5 ms·

The funny thing is this is just straight-up competition. If these guys can generate money from taking it away for free, why am I paying the city to take it away

The funny thing is this is just straight-up competition. If these guys can generate money from taking it away for free, why am I paying the city to take it away for me? Hell, if I owned a business I'd happily deliver the cardboard to these "thieves" than pay a waste management company.

refurb 6y ago
Scale? A company can haul away recycling for $X as long as they get Y volume to help recoup costs. When they can only collect Y-Z%, then $X no longer covers costs and the price goes up for the city.
- parliament32 6y ago
  But this is the opposite problem. Our "thieves" haul much less volume than the real companies, yet charge less. Something's not adding up.
- rvnx 6y ago
  The financial reports of Waste Management Inc are slightly less pessimistic :)
smnrchrds 6y ago
> If these guys can generate money from taking it away for free, why am I paying the city to take it away for me? If I had to guess, I would say because city services do not exist in a vacuum. The cardboard is probably subsidizing the landfill. If someone else takes the cardboard, they would have to increase fees on other waste to break even. Almost every government service is like that. You may find a cheaper option than postal service to send a letter a couple of blocks within a large city; but if everyone does this, the postal rates have to go up. Urban and high-density delivery subsidize rural and small town delivery. You can find a cheaper insurance if you are a 20-year old healthy person with no risk factors; but if all of young and healthy people do this, the costs for those remaining in the public system would go dramatically higher.
- cwkoss 6y ago
  > The cardboard is probably subsidizing the landfill. If someone else takes the cardboard, they would have to increase fees on other waste to break even. If this is the case, the subsidy should be ended and waste disposal should be priced more accurately.
  - smnrchrds 6y ago
    You can lobby the municipal government for it, vote for it in the local elections, etc. You will probably end up with a system like Switzerland's. Read on it, it is an interesting system, with taxed garbage bags and more granular waste categories. But most people, and by extension their governments, seem to prefer the simpler system that is popular elsewhere in the world. Changing the electorate's mind might be an uphill battle. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waste_management_in_Switzerland https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waste_management_in_Switzerlan...
anikan_vader 6y ago
They only take the cardboard though - leaving the city waste department the unprofitable job of hauling away the non-cardboard recyclables.

refurb 6y ago

Scale? A company can haul away recycling for $X as long as they get Y volume to help recoup costs. When they can only collect Y-Z%, then $X no longer covers costs and the price goes up for the city.

parliament32 6y ago
But this is the opposite problem. Our "thieves" haul much less volume than the real companies, yet charge less. Something's not adding up.
rvnx 6y ago
The financial reports of Waste Management Inc are slightly less pessimistic :)

smnrchrds 6y ago

> If these guys can generate money from taking it away for free, why am I paying the city to take it away for me? If I had to guess, I would say because city services do not exist in a vacuum. The cardboard is probably subsidizing the landfill. If someone else takes the cardboard, they would have to increase fees on other waste to break even. Almost every government service is like that. You may find a cheaper option than postal service to send a letter a couple of blocks within a large city; but if everyone does this, the postal rates have to go up. Urban and high-density delivery subsidize rural and small town delivery. You can find a cheaper insurance if you are a 20-year old healthy person with no risk factors; but if all of young and healthy people do this, the costs for those remaining in the public system would go dramatically higher.

cwkoss 6y ago
> The cardboard is probably subsidizing the landfill. If someone else takes the cardboard, they would have to increase fees on other waste to break even. If this is the case, the subsidy should be ended and waste disposal should be priced more accurately.
- smnrchrds 6y ago
  You can lobby the municipal government for it, vote for it in the local elections, etc. You will probably end up with a system like Switzerland's. Read on it, it is an interesting system, with taxed garbage bags and more granular waste categories. But most people, and by extension their governments, seem to prefer the simpler system that is popular elsewhere in the world. Changing the electorate's mind might be an uphill battle. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waste_management_in_Switzerland https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waste_management_in_Switzerlan...

anikan_vader 6y ago

They only take the cardboard though - leaving the city waste department the unprofitable job of hauling away the non-cardboard recyclables.