are the trash guys cutting the lids off the recycling bins?

Submitted by masshole4life t3_112b392 in WorcesterMA

i noticed that our glorious Bins With Lids™ have become separated from the lids, which is weird because they were attached with heavy zip ties. i suppose they could have been weathered off but they were perfectly intact a month ago. i wonder about the collectors because they loooove to stick it to people who don't follow collection rules, which i do. i suppose it could be the world's lamest prank by kids but lids are flying around solo all over, not just in my neighborhood.

i also noticed that these stupid bins have done jack fucking shit to alleviate the problem of trash everywhere. the wind just picks up the whole damn bin and dumps it everywhere then blows it away. and the bins are made with the cheapest possible plastic and are literally smashed all over the roads while the contents swirl about.

my suspicion is that the collectors got sick of dealing with the lids flapping on them when they dump them and cut the zip ties, rendering the whole lid program moot.

what a stupid solution for one of the windiest cities in the country.

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Educational-List8475 t1_j8ko284 wrote

They’re definitely cutting them or breaking them off in some other way. My lid also became magically separated after putting it out twice. The collection crews also love throwing the bins as hard as possible at the ground, because I came home a few weeks ago and a huge chunk was broken off the container, which is the same shit they did with the other style bins. The whole new recycling bin program was a complete waste of time and money. A better investment would probably have been making sure collection crews aren’t spilling the contents all over the road (which I’ve seen them do). Anyway I’m back to using the original style

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masshole4life OP t1_j8kqv1m wrote

i understand that recycling bags seem like an oxymoron, but it's the only solution that is feasible in our unique circumstance. all the 3 deckers with jammed street parking combined with way windier weather than most of the country makes this a challenge that no one wants to acknowledge properly.

people keep pitching ideas that cannot work here. giant wheelie bins that get emptied by a mechanical arm require access to the sidewalks, which are almost totally obstructed by parked cars from end to end on both sides. i suppose it could work in single family neighborhoods but what % of the city would that even cover?

a short cruise through a neighborhood on trash day will reveal the jokes that are Bins With Lids™ that people on this very sub were promoting as a solution like we don't regularly get 30+mph wind gusts. i was downvoted and insulted for predicting exactly what we got. trash is still absolutely everywhere on collection day and we paid extra for the privilege.

recycle bags may be stupid and anti-green or whatever, but it's the only solution that will actually work.

make the bags have perforated tops so workers can easily empty them, and make them out of something we can easily recycle locally. otherwise, declare the recycling program a failure due to implementation restrictions and stop bothering us with those stupid fucking yellow bags.

the sooner everyone gets their head out of their ass, the better. it's not fucking working.

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legalpretzel t1_j8l6yud wrote

We had FAR more issues in Boston with congestion and wonky street parking and 3 deckers. And, get this, there are hills in Boston too! It seems crazy but each 2 or 3 family in boston gets one rolling bin to share and the 2 or 3 apartments all put their recycling in it. Overflow could be placed next to the bin in brown paper bags or cardboard boxes. Larger landlords (4+ units) are required to provide dumpsters and the city routinely takes landlords to housing court to deal with trash tickets. They expect the landlord to provide adequate space for trash bins and to hold their tenants accountable.

It wasn’t an issue in any neighborhood (outside of beacon hill/north end where larger landlords provided dumpsters and the rest used clear bags because there was legitimately nowhere to store bins).

I wish Worcester would move past the whole “we’re so special our tenants couldn’t possibly figure out how to roll a damn bin to the curb”.

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masshole4life OP t1_j8ld90y wrote

so boston has a law requiring dumpsters for 4 or more apartments? and you think that's the same?

those "larger" quad deckers make up roughly half of the wooden multifamilies in the city, yes, half of our "triple" deckers have 4 apartments and there ain't no dumpster requirement here.

i wish smarmy Big City Folk™ would compare apples to apples when explaining to us yokels how much better it gets done elsewhere. i hear they have subways in boston, too. surely the same car culture/requirements exist in both places, also?

have you ever seen a booted car in worcester? a red zone sidewalk? a car ticketed for parking violations on dense residential side streets?

newsflash: worcester doesn't enforce anything. worcester doesn't require quad decker owners to have dumpsters. there are dozens of ways in which worcester is nothing like boston and dozens of reasons why. good reasons? what's the difference?

worcester is not boston. worcester does not function properly at many levels. lots of things will not work here because they require a pre-existing functional framework to bolt new ideas onto.

stop pretending you don't understand this. it's a bit obnoxious.

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AceOfTheSwords t1_j8mz5m3 wrote

To poke a hole in the "Worcester is not Boston" argument, note that Lowell also uses the wheeled bins and is a much more comparable city to Worcester in most regards. I never lived there personally, only had friends who did, so I don't know the details of their implementation. But they weren't constantly complaining about their garbage collection, and it's probably where we should look for an example rather than Boston.

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mellymellcaramel t1_j8le0lk wrote

Worcester is the second biggest city in New England. If other cities surrounding Boston: Somerville, Cambridge etc can have bins, so can we. Those cities are densely populated and lots of small roads, like worcester, that also have street parking. If other Dr fly populated cities can make it happen then it’s not out of reach here.

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masshole4life OP t1_j8lfd6w wrote

they also tend to have other laws that are enforced that pave the way for things like wheelie bins to work.

one of the biggest examples is parking enforcement. worcester does not ticket for parking on the sidewalk, obstructing the sidewalk, obstructing anything, really, in it's residential neighborhoods.

I'm not talking about downtown or in spread out places. drive around any triple decker neighborhood. you'll see cars parked on the sidewalk all the way down the road. you'll see ass ends of cars sticking out of driveways blocking sidewalks.

how exactly do you think places like Cambridge and boston are able to have their trucks have access to the bins? it's because they ticket the hell out of people for parking the way we park on worcester 24/7 with no repercussions.

a lot of things would have to be enforced and regulated to make it work, and not to spoil the end for you, but worcester isn't going to do it.

worcester isn't going to do anything but rush out ideas that "work elsewhere" without laying any of the groundwork that "elsewhere" did.

I'll be back in these comments with my "told you sos" just like with these stupid ass lidded bins. it's just a matter of when.

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mellymellcaramel t1_j8mt42k wrote

You say this like I wasn’t aware and haven’t lived in the city my whole life. Wether or not worcester will do it, is not the topic. I’m saying that all of the above, ticketing cars etc etc is what should be done along with rolling bins. There is no other way. And I’m saying it’s an attainable goal.

Will they do it? Probably not for another 10 years. Not sure why you have this “told you so” attitude. Most people here are talking about solutions, and nothing will be done unless we get loud about it.

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masshole4life OP t1_j8nc8gp wrote

attainable goal? that's the "head up the ass" that I'm referring to.

if you believe that worcester is going to suddenly and whimsically just "start functioning" then you have offered no suggestion at all.

you think worcester residents are going to bang down doors at city hall to demand...more traffic tickets. you live in a fantasy.

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mellymellcaramel t1_j8nkiyc wrote

Worcester is different today than it was 10-20-30 years ago. And things will change in another 10-20-30 years also. I didn’t say it’s SUDDENLY going to start changing, I’ve seen the city take forever.

You’re the one with your head up your ass if you think everywhere stays the same for all time.

Also, the biggest plague on worcester is residents like you, people who shit on the city every chance they get they don’t do anything to change it, or even want to see it change. The worst thing about worcester are the morbid and gloomy attitudes from the residents.

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SmartSherbet t1_j8no4au wrote

And the gloominess is often combined with entitlement."Wah wah wah I get to park on the sidewalk because I want to and have always done it and it would be toooooo annoooooying to have to find a parking spot that's actually legal."

No. The sidewalk is ours to walk on, not yours to park on. That's how it works and the fact that Worcester has let you do stupid crap like this for years doesn't mean they were right or that we will let the city let you do it forever.

We are coming for our sidewalks. We are coming for safe streets, and yes, we are coming to make the city give you traffic tickets when you put our lives in danger with your reckless driving and entitled parking.

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masshole4life OP t1_j8ohux9 wrote

it's so cool how you know all about me because i point out that hopes and dreams don't create change. it's not like i have a 10 year posting history in this sub detailing my many battles with city hall and the city council or anything...

let's make a deal. I'll continue to point out stupid unworkable ideas and you can continue to propose fantasies that are tailored for other cities. will that work for you?

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HappyExperience9788 t1_j8mwi9r wrote

Im from Boston i think the yellow bags are stupid to black trash bags does the same job but im use to it by now its just another way for Worcester to make money off of us.

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Educational-List8475 t1_j8kvcdm wrote

Those are some good points. Tbh I had no idea about the new bins until I got one delivered to the house. Thought it was a little silly but hey that’s why the city wants so I went with the flow. At least until collections started breaking the bins.

Bags are actually a good idea, I had never though of it. I guess we’ll see what doesn’t happen

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gotdabsweats t1_j8l2wo0 wrote

100% they’re intentionally cutting the zip ties. I lost my bin this past week and found it down the street with no lid and a huge crack down the side. I think the lid slows them down or something which clearly irritates them.

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1kidney_left t1_j8lbnw8 wrote

While I’m not necessarily disagreeing here, I will say, plastic zip ties become VERY brittle in cold weather and crack much easier than in warm weather. Above freezing temperatures and the plastics is malleable. Drop below freezing, you bend it just a bit more than it wants to and it’s going to crack right off.

This comes from years of having a green mesh privacy screen zip tied to the chain link fence around our yard. Every winter, about 50-60% of the zip ties crack just from the cold and the wind. So we have to keep a big bag on hand to replace them through the winter months. But we never have a problem with them snapping in warm weather.

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Whole-Wishbone-7539 t1_j9cjsr2 wrote

The city's trash people are generally world class dicks. They used to skip my road on holiday weeks so they could finish on time.

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[deleted] t1_j8jd2kv wrote

Even heavy zip ties wear out after a while, especially if it’s being used every week and slammed around by the workers.

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legalpretzel t1_j8l633e wrote

One neighbor’s zip tie is intact, the other lost their lid despite the zip tie because the bin handle was cracked in half.

Plastic being thrown around in cold weather is just a stupid idea. The city needs to tell casella to upgrade the trucks and get us stupid rolling bins aleady. Enough is enough.

Also, if the city had to pay to replace destroyed bins I guarantee casella would treat them better. Passing the cost onto us negates any incentive casella might have to keep the city happy.

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[deleted] t1_j8l6yxt wrote

I’m not sure how many people are even buying new city bins to replace the ones that break because they still take old ones or virtually any other plastic bin. I still use one of those old school Worcester green ones with an open top and my friend uses a big grey bin he bought at Wal mart.

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distresseddodo t1_j8jvqn4 wrote

we have had to buy several recycling bins every year bc collectors love to toss them around and break them. welcome to woosta lol

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BatExisting325 t1_j8izyg9 wrote

No. They are attached with a thin cheap zip tie. The recycle trucks(not the DPW) toss them around and they break..use the old ones instead…also people put their bins out the night before. The city asks that you put them out in the morning to alleviate that but most don’t

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EridanusCorvus t1_j8j8xgy wrote

Mine shattered within a month of getting it. We just need better bins, not everyone can be home and/or awake between 6 and 7:30 AM.

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LordNelson781 t1_j8kcu7r wrote

I have to get mine out by 7am. The trucks love to come early…I’ve complained to the city that, when I put it out by 7:20, I get missed. Their response….”get up earlier”

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GodBeWithYouToday t1_j8kgf22 wrote

IF they really wanted people putting them out the morning of trash/recycle pick up then they shouldn't have the trucks start coming before 10 AM so people can wake at a reasonable hour and get them out and not feel as though they'd have to get up in the middle of the night.

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ReporterOther2179 t1_j8kx3wg wrote

Seems self defeating for the collection guys to be doing deliberately. Lids keep out the rain and snow, lowers weight on some days.

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4runnr t1_j8lad6y wrote

I cut mine off the day I got it, figured it was just for keeping them together on delivery. If it isn’t windy I don’t put the lid on so the recycling peoples’ job is easier. If it is windy then I clip the lid on.

This isn't too complicated.

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fireismyfetish t1_j8ljfwl wrote

We don't seem to have issues with it it, thankfully. Though tbh, I got a toter bin with a proper hinged lid on it when I moved into my house and it's significantly better than anything the city has ever given me. Never had a problem with it getting collected too.

The green one from the city is just secondary.

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HistoricalSecurity77 t1_j8j69zn wrote

I’ve watched the collection guys throw them like they are pitching a softball. That surly can’t help.

If the city enforced the no bins out the night before rule, it would help so much. I’m not sure I’ve ever actually heard of anyone getting a fine for it.

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legalpretzel t1_j8l78fb wrote

How does not putting them out at night resolve the issue? Our garage is the same temp as the outside air, so the bin is cold no matter where it sits at night.

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BatExisting325 t1_j8me5t6 wrote

If you put bins out the night before they are subject to the elements, wind, rain, even animals which could knock them over. If you put them out in the morning it’s less likely to blow over get knocked around.

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HistoricalSecurity77 t1_j8ogqnd wrote

More time for animals to get in them… Also for them to blow over. I don’t think putting them out the night before has any bearing on the bins themselves. I understand that it’s a pain to get up early, but it really does screw over neighbors. Often the yellow trash goes out as well, which can attract the raccoons and animals.

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YukaBazuka t1_j8k6yea wrote

Nah its just cheap plastic breaking

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riblack t1_j8kxcf6 wrote

I used a piece of metal and self tapping screws to fix my lid , no one is breaking that again

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mtbmike t1_j8k24hh wrote

These bins suck. My neighborhood is covered with trash.

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granted768 t1_j8kd899 wrote

My zip broke two weeks later the lid was gone. I had the same old bin for years now this one is cracked and missing the lid.

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perry3335 t1_j8ki4zl wrote

It's actually very simple, it has to do with the fact that these are plastic zip ties, the colder weather makes plastic more prone to breaking, and these trash guys love to toss them around .

I ended up buying a pack of zip ties to have on hand.

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twerkitout t1_j8mcyan wrote

Resident of Waltham here lurking from a suggestion and this is the problem. What are you guys doing with zip tied lids? I couldn’t get the lid to come off my city issued recycling bin if I tried. The bin itself is RFID tagged. It’s your city who did you dirty on a bad contract. Collaborate with collections and go get ye better bins!!

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Shaw_LaMont t1_j8lfpte wrote

Could be the cold for some of them. I used to bike to work yearround in Boston, and had a basket zip-tied to my rear rack. During one of the sub-zero days, a sharp jostle on the MIT bridge snapped 3/4s of them.

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Cold_Nose2 t1_j8lwhzq wrote

My lid has also become obsolete. I wrap my bin in heavy duty duct tape to keep it from becoming useless after the heavy tosses on trash day.

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HappyExperience9788 t1_j8mvn3w wrote

They didnt do that on my street they could have been just some idiots.

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dorkswerebiggerthen t1_j8j6mpi wrote

Yeah the trash guys in this city are a joke. You'd think doing one of the easiest jobs in society wouldn't be so tough for them, but I guess most can't even read at a high school level.

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SmartSherbet t1_j8jam42 wrote

Holy crap, have you watched those guys work? They literally run and jump and bend over and lift heavy loads all day long, in all weather, while exposed to horrendous noise and odors.

Say whatever you want about the city's crappy collection programs, but the collectors themselves work their asses off. I couldn't do their job. This issue is not about them.

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BatExisting325 t1_j8jhrar wrote

Yes. 1 guy on the back picks up over 10 tons of trash a day. One of the easiest jobs in society” yeah right. Look up 10 toughest jobs in America. You might learn something. When it’s snowing and 20 below out these guys are still picking up your shit so have a little respect and not try to shit on city workers.

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hXcPickleSweats t1_j8klhdb wrote

It's a very hard and very dangerous job and that smell that sticks on you. The conditions they work in along with the demanding schedule (no time for bathroom breaks) isn't for the weak. Trash collectors always have my respect.

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Itchy_Rock_726 t1_j8jsf0y wrote

Maybe the most ignorant and entitled comment I have read in many moons. Wow! Work one of those trucks for ONE day and I'll be ready at the end of your shift with a hanky.

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serve-your-aunt-tina t1_j8jpd09 wrote

bro you sit in your cave and play dungeons and dragons all day like a man child what are you talking about

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Esuts t1_j8jy2m8 wrote

The DPW is a joke, but it's not the trash guys' fault. They're just doing their job.

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Ready-Interview-9809 t1_j8kd3wg wrote

Yeah FUCK YOU, YA PRICK! Some of these trucks I see have one person both driving AND emptying the bins on both sides of a road. Fuck YOUUU!

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