on FB Marketplace, Craigslist, etc., for the scrap metal guys to grab.
Same for serviceable goods. Just put out some lawn chairs that I don’t have the tooling to repair, and they’re gone. I used to pick up old vacuum cleaners and repair them for a few dollars, give them to friends and neighbors or sell 'em for $20. (Great little side hustle. 95% of them just need a deep clean, new belt and bag.)
I’ve picked up a literal ton of stuff that’s not good enough for one’s home but works great at my camp in the boondocks. Got my wife a new TV yesterday and converted the Styrofoam packing into napalm for starting campfires.
I have two companies to choose from, because competition is good. $35/mo. covers my trash, and since my neighbor doesn’t have much money, I let her use my cans. Call it <$20 per household. Think the government could operate that cheaply?
Buddy of mine drives around picking up old washers and dryers for free. Fixes and flips 'em for a nice profit. (This is hilariously easy.) He clears $100+ a pop, and people save $200-$400 on a new machine. Win-win.
In my area, if the government handled it all for “free”, all that creative recycling/upcycling would end up in a landfill. Because who would give a shit? When you have to pay out your pocket for disposal it motivates you to think. Why would I bother rinsing and crushing my cans for personal profit if the govenment made them go away for free?
Well obviously someone is paying for garbage collection, I just think a lot of people are used to having it be paid for over tax, so that you don’t have to think about remembering to pay your quarterly $85 fee lol.
what the hell
This varies heavily by location. I’m not sure “usually” comes into it. In and around cities it’s not uncommon for the city government to handle trash collection. Farther out into the 'burbs or in rural locations you might have to hire a private trash company.
What, too much freedom for you to handle?
In Australia we pay about $700 a year to the local government to collect the bins
worth noting though this is not like a “you sort it out” thing or anything… it’s basically a tax
*council. It’s part of your rates. My last were like $150 for recyc/garbage/green
$780 here annually
Jesus. You sure that’s not total rates incl fire service?
yeah we got like 6 companies that take care of trash in my neighborhood
I probably should shop around I’ll bet one of them is cheapest
6 different companies?l that just sounds super efficient
Are any not owned by the mafia?
It can also be included as part of your taxes as well. I used to live literally 1 street over from where the official city limits were (a whole 1 mile from downtown), and while the city provided trash/recycling services within that boundary, anyone outside had to pay like $30/mo for a private service that only did trash pickup, and had to pay another $12/mo for recycling.
In my new town, we’re on the very outskirts of the city, but it’s all provided by the city as part of our property taxes. We get recycling, trash, and compost services. Best part is you even get 1m³ compost and mulch from the city from the compost service. We grew an absolutely insane amount of vegetables from it last year, it was really awesome.
This is never something I’d have even thought about being privatised, I guess I just assumed it was always in the interest of local authorities to make sure there isn’t just shit piling up everywhere and pay for it through taxation. It’s also surely much more cost effective to centralise.
Today I not only discover that isn’t the case, but that you also commonly have to pay extra to recycle. Like what?! Do poorer people have to just not have their bins collected? Or make a choice about whether things get recycled?!
This has absolutely blown my mind!
If you take it to a refuse & recycling centre yourself (I assume those exist with public access), do you have to pay for that too?!
I live in the US and garbage collection is free in my city and many others.
Exactly, the garbage companies work in exchange for exposure/free advertising
I’m not much a defender of capitalism, the abuses have become rampant over the past few decades. But the general idea is sound.
But talk like this is also a problem. No, hell no, your garbage collection is not free. What makes you think that? Just because you don’t get a bill?
I have two options in my hood. Competition keeps 'em honest, keeps prices low. If I charged my neighbor her half, it’s $17.50/mo. It’s so cheap I just let her use my cans for free. (EDIT: Noticed they raised it since my last comment. $50 for two cans, twice a week pick up. $25 bucks each household.)
So be honest, how much do you really pay? The amount is surely itemized somewhere in your local taxes. In any case you can look it up. I showed you mine, show me yours.
I made another post here. Be curious how your experience differs from mine. Maybe counterintuitive, but I’ve found private trash collection to be more environmentally friendly, for the reasons I gave above.
Jesse what the fuck are you talking about
What do you think the US some socialist country?! Everything must be a private country because… Capitalism! No “socialized” waste disposal here!
Of course…? Trash collection has to be paid for, either privately or publicly, e.g. taxes. There’s an Australian commenter below who pays almost double what I do as a yearly tax. In any case, you can always opt to deal with your own waste.
For example, I could burn, recycle and compost most of it for free. I make mulch from yard waste, ditch metal by posting on FB Marketplace, Craigslist, etc., for the scrap metal guys to grab.
Same for serviceable goods. Just put out some lawn chairs that I don’t have the tooling to repair, and they’re gone. I used to pick up old vacuum cleaners and repair them for a few dollars, give them to friends and neighbors or sell 'em for $20. (Great little side hustle. 95% of them just need a deep clean, new belt and bag.)
I’ve picked up a literal ton of stuff that’s not good enough for one’s home but works great at my camp in the boondocks. Got my wife a new TV yesterday and converted the Styrofoam packing into napalm for starting campfires.
I have two companies to choose from, because competition is good. $35/mo. covers my trash, and since my neighbor doesn’t have much money, I let her use my cans. Call it <$20 per household. Think the government could operate that cheaply?
Buddy of mine drives around picking up old washers and dryers for free. Fixes and flips 'em for a nice profit. (This is hilariously easy.) He clears $100+ a pop, and people save $200-$400 on a new machine. Win-win.
In my area, if the government handled it all for “free”, all that creative recycling/upcycling would end up in a landfill. Because who would give a shit? When you have to pay out your pocket for disposal it motivates you to think. Why would I bother rinsing and crushing my cans for personal profit if the govenment made them go away for free?
It’s the same in my EU country (at least for single family homes, I don’t know about apartments)
The private companies are contracted by the municipalities and I don’t think you can legally avoid paying the garbage collection tax/fee.
Afaik they don’t give you the option of dealing with your own trash, because that would mean a lot more trash in the forest.
Well obviously someone is paying for garbage collection, I just think a lot of people are used to having it be paid for over tax, so that you don’t have to think about remembering to pay your quarterly $85 fee lol.
You realize your taxes pay for collection too. So you either pay a private company or you pay the government.