TALKING TRASH

“He also that is slothful in his work is brother to him that is a great waster.”  (Proverbs 18:9)

Today I’m talking trash.  No, there won’t be any obscenities used, and I’m not talking about celebrity gossip, nor am I talking about dirty laundry.  I’m literally talking about TRASH- the stuff we throw out every week.

In the Local section (for the Framingham area) of yesterday’s MetroWest Daily News is an article by D. Craig MacCormack about the Town of Framingham’s limit on how much trash a household can throw out and expect the Town to pick up each week.  The title is, “Residents ask to bag trash limit” and the subtitle reads, “People with larger families say three sacks isn’t enough”.   A notice went out to Framingham residents a few weeks ago stating that while the amount of recyclables that can be put out each week is unlimited, the amount of just plain trash is pretty much limited to three of what I call the “large green trash bags” per week.  I read the notice a few weeks ago, but in fact I was not aware that this has been Framingham’s policy since 1999.

I hope I don’t get in trouble for saying this, but honestly, there ARE ways around the trash limitation.  For example, if you live in an “older” neighborhood on the southside in which there are many two or three family houses and you happen to live in a single family home which looks just like the multifamily dwellings your house abuts, you can put out six bags and the trash men will assume your house is a two family.  You could also sort of cut a deal with your neighbors so that when you have a particularly large amount of trash on a particular week, you can just place an extra bag in front of their residence, and when they have a particularly large amount of trash, they can just reciprocate.

In fact, I think Framingham is pretty reasonable when it comes to trash collection.  Ashland and Natick have that awful “pay as you throw” business where you have to buy special trash bags with weird and distinctive colors.  Usually the bags are flimsy, and the whole thing becomes a real nuisance.  As reasonable as Framingham is, the most reasonable community for trash collection in the Boston area is Canton.  Canton’s trash collectors will pretty much pick up ANY amount of trash in any configuration (with the exception of hazardous waste, of course) and never give the homeowners a problem.

I make it a point to have our family’s trash properly and securely bagged.  I also recycle the overwhelming majority of our newspapers, magazines, bottles, cans, and cardboard.  I marvel at the number of people in Framingham who throw huge cardboard boxes out with their trash, as well as huge hunks of styrofoam.  The stuff just stays out there forever.  The only way to get that stuff picked up is that it’s GOT to be cut up in pieces that are no bigger than two feet in any direction and it’s got to be properly bundled/secured.  Some people put out barrels of loose trash.  For many reasons, that’s just asking for trouble!

Maybe I should give a class on local cable T.V. on how to put out your trash!  My wife and kids would laugh, but in our home I’m the “Felix Unger” and indeed I “properly”  put out the trash and recyclables each week.

I’m really not a recycling nut, but it’s just gotten to be a habit.  When Framingham started mandatory recycling about fifteen years ago, I was one of those who grumbled.  Today, I just do it out of habit and I really think it’s a good idea.  Recycling and limitations on trash are frankly very “liberal/blue state” ideas.  As conservative and Republican as I am, that “environmentally friendly” stuff has gotten into my blood.  When I’ve stayed with my friends in Springfield, Missouri I’ve been shocked that in that very “conservative/red state” place, there is virtually NO recycling.  Each family has a big trash dispenser on wheels.  You put ALL your trash in there and I mean all, and it just gets picked up and dumped, almost with an attitude of “we pollute and we don’t recycle and we’re proud of it”.  When I’ve asked my Missouri friends about it they’ve said, “Well, we DID recycle when we lived in Pennsylvania, but here nobody recycles...this is just how we do it here!”

SO, maybe the Framingham trash rules aren’t so bad after all.  I hope there was at least SOMETHING about this posting that you liked.  If not, well, just TRASH it!