We live in a rural area outside of a small town in northwestern Pennsylvania. I had only ever lived in more populated cities and towns before, and so I had to learn a few new things about how things are done in the country. One significant difference was trash pick-up. Perviously, it was always the municipality that took care of that. Just tell me what day to set out the trash, and it disappears. In the country, it's not so straightforward. If you don't haul your own trash to the dump, you have to pay someone to do that for you. When we moved here almost seven years ago, there were two choices: the corporate giant Waste Management, and a local company that was run out of the owner's home. In the interest of supporting local business, I chose the local company. They were quirky and cranky. The quarterly bills always had some strange, tersely worded announcements regarding conditions for pick-up. As far as I was concerned, it just gave the whole garbage pick-up process a character I had never experienced previously.
Well, two days ago, I received a letter from Waste Management...
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My quirky local trash pick-up contractor has been bought out by Waste Management. There is no longer a choice in rural trash pick-up in this area. I called the 800 number provided to learn about what changes might be happening. When I used to called the now defunct local company, an actual human answered the phone. (In fact, on the bills, there was always a caution not to phone the company outside of business hours since that was also their home phone.) When I called Waste Management's 800 number, a computer answered the phone. It was one of those awful computers that demands that you talk to it. Well, so much for the human touch.
It turns out that, at least for now, there is no change in the pick-up date or billing. However, there was one change that I found surprising. The local company made provisions for recycling pick-ups along with the garbage. Waste Management has no such provisions. (The woman I talked to said they were working on it.) Seriously? A company as large as Waste Management has no way to deal with recyclables? And how long has recycling been a priority now?
So, I suppose I will just have to adapt to the new situation. I'm sure my trash will disappear as I wish for it to every week, but whatever charm there might have been in that very prosaic process will be gone. And I'll have to figure out what else to do with my recyclables.
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April 4, 2012
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