[QUOTE=vintageogauge;1675836]No, if part time residents did not pay while they were not at the Villages, then they would not be subsidizing the trash fees of the full time residents, significantly increasing their costs.

Let me second that.......HELL NO!!!!

1. welcome to my world, with regards to posting on-topic opinions.

2. the glitch in your idea is that it costs the same amount of money for a truck to pick up 4 pounds of trash from your house as it does to pick up 1/4 pound of trash from your house. The cost to do business from the location where the truck started out, to the location where he empties his truck, is the same no matter what. So that means if people aren't paying anything because they're not home, everyone else has to absorb that cost.

The route doesn't change, and they still have to go slowly, using the same amount of gas, labor, man-hours, etc.

Think of it from the reverse perspective: making you pay a share, is incentive for you to not spend months away from the house. You're paying to be there!

Actually your logic is a bit over-simplified. It takes less effort and time to, for example, collect 1 bag instead of 2 or a small bag instead of a large bag. Smaller volumes would also reduce the number of runs to the disposal site the truck has to make each day. Reducing the total volume received at the disposal sites would also reduce impact and cost. Encouraging customers to reduce their trash volume would be a win-win proposition and monetary encouragement is the most easily understood and appreciated.

Write the check! The Villages knows what they want to do. They are just putting us through the paces.

I would say then, rather than not raise the price, or charge nothing for the months that snowbirders aren't there..something like this:

A minimum required monthly fee for every household, for once-weekly pickup. It would cover the trash contractor's minimum costs of doing business plus minimal profit margin required to continue servicing the Villages.

The second day's pickup would be billed to those who want that second day's pickup. It would not be a minimal charge, and it would be a subscription service, with a minimum 3 consecutive month charge.

The second day would also include the recycling and yard waste, and you'd pay for it even if you don't have any yard waste or recycling to do that week. Your second-day fee would include these services, and you can use or not use them however you see fit.

Sort of like - I pay amenity fees every month, whether I'm living down there to use those amenities or not. I can't tell them "Oh I'm not there 6 months out of the year, I don't have to pay for them til I get back."

In other words, everyone pays a minimum, for minimal service whether they use it or not. If you want more than the minimal service, you have to pay extra.

That way the contractor gets what he needs to keep his people paid, his machines in good condition, all HIS fees paid, and the only time you pay extra is if you choose to opt in to the extra fee for extra services.

What problem with the trash pickup are you trying to solve? Are you suggesting that the trash pickup cost too much money? We pay about $200 per year for twice a week trash pickup and once a week yard waste pickup. In my opinion, this is a bargain.

Not poohpoohing your ideas but I can see issues real quick. There is a lot of administration work being added here, think of any other place you have lived do they let you drop and pickup services when you are gone? I can not understand why people come to The Villages and want things from government here that they can not and never would get from any other government entity.

Next would be one person getting the service on the street and 20 households putting out trash on their driveway. It would happen real quickly. The issue here is not the cost of picking up the trash or recycling, it is the cost of disposing of it after pickup. That price has gone up significantly and is not going to go down. No one wants it and no one is willing to build a dump close or pony up for a waste to energy plant. This is a bigger issue than just how many times waste is pickup.

Agree with Midnight Cowgirl- we only put trash out once a week (on the same day as recyclables) and notice most of our neighbors do the same. Very few 2 person households generate enough trash for twice a week pickup.

Agree we don't need the trucks 3 times a week. Question is IF thae collections went to 1 for trash/recycle and 1 for yard waste would the price drop or stay the same ? The workers still need to get paid or are they also going to get cut back? I for one don't see a problem with things the way they are. Last I read was the problem was with the recycled material as VERY few places want to recycle as the demand is dropping big time and the cost is going up. I'm sure someone will correct me if I'm wrong.

:agree::agree::agree::agree:

Price is right for the convenience of twice a week pick up. A dumpster at the postal station cracks me up. I can only imagine the scene during the summer heat.

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It would be quite the pile, probably completely hiding the dumpster in one of the villages with over a thousand houses.

:bigbow: You hit the nail directly on the head. If a firehouse only goes on 1 call a month rather than 100, does the cost go down and taxes get reduced? Went to the workshop and the cost for recycled waste is going up from approximately $21 per ton to $78 per ton. You can pick up once a month and your cost is not going to go down.

:agree:

Unless you have experience in the waste management industry, it is best to avoid speculating on costs. For example, unless you know the breakdown of expenses you have no idea what the savings will be. If you have such experience then great, otherwise speculation is pointless. I do agree that once a week pickup would be fine. However, we don’t know the reason for twice a week pickup. Our current cost is already very low so I personally don’t see a problem.

Worst idea ever. Besides the stench, the rats, the coyotes, the cockroaches and other vermin, who would want to buy a house anywhere near these localized dumps? Add many vacant houses to this situation and look what we've got just to possibly save a few dollars.

You really think people are going to drive to TV just to dump their trash?

This is not reasonable because you cannot expect the guys doing the trash pickup to keep track of which houses they accept trash from. Besides, it would quickly be gamed. I believe the only way a true “pay for service system” could be implemented is if they only picked up “approved garbage bags” that you would need to buy. I don’t see that happening here for a variety of reasons. That system did work in our previous community - trash pickup was at your discretion and the vendor only picked up their containers (pretty much the same thing as “approved garbage bags”). The cost was higher than here. The current system works well because the trash pickup guys sweep through very quickly picking up everything in sight and the vendor knows exactly what their revenues and costs will be. Besides, for what we get the price is a bargain.

I've thought about how to decrease trash volume. I'm at a loss. I have no idea what I could possibly eliminate from the trash we put out for collection.

There are places known as eco-villages that address this very thing. Their goal is zero waste. They don't achieve it, but they reach for it like no other community I know of. They have compost toilets and use the resulting compost for their produce gardens, and they are mostly self-sustaining. They have very little plastic, from any source at all, other than the piping for their running water. They have solar showers, solar heaters, and some use wind turbines. They're completely off-grid but fully powered.

It's amazing how much waste you discover you have, if you were shown an example of an entire community that reaches for zero waste.

Things you don't even think about - like laundry detergent containers. Dryer sheet boxes. Empty butter containers. Empty juice bottles, empty cans, empty dog food bags, paper tissues (as opposed to cloth hankies), empty plastic bags and used saran wrap, pizza boxes, take-out containers, used tin foil, the list goes on and on. And after all that, you BUY plastic bags, for the express purpose of filling them with trash and throwing them away. If that's not the very model of waste, I don't know what is.

I'm not saying that I don't waste. I absolutely do, and I own that. But ever since a friend of mine moved to an eco-village and showed me the website where I could actually read about the concept and see photos of the community and learn about the mechanics of the whole thing, I'm much more aware, and try to be a bit more responsible about the consumption.

Forgot to add a very significant type of waste that no one gives a second thought to in the Villages: the vegetable peels and discarded produce that you all stuff down the garbage disposal. No, it doesn't go into the trash. But that is organic material that could be turned into fertile, gorgeous, nourishing compost for flower gardens. Instead, you stuff it into your sewer system.

But I'm not sure I agree with your #2. If a truck is picking up 1/4 lb of trash as opposed to 4 lbs of trash, it would be making fewer trips to the landfill. Thus savings in gas and time. This assumes the trucks now make more than one trip, though--a point of which I have no knowledge.


As for the public dumpsters, I agree with everyone else that they would be an eyesore, smelly, and rat-infested. The public dumpsters where we live in the summer are in two spots, both on the outskirts of town and hidden from view by tall live hedges.



I can't imagine every postal station in TV having dumpsters.

I would like to take this opportunity to ask people to NOT put their unwanted mail of any sort into the barrels at the PO station. Filling that barrel ADDS to everyone's trash costs by requiring that barrel to be emptied. You already pay for pickup at you home. Throw your trash away there, please. "Waste" paper should be put out with your recyclables. But even if you trash it, why are you adding to my amenity fee costs by dumping trash at the PO station. Is it too heavy to bring home? Reduce your junk mail by signing up with the Direct Marketing Association and by cancelling catalogs etc that you no longer wish to receive by contacting the company (yes, sometimes you have to call them twice). As to the dumpster idea, the various thoughts as to its impracticability mentioned above seem well reasoned.

Terrible idea. First off there is the odor, especially in the summer, secondly it looks terrible, thirdly, pickup is done by large trucks which would block people from coming in to get their mail, fourthly pickup makes a lot of noise which isn't fair to the people who live by a postal station and most important, dumpsters attract rats and mice.

Trash Pick Up
 

I personally do not want to bring my trash to a dumpster first of all it will be a mess with all these people here and especially at the postal station maybe you would not care but when you live across the street I don't think you would want it either.

Bad Idea if you live in the villages and are worried about cost maybe this is not the right place for those people.

I say we don’t need dumpsters at the postal stations.

Q: Would they pass those savings on to the residents? A: No!

Terrible idea
 

Terrible idea! We had this for a few years in the small village we lived in on Long Island. It was a mess! And most people did not bring their recyclables down there Just inconvenience.
Our postal stations are also our swimming pools let’s keep it clean and beautiful

I like that idea. When leaving town for a few days I can dispose of my trash and hit the road.

I think this is the worst idea ever, and I hope it was made in jest. Dumpsters at the mail stations? Even if emptied daily they would stink in the Florida heat and they would be major eye soars. Reduce trash pickup to one day a week if you want to reduce costs. I don't think many people really need two trash pick up days.

I lived in an apartment complex that did that exact thing. Do you realize how many homes share some Postal stations? Those dumpsters would fill up very quickly and we could have trash overflowing and on the ground every day. I am for recycling more. Educating folks to do that would be easy. I hated dragging a sticky leaking bag to the dumpster as well.

Plane and simple NO for sooo many reasons.

Not attractive, and would attract unwanted animals.

dumpsters at the postal stations
 

Maybe I do not understand the suggestion but it seems like a transfer of free labor of the home owner to a paid employee which would increase cost. Who would empty the dumpsters? Also most mail stuff (e.g. ads) is recyclable, not trash.

Trash opinion
 

Not a good idea. They are ugly, smelly, and would attract rodents.
I suggest one pick up a week instead of 2 to cut cost. Do we really need 2 pick ups a week.

dumpsters
 

I will pass on this idea for the same reasons as mentioned previously.

What is wrong with the way it is done now. I for one do not want to see dumpsters up at the mail station. I lived in a county where we had to drive our trash to the dumpster. I dread the thought of doing that again. Also the stench until it is emptied not to mention the trash laying all around it. I remember those hot summer days of taking the trash to the county dumpster. It was disgusting. The smell and the trash everywhere. I am paying to live her so I don’t have to do those kind of things anymore. Also when I throw larger items out for the trash they are certainly not going to fit on my golf cart. I agree with others I do not ride up to the postal station everyday. If they don’t want us to put dog feces in the trash cans up there can you imagine a group of those with dogs dumping their presents off in one area.

Trash dumpsters usually begin to smell like the trash/garbage that they collect. I certainly don't want that at my mailbox. Also, The Villages is a gorgeous place to live. The introduction of dumpsters into the residential areas is inconsistent with one of the main reasons why many people moved here.

Stinky, unsightly dumpster in the very public mail station and pool area? I don't think that is the impression that our community wishes to make on ourselves and others. It might be cost effective, but very undesirable.

Perhaps each service only once a week instead of two trash pickups. Is that way in other communities.