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Comment by Tharkun | Hacker News Reader

I pay roughly a 50% income tax, and in spite of that municipal garbage collection is, well, garbage.

Regular waste is easy enough: weekly collection is OK. Larger items which can be incinerated are OK-ish: need to make an appointment two weeks in advance, and pay by weight.

Anything else and I'm screwed. I'd like to get rid of a metal ladder, but it can't be incinerated. I'm supposed to take it to a municipal recycling centre, but I can't because it's too heavy and I don't drive.

Yet this same ladder, years ago, was delivered to my doorstep after a one-click purchase on some website. Why shouldn't I have a one-click disposal?

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Same here. My municipal trash service is awful, and they increase the price every year without making the service better, probably because f-you. They could seriously use some competition.

1. Motor oil, electronics, toxic waste: They say you can't throw them away with the garbage but your only other alternative is to take time out of your weekday to drive that stuff to some government center somewhere (during business hours--I suppose you're not supposed to have a job).

2. Large items that can't fit in the trash can: There are apparently several special times a year when these things will be picked up, but only when several planets align and it's a weekday. You need to place it exactly on the right spot next to the curb, it needs to fit into a certain dimension and be under a certain weight or they'll leave it there and you need to wait for the next blue moon to come along in order to dispose it.

3. Anything else you need to get rid of that doesn't align with the garbage company's tight requirements: $50-100 trip to the dump.

I've had the best luck by just putting stuff in my front lawn with a big red "FREE" sign on it. People will scavenge ANYTHING. I've gotten rid of piles of dirt this way.

> they increase the price every year without making the service better

Inflation?

EDIT: Not sure I understand the downvotes. The cost of milk goes up every year too, and it doesn't get any better. Between inflation and unsustainable municipal expenditures (e.g. pension plans), it's not surprising that trash service follows the same MO.

Maybe the person meant: "increase the price more than the inflation rate". At least, that's how I'd read such a comment.

Maybe, although few people really think of that when complaining about rising prices.

Depends on the municipal government. Some municipal governments are truly corrupt and inefficient, so there might be rent seeking and increases in all sorts of costs.

Because it doesn't happen where you live doesn't mean it doesn't happen where he lives.

As for Motor Oil, most auto parts stores will take it, also, many mechanics will.

> 1. Motor oil, electronics, toxic waste: They say you can't throw them away with the garbage but your only other alternative is to take time out of your weekday to drive that stuff to some government center somewhere (during business hours--I suppose you're not supposed to have a job).

or you could reduce your use of those items.

I do and I don't like to pay your toxic garbage and used batteries garbage collection for you.

Everywhere I've lived in the U.S. has a periodic oversized/miscellaneous waste pickup day where they will pick up almost anything that doesn't go in the normal trash, for free. Well, by free I mean for no existing charge above whatever you might already pay as a waste fee or tax. I'm not sure where you live so it's possible this doesn't exist everywhere though (it might only be a U.S. thing?).

The everything-else waste pickup day will take bulky things that don't go in the normal trash or recycling: ladders, washing machines, couches, desks, lamps, tires, bicycles, sewing machines, etc.

For example, Houston has this kind of everything-else pickup 6 times a year. There's once a month pickup of oversized waste of two kinds. It takes tree-related waste in odd-numbered months, and non-tree-related waste in even-numbered months: https://houstontx.gov/solidwaste/treewaste.html

Small data point, but I've lived all over California and never heard of such a thing.

From what I can find online, it seems to be fairly common in California too, at least in the larger cities, though some require you to call to schedule a pickup rather than it being a regularly scheduled day. Usually googling for "[city] bulky item pickup" will find the info, if it exists.

For example, here are the pages for Los Angeles, San Francisco, Santa Cruz, and San Jose, which all offer the service free of charge: https://www.lacity.org/for-residents/popular-services/bulky-..., https://www.recology.com/recology-san-francisco/bulky-items/, http://www.cityofsantacruz.com/government/city-departments/p..., https://www.sanjoseca.gov/index.aspx?nid=3649

Have this near where I live, but wish there was just a place to take it throughout the year. Don't like having to keep stuff around for ages until one of those days comes around.

Our city handles this twice a year, they work something out with the regular trash people; who otherwise will only take things if they fit inside their robot-operated arm things.

This is also when scrap hunters drive by with their trailers looking for resale items.

Everyone wins.

You do, it's called throw it in the front yard. Anything metal will be picked up and melted down for $ by junk seekers.

Used motor oil, insulation, car batteries, and other toxic stuff, I could see a door service being useful.

There are plenty of neighborhoods where you'll be fined by the HOA for doing that. Just "tossing in the front yard" isn't a feasible sustainable solution. Anyway if he's paying 50% in income taxes then it's unlikely he even lives in a neighborhood where junk collectors drive around

typically you'll need to call a "junk collector service" which will charge you about $50/item to get rid of it for you.

At 50% tax bracket that's exactly the neighborhood scrappers want to be in. Only problem is if it's a gated community. Then you have to pay for what the rest of us (who actually rub shoulders with the world) get for free :)

I don't think I could live in an HOA even if I was paid to. Those things are atrocities. To anyone in the market for buying a home, watch out for those and never buy one if it's under an HOA. You can find lots of horror stories about them online with a quick search.

A good tip for anyone suffering through one: they can't legally interfere with amateur radio towers, so if you're dissatisfied with having to live with your HOA, you can put up as big of an amateur radio tower as you can afford and they can't do anything about it.

Usually they will ding you on every other HOA law to make up for it.

HOAs can issue fines? That's madness. I'll get fined for putting trash on my curb on the wrong day of the week, or the wrong kind of trash, but it'll be by my local government's very efficient income generators/police.

People voluntarily agree to more strict rules to not have their home value lowered by a dirty house in their block.

Although posting an ad on Craigslist under "free" could work

This works in major cities with a self-sustaining population of scrappers.

Chicago trash service is utterly amazing. Literally anything that fits in your house you put in the alley and either the scrappers take it within hours, or the trash men haul it away without complaint.

Other cities I lived in were atrocious. You'd be looked at crazy if you had anything remotely considered an abnormal need. Such as traveling a lot and not being able to put your trash bin out every single week for pickup (as you'd be fined daily for leaving it on the street). Something stupidly that simple is exceedingly hard in most places in the US - and picking up large items is usually an even worse experience.

Came here to say just that. I've seen entire living room sets put out in the alley and collected by Streets & Sanitation as if entirely routine. We did get a $10/month garbage fee added last year but it's still a bargain to have literally anything you put out back magically disappear.

The chicago mexican junk trucks are amazing. Your old stove is gone in 30 minites flat for free.

Not likely in my area. I'll get a steep fine for illegal waste disposal before any scrapper notices it.

Where I live, if you leave anything large and metal by the curb on trash day, scrappers will come take it within hours. :) Hazardous waste is a big problem though.

I hear you, that's why people dump shit in the street, or that's why people pee everywhere in the occidental world (very few public toilets).

Just put it on craigslist for free, someone will want it.

>>I pay roughly a 50% income tax, and in spite of that municipal garbage collection is, well, garbage.

No one pays 50% of their income as tax. That is not how tax brackets work.

Furthermore, the overwhelming majority of income tax goes to the federal government.

Even with a bracket system, your effective tax rate will asymptotically approach the percentage of the highest bracket as you make more and more money. Given "centre," I assume this person doesn't live in the US, and many places have higher tax brackets than the US does, including some well in excess of 50%. Also they may not have a federal vs. local distinction, etc., etc.

"The Personal Income Tax Rate in Sweden stands at 57.10 percent. Personal Income Tax Rate in Sweden averaged 56.31 percent from 1995 until 2016, reaching an all time high of 61.40 percent in 1996 and a record low of 51.50 percent in 2000."

source: https://tradingeconomics.com/sweden/personal-income-tax-rate

Effective federal plus effective state plus payroll plus effective local (income plus property) can approach 50% in the US. Average sales tax paid on post-tax income to state and local can push it over. But yes, only a fraction of it is municipal.

You might not want to make assumptions about taxes without taking location into account.

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