A Trashy Post

This post is mostly for Mom and Dad, and Evelyn and Clayton. They were the ones who were sitting around the table when Greg learned that I changed our garbage subscription (yes, you've read correctly) to the smallest garbage bin. I've decided to show you the outcome of what Greg seemed to think was a bad decision. Here's the background...

St. Albert has weekly compost and recycling pick up and biweekly garbage pick up. It's a pay-as-you-throw system. Compost and recycling are free (included blindly in taxes), but you pay for the size of garbage bin that you use. We had the largest bin (240 L, $9/month), which is what most people use. It is also the same size as the bin Regina households use.

Greg and I had been noticing that we were only setting it out on garbage day (every other week) just because there might be a stinky diaper in it. Other than that, it was mostly empty. So I told Greg I was going to downsize our bin. He thought it was safe to go to the middle size, 120 L, $4.40/month. I attempted to do this, but the lady I was talking to said she and her husband, without kids, use the smallest bin, 60 L, $1.10/month.

That's where the deception started. When Greg and I were DINKs (Double Income, No Kids), we often put out our not-full galvanized steel garbage can every other week. We compost and recycle so much more here in St. Albert than we ever did in Regina. So Connie, not willing to pay any more that she has to, changed the subscription to the smallest bin. This is what it looks like next to the 60 L blue recycling bag.

Greg saw the bin, but didn't realize it was the smallest one until I dropped that detail while we were sitting around the kitchen table on the Friday night before Cody's wedding. He definitely used his WTF voice when he realized the garbage bin sitting in his garage was the smallest one.

Well, our first garbage day with the small bin has arrived. Before you look inside it, just know that there are 3 gallons of waste mortar (from the landscaping blocks) sitting in the bottom below the garbage bag, which contains mostly fluffy non-recyclable plastics. If this is what your garbage can looked like, would you spend $1.10/month or would you spend an extra $3.30/month or even $7.90/month just in case you needed the extra space? FYI: Extra bags of garbage can be dropped off at the garbage depot for $2/bag.