They Have Become One With The Trash

My township has a contract with a trash collection agency. At $55 a month, it’s a little pricey, but they provide massive totes and as the other option is to figure it out ourselves, most people in town have signed up.

Our recycling is sitting out on the edge of the road on collection day. It actually never moves because I live on the outskirts of town and don’t have to move it. The day after, I notice that it is still full. I reach out to the company in an email.

Me: “Hello. I see that our recycling was not picked up this week. Could someone confirm that it is a weekly pickup?”

Company: “You have to have your tote on the curb the night before or it will not be picked up.”

Me: “Hello, thank you for your reply. My tote was in the correct place, as it never moves. Furthermore, I checked my doorbell camera and confirmed with my neighbors that the recycling pickup was not done on our street. Please confirm the pickup schedule.”

Company: “If your recycling is in bags, it will not be picked up regardless of whether or not it is in the correct place. We will not be sending a truck out for pickup until next week. Please be mindful of the rules you agreed to when signing up for our service.”

Before, I was confused. Now I’m mad. They have avoided confirming that they missed pickup and they’re trying to blame it on me!

Me: “Instructions to bag recycling are written on top of the tote. Why would I allow newspapers and the like to flow freely when the tote is dumped? You have yet to confirm that yesterday was a pickup day. Was it or was it not?”

They don’t answer. The next day, I am awoken by a banging on my door at 4:00 am. I see the recycling truck sitting in my yard — not on the road but actually in the grass where they have no reason to be. I speak through my video doorbell. The man seems surprised that I am talking but not there. I guess he didn’t see the very common doorbell camera right beside the door?

Me: “Yes?”

Man: “We’re taking your cans. Good luck getting rid of your s*** now!”

Me: “You weren’t picking it up anyway so it makes no difference to me. But I will be suing you for the property damage your big-a** truck is doing to my yard.”

Man: “Whatever, b****. You don’t want us to pick up your garbage, just say so. You don’t have to try to pick a fight on the Internet like some r****d.”

Me: “Uhh… you’re aware this is being recorded, right? Like… all of this.”

The man turned and walked away. He dragged both the garbage and recycling tote across the lawn and the truck picked them up. I posted the interaction on our township Facebook page. Several people came forward saying they’d had similar interactions, but not all had the video to prove it. The company’s professional Facebook page was flooded with one-star reviews until it was taken down.

A few weeks later, the contract with the trash company had been terminated for failure to fulfill services and we switched to another company that did the same thing — but, you know, actually did the job — for $40 a month.