Diverted my own recycling bin after the city truck skipped my block 3 times

I live in Portland and our city recycling pickup is a joke. Three months ago they just stopped coming down my alley for over a week. I called and they said 'driver shortage' but my neighbor two blocks over still got picked up. So I loaded my bins into my truck and drove them to a private recycling center myself. Cost me $12 but at least my stuff didn't end up in the landfill. Anybody else just bypass their municipal program when the system fails?

2 comments

2 Comments

emmar7518d ago

Hah, so we're all just running our own rogue recycling operations now? I had to haul my own bins to the county drop-off after they 'temporarily suspended' pickup in my area due to 'budget cuts.' Meanwhile the street over still got weekly service like clockwork. Smelled like barbecue by the time I got there since they skipped two weeks in a row. Guess $12 is the price of having a conscience these days.

morgan.cameron18d ago

Oh man, I gotta admit I used to be one of those people who thought recycling was mostly a feel-good thing, like we were just making ourselves feel better while the real problems were upstream. But hearing stories like yours, where you're literally hauling stinky bins to a county drop-off because your neighborhood got the short end of the stick, that changed my mind. It's not about being a perfect environmentalist, it's about being treated fairly when you're trying to do the right thing. The fact that your street over still gets service while you're out there hunting for a drop-off, that's the part that gets me. It makes me realize the system's broken in a way that punishes the people who care the most. And yeah, the barbecue smell part, I can totally picture that, its just gross and makes you feel like your effort doesn't even matter.