Most rural areas in Idaho do not have garbage service, but instead have dumpsters where locals can drop off their garbage, paid for with our taxes. These areas are usually caged by high bear-proof fencing with gates big enough for the garbage truck to back in and empty the dumpsters.
Occasionally, if someone has something that's still useful but no longer needed, they will place it outside the dumpster cage, sometimes with a sign encouraging someone to take the item. We've done this ourselves at various times (here and here).
Overall, this centralized-dumpster system works well. The county sanitation workers come through two or three times a week and empty the dumpsters and any ancillary trash, leaving the whole area spic and span.
But as Don and I passed the closest dumpsters on our way to town a few days ago, we saw that someone had emptied their trash cans on the ground outside the bear fencing in such a way that the garbage truck couldn't even back up to the dumpsters without first clearing up the mess.
And when I say someone emptied their trash cans, I mean it. It's like these inconsiderate slobs just stood there and deliberately upended the contents of their trash cans onto the ground for the fun of it. They couldn't even be bothered to walk five feet into the cage to upend their garbage cans into the dumpsters. What do they care if the hard-working sanitation workers have to pick up everything by hand? Not their problem!
I tell ya, stuff like this just frosts me. This level of thoughtlessness, selfishness, and just plain meanness is hard to fathom. It's like these idiots took personal pleasure in deliberately making the job of the sanitation workers that much harder.
When Don and I returned from our trip to town a couple hours later, the dumpers were empty and all the scattered trash was gone. The whole place was spic and span. I tell you, these garbage men are saints to put up with what they do.
A great big "thumb's down" for slobs. I hope they take note of 2 Corinthians 5:10.
It’s disgusting the way “some” people live, and when I say “some” it’s, hopefully, a very small percentage of people.
ReplyDeleteIn my line of work, we often venture into people’s homes to do repairs of all sorts, water damage, fire damage and the sorts. Let me tell you, OMG it’s disgusting how some live, literally trash piled up in the corners of the home, Garbage piled in the kitchen, the home has not been cleaned for years probably, absolutely filthy living conditions.
Ever visit some of the inter cities? Trash everywhere, folks just toss garbage into the streets and even Public Areas such as parks and buildings.
Even in the rural areas along the roads you see where people just toss everything out the window as they drive, and I do mean “disgustingly everything”.
Seems like even a nice turnout in the road is the perfect place for some parents to stop, change their babies’ diapers and just toss it to the road.
Ok, Ok, I know it’s only a small percentage of “pigs” for lack of a better word (sorry for downgrading Pigs), that do things like this, but WHY in the heck does everyone else have to look at it and yes, stop and clean it up?
Why it is in places like San Francisco do the Taxpayers must pay $175,000, per worker, for full-time employees to literally clean the sidewalks of ‘human waste’ in hazmat suits?
Honestly, I have been to the Shanties of Rio-D and those places are cleaner than a LOT/MOST of the Large Cities in the US, and if those Cities that are clean, go look to see what the Taxpayers are spending (millions $) on crews to pick up the disgusting mess because some are too lazy/disgusting.
Sorry about the Rant, but what I have seen ………
Sounds like some of our local teenagers and young adults. Their minds aren't' right but might be in time. Their hormones, possibly things going on at home, who knows. They gotta do something to rebel against the status quo.
ReplyDeleteAnyway, not all teenagers vent in destructive ways, but I do believe what you described is very immature, and that's part of why I think it's kids. Maybe they were tasked with garbage duty.
My 2 cents worth.
You're lucky. The perps actually got as far as the dumpsters! Where I live, "certain people" will dump their trash wherever they want. I've repeatedly had to call the county after one of these people dumped the contents of their pickup trucks on the side of the road I live on. Lazy Boys, mattresses, jugs of used motor oil, LOTS of tires, you name it. One of the roads I use for my commute is a notorious dumping ground. In addition to the above, this morning passersby were treated to the sight of what was left of a CAR dumped on the side of the road. I'm talking an entire BODY. This is what happens when your "governor" dinner-bells every welfare bum and illegal immigrant he can into the state... Sad, actually... California used to be a BEAUTIFUL place to live...
ReplyDeleteI live in a great rural community but people constantly throw their trash out along the road, I can and do pick up a trash bag of cans, bottles, fast food bags every couple months
ReplyDeleteI don’t understand the mentality
Years ago we went camping in a favorite backwoods spot. Someone(s) had been there before us and left all their trash- including, ick, used tp. We were cleaning up their mess and came across a clue, then a couple more. From those we figured out who it was and were able to find an address. When we got home we boxed up the trash and sent it to them, along with a "polite" don't do this again letter. Would have loved to see their faces when they opened the box!
ReplyDeleteYou may never need the services of a neurosurgeon but are still happy that they are available. However, let your trash service not pick up for several weeks and the neighborhood quickly becomes unlivable. The men and women who provide our sanitation services are truly civil servants, we should be as civil in return.
ReplyDeleteIn our county, where we have a lot roads with no development, people are always dumping and are being caught, prosecuted and receive large fines. They leave envelopes, statements, & other items that make it easy to identify them. Simply don't understand the mentality of dumping instead of proper disposal
ReplyDeleteIn southern Idaho where I live, they have had to block access to numerous areas of public land around some of the towns just because people dumping trash and other larger items became too much for them to deal with. Literally every time you would go into the desert in these areas, mostly where people would like to go shooting, you'd see tons of TVs, glass, old furniture and appliances shot up, along with trash dumped everywhere. They did numerous clean-ups, installed signs and dumpsters for people to use for free to try and deter this, and what happened, people shot up the signs and dumpsters and still dumped trash, and so now, that area is not accessible by motor vehicles, only on foot. Sadly most of these people were adults, they just don't care. And the local dumps/transfer stations have super cheap rates and take appliances for free, so it's not even expensive to deal with your trash. People use thrift stores the same way. We have a local one that all profits go to support community programs and so many people dump unusable crap and broken furniture, stained mattresses, etc. behind their building when it is closed, that they had to spend hundreds a week on dump fees, just hauling people's crap to the dump, now they have cameras everywhere and they are finally citing people for illegally dumping, but now people are getting smart and pulling their license plates off, so they don't get caught.
ReplyDeleteIn my opinion, covid made throwing trash out the window a more common occurrence again. During that whole fiasco, along my rural road you'd find tons of gloves and masks that people just threw out the window, not to mention tons of fast food bags, can, bottles, dirty diapers, etc. People are lazy and disgusting. Not to mention in my rural area on trash day, you have people literally driving along the road and opening people's trash cans and putting their trash and boxes in them, often sticking way out the top, or they will just pile their trash and cardboard next to people's cans. And here they will not pick up anything outside of cans, and they will not dump overloaded cans, so the property owners are stuck with dealing with people's trash. We had this problem years ago, so now we do not deal with trash cans, we just save up enough trash to make a trip to the dump worthwhile and then take a trip, it's not worth dealing with worthless lazy people anymore. And it seems each year, this problem gets worse and worse.