The State of Seattlest's Garbage

The kitchen garbage was pretty full this morning, and while we generally wouldn't think twice about leaving it sit until sometime later this week, today we wanted to get a look at the garbage outside, so we dumped the morning's coffee grounds, tied up the bag and hauled it outside. Seattlest lives in the top unit of a duplex and we share our garbage with the couple downstairs: that's Seattlest plus Seattlest's lovely fiance plus Seattlest's two cats plus the two people downstairs and their dog. The four humans in our building and our twelve legged pet friend usually produce three to five bags of garbage a week. It fits in two cans which we store IN FRONT of the building in a wooden structure that it looks like the landlord hired a team of four-year-olds to build. Apparently our landlord is unfamiliar with the concept of "curb appeal."

We're talking about Seattlest's garbage, by the way, because there was a lot of talk about a garbage strike in Seattle over the weekend. Negotiations between Local 174 and our waste hauler employers took a turn for the worse Saturday when the union rejected a contract offer and drivers were waiting for their bargaining committee to call a strike or decide to return to the table. All of this was supposedly sorted out in mid-April when a tentative agreement was reached, but, well, tentative agreements are tentative. Waste Management Inc. agreed to yet another tentative deal with the city late last night, but there is still some real estate between Allied Waste Industries Inc. and their drivers on the subject of forced overtime. Those talks are supposed to resume Tuesday.

Right now there are three garbage bags in the cans in front of our duplex, meaning one can is full and we've used about 50% of our garbage capacity in just 3 days. Seattlest's garbage pickup happens Friday. Weekends are generally a high-garbage time period, though, as we're home more and are likely to be cooking at home or cleaning. The two cats can somehow produce roughly eight times their own body weight in loose hair a week and that's going to get into the garbage on a Saturday or Sunday. Hopefully things slow down garbage-wise during the week because who knows when it's going to be picked up next.

The waste management companies' agreements with the city stipulate that the garbage gets picked up regardless of any labor situations, but we're planning for the worst and it's just a good idea to contribute less to the landfills. Save the Earth and all that. Unfortunately, due to a big box retailer buying spree by the couple downstairs the recycling bins are already full and are currently in desperate need of a pick up. We'll be avoiding the disposable coffee filters, wiping up Seattlest's frequent spills with towels that aren't made from paper, and denying that last half bowl of cereal in the box. And having a talk with the cats about the shedding thing. Hopefully our front door won't be blocked by the mounting garbage bags before an actual contract gets signed by both companies.