Trash and Recycling Pickup Slides This Week

Trash and recycling pickup slide a day this week because of the Presidents' Day holiday on Monday. So if your trash pickup is on Monday, then Tuesday is your new day, and so on down the week.

Here's a direct link to DPW's trash and recycling collection schedule: http://collectionday.dcgis.dc.gov.

And your dose of Presidents' Day trivia. Until 1971, Presidents' Day was Washington's birthday: February 22. Lincoln's birthday wasn't a legal holiday. In 1971 the  two birthdays were combined into a single Presidents Day.

Hold Your Thursday Trash Till Friday

Because Thursday is a Veteran's Day there's no trash or recycling pickup. Pickup slides a day on all Federal holidays. (Which isn't nearly as disruptive as when trash and recycling pickup slides a week after a snowpocaplypse.)  If your trash gets picked up on Thursday, put out your cans for a Friday pickup; if your day of trash is Friday, you'll see the recycling and trash trucks on Saturday.

While trash and reycling will not be picked up on Thursday, leaves will be picked up. So get those leaves ready so that we can wave 'bye to this year's leaf blower season.

Between Monday, November 8 and 20 (including Veterans Day), DPW will collect leaves from “Area A” neighborhoods as designated in the leaf collection brochure mailed to households. Area A residents should rake their leaves into their treebox spaces this weekend to be ready for their collection cycle. To view DPW’s trash and recycling holiday schedule for the remainder of the year, click here or call 311. You can use DPW’s web site to view the 2010-2011 leaf collection schedule by selecting Leaf Collection and clicking on Check Leaf Collection Status in Your Neighborhood and entering in your address.

Oh, and it's Free Parking on Thursday everywhere in DC.

Watch Out for Trash Thieves

From the Brookland listserv comes this intriguing account of a trash thief caught in the act. Although the trash-stealer quickly came up with a lofty-sounding motive, the more likely object of trash sifting is any unshredded paid bills or bank statements that can be used for identify theft.

This morning, a little past 8am, I looked outside towards the rear where the trash barrels are, and saw a man going through several stacked and tied-up trash bags that had been placed there for pickup this week. I noticed a white sports model car parked right outside the fenced-in yard, and yelled through the window at him "What are you doing?!" 

Your Recycling Bin Knows When You Don't Recycle...and Tattles on You

Pity the poor citizens of Cleveland, Ohio. They recycle. Like the good citizens of any city, some people in Cleveland are more enthusiastic recyclers than others. But soon in Cleveland recycling bins will be equipped with an RFID chip that monitors the bin's motion, and if it's not brought to the curb for a few weeks, the recycling can will automatically tell on you and call a city inspector.

What happens next is that a human stops by and plows through your trash can. If you trash can contains more than 10 percent recyclable stuff, you get a nice $100 fine.

Hazardous Waste Service Cut to Once a Month

Today the Department of Public Works -- DPW for short, a/k/a the Trash Folks -- sent out a brief, bland announcement:

Starting Saturday, October 2, once a month, residents may bring these items to the Ft. Totten Transfer Station, 4900 John F. McCormack Road, NE, the first Saturday of the month, except holidays, between 8 am and 3 pm.  The new schedule reflects a reduction in the Department's budget for FY 2011, which begins October 1.

Weekend Activity: Where Are the Bodies?

Somebody apparently knows where the bodies are. (Photo taken in the Tenleytown neighborhood of Washington, DC.) If you have nothing to do this weekend, maybe you can help find them.

Photo by Bill Adler