Trash piling up in Battle Ground? City considers mandatory pickup
BATTLE GROUND, Wash. - As this southwest Washington city grows so do its problems. For one, more people, means more garbage, and some people aren't picking theirs up.
Now the city is looking into making trash pickup mandatory.
There have been enough people raising a stink about uncollected garbage lining the streets that the Public Works Department wants to keep the problem from spreading. So the city's doing some research and is trying to determine how much collecting garbage costs and should the city do it or a private company.
And what are other cities doing? It turns out more than half of the cities in Washington, as big or bigger than Battle Ground, have mandatory trash pickup.
Walter Church has only lived in Battle Ground about six months and said he’s never really thought about getting his garbage picked up. He just did it.
He's OK with making it mandatory – for the most part.
"As long as it's kept within check as far as the prices," Church said. "If it goes mandatory then it's one of those things that’s kind of like water and sewer: you have to have it, so you're going to pay the rates."
And if garbage is such a problem, most people don't seem to notice it.
"It hasn't affected me at all," said Brent Godin, who's against mandatory pickup. "And I haven't really seen that problem anywhere. I think we make our own choices, and most of the time it's the right choices."
The council has had one round of public testimony and doesn't know if there will be more. For now, the council has put other issues, like the upcoming city budget, at the top of the priority list.
The head of Battle Ground's Department of Public Works said that as far as the recent complaints about garbage piling up are concerned, people do get the trash dumped right away after the city pays them a visit.
I live in a big city called Portland Oregon.. where my trash is picked up only twice a month.. you should see the garbage I have stock piled for the "next pickup". And I and just a single occupant.. BTW what bin do a put a car axle in?
Just another government mandated bill in the land of total control...
 @!!! Somalia has no government for all intents and purposes.
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Feel free to move there.
Don't make it mandatory. I think we're on to something here, "natural segregation" If you're some kind of batty, nutball hoarder who likes to live amongst piles of your own refuse; by all means move to Battleground WA. It is more comfortable to be in an enviroment of like minded people. Who wants to be the only house on their street with a metric ton of rubbish littered across the front yard, when you could live in a cul de sac that's completely indistinguishable from a landfill.
Uh-Oh, am I that citified? I thought pick was mandatory for all cities. And why is garbage lining the streets if there's no one coming to pick it up? ''Hey honey, remind me to put the trash out by the curb tomorrow, I forgot to last week. You know, we should look into having someone pick that up, someday. You know, a service. It's getting pretty deep.''
I think I need more coffee.
I maintain a compost pile and have about 8 garbage cans that take about 3-4 months to fill up with the usual garbage/recyclables. Put them in the back of the pick-up and take them out to Columbia Recycling Center for a lot less than the monthly garbage rate. Save about a hundred bucks on a quarterly basis.
You seem to have common sense and respect for your property and the property of others. If people do not want to pick up their garbage, and keep the streets clean, make it mandatory. Some people will keep their property neat and clean. Others will toss bags of trash all over.
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