Monday, January 19, 2009

I miss curbside recycling :(

Now, we have only been without it since the beginning of Jan. and it usually was only picked up every other week.  But it is true that you never appreciate something until it is gone.  First, let me explain why it is gone.  In a nutshell, the company went bankrupt and didn't tell the county until about a week before they were going to stop pick-up.  The contract with the company was set to expire Dec 31, but the county assumed that they would still go month to month until July, when the new company's contract was set to start.  No such luck-bankruptcy hit.  
There are several cites/towns/villages in Outagamie county that worked something out with other places or something to get interim  curbside recycling.  However, Kaukauna is not one of them.  So they have set up a recycling drop off center and the streets department (M-F 7:00-3:30 and Sat 8-12) for the convenience of those who still plan to recycle during the stoppage.  (I am sure that there are some not willing to drive there recyclables to a center.  And the county is worried about that as well.)
Well, we are willing to drive our recyclables, even if it is a slight inconvenience.  So that is what I did, for the first time today.  It was not bad.  The center is only about 5 minutes from the house.  But, you have the hassle of loading all the papers and plastics bins in the car and then driving to the center.  Then you have to unload and throw the items into the correct bins.  (The paper one was quite high I had to loft our bags in.)  Course as I was almost done, some guy came out to help unload the cars.  There were 3 others there besides me.  Then there is the drive home and bringing the bins back in the house.
Hopefully I will only have to do this until March, when they are hoping they can get the new company to start.  
Wonder what the mayor would say if we asked for a refund on taxes for the months that we are paying for a service we don't have?!?

1 comment:

kborn said...

lmao...a tax refund?!

good for you continuing the recycling. we kept missing our pickups here since the week before christmas, we were gone for 10 days in there too, and we still had 2+ trash bins overflowing for the pick up last week...I can only imagine what it'd be like taking that in every week (which I'd need to do!!)