There seems to be are more special sessions then trash collections days. I guess they like picking up our money more often then picking up our trash.

I have always been a good recylcer, but the switch to once a week is horrible, since many in my neighborhood are still putting trash out for a Monday pick up and it sits there until our trash/recylcing day on Thurs. Animals are getting into the trash and causing a mess (not to mention - smell)

Never much needed that second day of trash collection really, not with the great way we can recycle in AA county (just toss it all together!). Actually it would be nice to have a second day of RECYCLE collection eventually. Try recycling in Queen Anne's County. You have to go to the tiny dump and seperate bottles by COLOR. Yikes! Great job, AA County with the recycle program. Love it!

I'm recycling more but I just hate having stinky trash sitting around for an entire week even if I don't fill the bag all the way. In my townhouse with a very small back yard there aren't very good options for storing a bag that has food scraps in it. The flies and other critters that will get into the garbage will be eating good in AA County.

We have only used one trash day for years..... we have a garage but I don't keep my recycling or trash in it, we put it in the back of the house. We usually have 2 to 3 of the round recycle bins full and half of a big trash can full. We are a household of 6 and we would have more recycling if my 18 and 21 year old would stop throwing recyclables away.

I don't understand the reasoning behind this. "They" say going to once a week collection is to encourage people to recycle more. What does not make sense to me, is that you still have the same amount to pick up whether its trash or recyclables. If you are doing more recycling, yes you have less trash, but you have that much more in the recycle bin. Once a week trash pick up is for the government to save money, not to recycle more.

This was the dumbest idea ever!!! My trash stinks and I recycle... so wheres the solution. The very hot days are fun as well with the introduction of Magots! Way to go AA County, tax dollars at work!

We're a family of four. We fill at least 2 tall containers of recycling every week. We rarely even fill one trash bag every week, though we have a big trash can we can fill with numerous bags if necessary. We compost a lot as well. Our county recycles so much stuff, and we don't have to separate it or even clean it before putting it out! I just don't understand how people create enough trash to need trash collection more often. I'm glad we've gone to once a week for trash collection. If anything, my family needs twice a week recycling collection. Or perhaps some of those huge lidded recycling containers?

I agree Dawn- it's to save money on the pick up- which is fine with me. We only need one garbage pick up a week anyway, but be honest about why you're cutting back on the service. Wonder if we're going to see the savings reflected in our taxes...? HA HA.

Im with Debi on this one! Debi has said everything I was just about to! Thanks Debi

I agree with Dawn. Taxes are always increasing while services are always decreasing. Recycle or trash, the heap is huge on the once-a-week pick up day. And what a recycle mess if it rains - a big mess. Two days for trash and recycle would be much better. Don't believe for one minute this is about recycling - it is about cutting costs and maybe even cutting jobs.

Well..this will now be the second week in a row that the trash from The previous Thursday has sat out...why? Because the trash men didnt pick it up! They claimed they didn't have enough room! Ridiculous!

If I try hard enough... And it's not that hard, I can recycle 95 % of the product contAiners that I bring in my house. One day recycling will be mandatory. Has anyone seen the recyclables that our local restaurants and bars throw away.? Wow.!! That's next.!

I haven't noticed any difference in the amount we recycle but what I have noticed is that my one bag of trash that sits for the week is now crawling with maggots. Constantly. And this is even after all the scraps go down the garbage disposal. Horrible!

My trash pick up is Friday. As I am sure many others do my family has crabs during the weekend. The smell of 6 day old crab guts is absolutely horrible.

My biggest complaint is the speed at which the trucks are driving through our neighborhoods. I have emailed a complaint to the county and they simply replied for me to call the police. It's only a matter of time before someone gets hurt.

not recycling any more then we were, we recycle a lot anyway, but I really hate the smell of 6 day old garbage. Most weeks we only had one bag on tuesdays but if we did work around the house or had company and dinner leavings it was nice not to have it ferment for a week

One collection for everything used to work. My issue is not with the number of collections, but the quality. The recycling truck seems to have a rule that if they miss the truck, it's okay to leave it on the road. They seem to be in a major rush. The trash truck driver seldom stops and the helper grabs trash bags and runs behind until he catches the truck. They drive too fast for our narrow roads. I've driven behind them up Rt 2 and the lid was raised and trash blowing out onto the highway. It's certainly not the kind of job most people would enjoy doing, but it should still be done properly. The containers are generally not returned to the lawn, driveway or shoulder, but left in the travel lane of the road, so you have to dodge cans as you drive along. This is not only in the neighborhoods, but along Rt 2 as well. The most missed collections in our community seem to be the yard waste. I recently called with complaints to the county and the lady attempted to switch the blame to our community rather than Bates Trucking. Among other things, she said the containers blow into the road. This happened to be on a day when the wind was calm. Actually things have improved a bit in recent years. The trucks used to run over my lawn because they couldn't turn sharp enough. They also have not backed into any neighbors cars for a couple of years, when they charge up the street in reverse, rather than turn around.

we have 6 recycling trash cans that are always filled once a week and 1 small load of regular trash. If anything we need our recycling picked up twice a week and our regular trash could be used for compost! The once a week makes since, we usually missed the first pickup for the week anyways.

only issue i have is that we should all have the wheehed recycle bins

In northern A.A. we still have the old recycle bins with no lids. Avoid maggots in the trash by storing food scraps in the freezer until trash day.

Not a problem with once a week, my problem is that our "Free State" is hammering us with more and more taxes. If "we" save $$ on a once a week schedule when our we gonna see our taxes reduced? Oh yea, forgot mo money for O'Malley hand outs for votes campaign.

rick
you all misunderstand I call the county and the main reason I was told is that the other counties and city only have 1 pickup a week. This is also the reason they gave for closing the land fill on Sunday.

I suggested we take our trash for Monday pickup to my sister's house on Sunday night and then she can bring her thursday pickup trash to my house on Wednesday night....either way we have to go out of our way to accomplish it. I think it was a bad idea to begin with.

We are a family of 5. And I do have a teenager still in need of recycling training. The other 4 of us are big recyclers. We have about 3-5 recycling bins going out every week to our 1/2 bin of garbage. Now with the new pickup schedule, we may have a full bin of garbage.
Purchase a garbage can with a lid on it. This will keep bugs and other creatures out and the smell down. I highly recommend (even though the county does not call for it) cleaning out your recycling containers prior to putting them out. This will also keep down on the bugs and so forth.
My only recommendation is for the county to provide recycling bins with lids. I know they are available in some parts of the county, but not where we are. We actually asked for them and were told that we were not eligible due to our zip code.
Also, if the smell gets really bad at your home, you can drive it to the landfills that are open 6 days a week.
If the reason is to save money - way to go!!! I appreciate our county looking at ways to save money.

I have the same challenge as Sean, although in my neighborhood, trash & recycling day is Thursday. Crab trash being picked up many days after the weekend, instead of Monday like it used to be, is not sanitary. Anyone have suggestions on securing crab waste against maggots, flies, animals, etc.?

EXCELLENT decision. It saves money on gas and wages AND it prevents my neighbors from putting uncovered trash cans out four days a week (the day before and the day of each pickup). My neighborhood is cleaner and nicer AND maybe we can cut expenses. To the lady that wants to know if she should put her stuff in her living room? If you have that much trash and recyclables you need to take a look at how much of our resources you and your family are wasting. You can always drive to the dump on that second day instead of asking the county to continually clean up after you and yours. One day is enough. Deal with it.

Since those in charge obviously do not care about our trash sitting around all week stinking up everything, I decided I did not care about recylcling. I now throw everything into all the bins. I like how "they" are saving money...... Again no thought process by those in charge. Brains people!!

I have no understanding how recycling equates with more than one collection day. We always recycle - that didn't change - what has changed is having to keep fresh food scraps somewhere where the smell won't knock us out from the heat and the animals won't get in it. We don't eat everything from a box-recycling has nothing to do with it.

I have always put out 2 recycling bins filled to the max (we recycle at work too and I bring it all home to put out) each week and still continue to. The problem is that after scooping my cats' boxes twice a day (which is not a recycleable item) the regular trash really stinks after a few days. So now I stick it on the front porch and man is it stinking out there in this heat today!

Seems alot of us are gullible, they have brains. They are saving money from there expense which turns into a profit, with a inconvience to you of course. Im all for taking care of your own waste, but the problem is I PAY FOR THAT TO BE TAKEN CARE OF....your taxes people...hey you wanna give money away ill take it....AA should issue everyone the new larger bins to deal with extra waste...As far as the trash men, there lazy..they have that early morning window then thats it...if its close to there time to get off ,forget it...fyi they also could have been told to get what you can (however many loads) then bring it in...why? because thats how people are, take from your pocket to put into mine....

All the whining about what is a common practice in many, if not most, other areas of the country is ridiculous. Having had once a week pickup in at least the last four states that I lived in makes this a no-brainer for the county budget.

Use good trash bags and cans with tight lids for the garbage and rinse out the goop from the recycling stuff before putting it in the can.... or better yet, place it in the clear large yard bags I got at Loews & there is no mess or smell. That is the method that has worked for me for the three years living here in MD. There are woods, birds and animals all around my neighborhood, but they do not get into mine.
Crush cans & boxes & see how much less space they take. It takes a moment. I have rarely used my second pickup here. When you pay a monthly fee to have private pickup as I did at my last home out of state, it cost me $50 plus taxes for once per week and if I wanted more it went up from there. You learn to economize when you see the dollars leaving your own checking account every month.

A savings of $17.00 from twice a week to once a week trash and recycling. Not much of a savings to the taxpayers/Residents.

We only ever had to use the one pickup anyway (for a household of 2). When the bag in the kitchen gets full, it is taken outside to a large lidded/wheeled black trash can.
Kitchen recyclables are held in a lidded Rubbermaid bin in the kitchen and taken out to the yellow bin on "trash day eve."
Even in the 70s, we took the trash outside to the metal can when the kitchen can got full. No one has ever had to hold trash in one's kitchen for a week.
Stop complaining about having to adjust your routine---you're an adult; figure out a procedure and just do it already.
We're lucky we have the county to pick up for us, and that we don't have to separate our recyclables, and that we don't have to hire and pay a separate contractor for our trash.
First-world problems, indeed...

We went on vacation, so we missed the trash that week, and had to wait an entire other week.

I have one word for you. Maggots.

Not very pleasant.

Of course, the County is tourting recycling in this effort. But the title on this column, as well as in bold letters on the County's bulletin .... "Once-a-Week Trash Collection" .... states the key word .... TRASH .... not recycling! Trash will be the larger problem, as that stuff needs to be outta sight, and hopefully, outta scent range, for up to a full week. I leave recycling materials uncovered in my yard for several days. But if I leave my trash uncovered, I invite all sorts of "neighbors" in to feast. Ohhhhh, last weekend's crab shells are ripening nicely!

I have two big recycle bins that I fill each week. It doesn't take long to fill up. We need 2 days a week of recycling so I only have to keep one can. I am only a family of 3.

Lids, Lids, Not the solution. Raccoons love to take them off during the night for themselves and other critters join in. They have even figured out how to pop up the raccoon proof ones.

i don.t see any problem. we recycle most of our trash either way. i have no garage and we put the cans on the side inside the gate. no big deal. go with the flow

Raccoons get lids off, and vultures tear the bags open all over my yard before 6 a.m even hits. The county just had to cut one trash day to save money, yet had no problem buying two 50 caliber sniper rifles for over $10,500 for the swat unit. When in the world do they need to make mile long shots in a.a county, I swear we need smarter people in control of the budget, simple as that.

Recycling is groovy, but crabs on Saturday are kickin' by Friday trash pick up!!! That's our only issue. Would LOVE some ideas on that one!!

I had to answer no to the recycling more question. In order for me to throw more away, I would have to go out and get more stuff.

How spoiled are we and how much abundance do we enjoy that we are commenting on the trials and tribulations of throwing stuff away?

We aren't, Carol. We're commenting on the bogus promise that this is somehow saving us money (ya think???) while our trash, baking in the heat and developing maggots and otherwise forcing us to deal with unhealthy, unsanitary conditions, is fermenting, waiting for the county to remove it. Rotting dog poop is not "the trials and tribulations of throwing stuff away." Where I am, the only other choice is to leave it where it lies--and rot the bay, Which would the good green citizens of MD prefer???
(You're welcome to come pick it up from me so you can include it in your once-weekly trash. I have two dogs, by the way.)

Since we're saving a whopping $17 a year on this...let's ask the question a different way.

Who would be willing to pay an additional $17/year to increase trash pickup from once per week to twice per week?

After reading through these comments...it seems that a lot of people on here are pretty comfortable telling other people how to run their lives...as in..."I do it this way, so you should too."

I recycle most everything or put itin the food disposal. What ever little trash we have never fills a can , we never used the 2n pick up. If i have spoiledfood that canno go down tbe food disposal i keepin a bag in tbe frig ubtil sunday.not a big deal. I believe it forces people to recycle and tht is good!

I don't think this move is saving anybody anything (except perhaps political face for those involved). I loathe the thought of increased taxes and I am frustrated by our obscenely bloated governement in general, BUT I would gladly have sent the $25 I spent on a 2nd trash bin to AACo (The remaining $8 could be appied to education, police, parks) We're a family of 6 plus a dog, and we're avid recyclers. We still fill about 1 1/2 trash cans per week, we needed a 2nd can (couldn't find a half-can). So if I have this straight: government exists essentially to create & preserve its citizens' quality of life (setting the ideology vs reality debate aside), yet this program directly negatively impacts our quality of life & costs more in the process. We recycle the same amount, pay more (and the majority of the $ spent on a trash can undoubtedly went to China), our garage, home and car now smell like a garbage dump and this is a good thing? Well the flies love it and so do the politicians who can claim they did not raise taxes. Has anyone done the math on the cost to taxpayers for doubling/tripling the number of recycling bins, printing the "information pamphlets", etc.? How about the loss of jobs? How much of the product that we're "recycling" is actually being recycled? Last time I checked it was below 30%. Will moving to one trash pick-up improve that? I am hopeful that one day soon, our taxes pay for services-Period... not political agendas, and well-spun tax-funded propaganda.

With respect, I have to comment on the suggestions to "drive your trash to the landfill each week"... The idea behind recycling is to reduce negative environmental impact. Many in AA are 20 miles or more round trip from the closest land fill. Should we do the math on those hydrocarbons, the impact to roads and infrastructure, and oh yeah... the cost of fuel (both financial and environmental)? I think that is an unwise and unrealistic solution. If I could strap a bag or two to my bike and pedal it over I would, but that too is unrealsitic. If I'm driving trash anywhere, it would be to pile it in the trash cans in front of the County Executive offices... I'd be sure to drop it a full 6 days before their pick-up day, so each morning and each afternoon, the decision makers can share in their fellow citizens' odorous joy and marvel at the aerial ballet of euphoric flies.

I quit recycling when I was told by a since-forgotten source that everything we put out in a recycle container is visually examined by a human being. I've nothing to hide, but that kind-of bothered me.

I dislike it. I have 7 people in my house and the trash piles up in the garage. It's really bad in the summer because we enjoy crabs on the weekends and by Thursday it stinks. We also have 3 dogs... As for recycling, we recycle but won't be this week because for some reason they didn't empty our recycle bin that was full...

I find some of this amusing. When the change was first announced, I raised the issues of the stench, the maggots (which come from flies, not food scraps--& no, I absolutely will *not* keep rotting food in my refrigerator, as someone here suggested), & the mess. My house is third in a row of townhouses; it has no "sides" where I can leave trash or recycle bins, & there is a one-story drop from the main level at the front of my house to the back garden--so I would have to carry every little bit of trash downstairs, if I did not keep a can--with a locked-in-place lid--on my deck--then wheel it uphill over rough, weedy, and sharply inclined terrain, & down the sidewalk to the front of my house--in rain, snow, ice, & so on. Locked lid or not--it smells. Locked lid or not, if flies get into it, there will be maggots. And telling me to get a doggie cesspool is not a solution, either. My property is not large enough, & neither is my budget--& wouldn't that negate the massive $17 savings the county is promising me, several times over? It's very easy to be critical of others when you don't walk in their shoes (back in the day, we called that the NIMBY principle). If you have a home with a side lot and no homeowner's assn to tell you that you can't do so--by all means, store your garbage cans & your recycle bins & whatever else you want to there. If you have a garage, & don't mind getting out of your car to the stench, use that. But don't tell the rest of us how easy it is. IT ISN'T.

I meant to say that when this was first announced, and I pointed out the issues from the (town)homeowner's perspective, all of the "greenies" pounced on me as though I were some kind of monster--just the way they've pounced on Richard and others here. I'm environmentally conscious, but I am not obsessed the way some of the posters here are. When I had a single-family home, and a garage, and the space in which to do it, I recycled trash. I still recycle--but not trash--because my homeowner's association makes it virtually impossible for me to do so. If the county's so concerned about the environment, why haven't they made it mandatory for every housing development to have dog-waste collectors throughout the complex? Why haven't they set up recycle stations at multiple convenient locations to which residents could bring their items at will, rather than having them pile up until the county gets around to picking them up? Several neighbors who have tried to recycle also came home to find their full bins left at the curb--the contents blowing all around the neighborhood on windy days, or foraged through by hungry wildlife and feral cats--because the sanitation men hadn't taken them. Trash is regularly left scattered around the parking lot on pickup day, as someone else attested, because if the men drop something in process of throwing it on the truck, they leave it where it lies. And now there's twice as much! Three cheers for AACO and the geniuses in the state house!

We hate it? We are going to have to move the location of our outside trash can because after a week, it stinks. I'm also afraid it's going to draw rodents :( I don't want to keep my crab & meat trash in my fridge like some others have suggested. It's trash. Ugh :( Really really really not liking this. Please give us back the 2nd trash day. It's not like we are going to see a difference in our tax bill by doing this anyway!

I find this talk about going from 2 days to 1 interesting. People in this area don't realize how good they have it. My parents live in Missouri and they have to pay a private company to pick up their trash every week. The companies charge by the bag. If you have more than one bag of trash, you pay extra, if the bags aren't tied or sealed, you pay extra.

They pay $35 a month for "up to" two bags a week, not huge trash cans. Each extra bag costs $5. Get over it, there are very few places in the US has trash pickup twice a week.

Gee, Richard--I've lived in the South. Tell me--do your parents also pay nearly $3,000 in property taxes?

(Oh. I didn't think so.)

For those of you who don't know, there is virtually no infrastructure outside the big cities in the deep South. Every time we had a mild thunderstorm, I would lose electricity in the front half of my house. I found out why when I asked a plumber to repair what I thought was a "homeowner fix" in the guest bath. The little chrome collar that usually surrounds the pipe that feeds the commode was hanging loose, and it looked to be packed with something like Saran wrap. "Oh, the homeowner didn't do that," said he. "The builder did: he brought the line in too low for the collar to have clearance. That's why it's loose."

"The *builder* did it??" I asked him, incredulous. "Why didn't the inspector catch it?"

"Inspector???"

We pay dearly for these services--and for programs that *pay* students cold, hard cash to get passing grades--and for all of the other benighted schemes of our totally-out-of-touch tax and spend governor. At minimum, we're entitled not to live in a garbage dump (or is that part of O'Malley's "leveling" strategy, too?).

I guess people just don't like change. I moved here from a fairly rural part of SC. There was no recycling there unless you drove them yourself to one of the county drop-off sites. That meant that I threw most everything in the trash there. Once a week trash pickup worked just fine for my family there. Living up here now, with recycling made the easiest I've ever seen it (growing up on the Jersey shore as a kid, it was required that we had seperate bins for each type of recycled item), once a week trash pickup is definitely sufficient. If I have a week where I end up with a bit more trash than usual, I can easily drive it over to the county dump. People must not have enough to occupy their time that they have to make much ado about nothing, just like with the pending installation of Smart Meters.

I actually LOVE the once a week pickup because it REDUCES the amount of days the neighborhood is littered with ugly trash/recycling bins.
I also love it's one less day the noisy, smelly trucks are here, too.
When we lived in other, hotter states the trash pick up was only one day, so this change is no problem for us.

Dona: AA County has a much more comprehensive recycling system than most places. I'm proud of our county for that. A simple investment in a trash can with a tightly fitting lid might be the solution to some of the complaints. I have one and the smell is almost nonexistent.

I recycle and have for several years ... here and on the Eastern Shore where you had to take your recycle things to the dump or drop off centers...couldn't believe the county here changed a system that was working fine to this stinking mess... what does recycling have to do with the stinking decomposition of garbage in the cans that attract animals, insects bacteria and disease sitting in 90 degree plus weather in my yard? Recycling can be very profitable for the count where companies purchase the material we recycle and manufacture new products for us to purchase and use again... can't say that about garbage... and what about the employees who work for the county, actually performing a service FOR the people of this county who have had their hours and jobs cut by half... maybe we need to cut the hours and salary of the "PUBLIC SERVANTS" that come up with this stuff.
This is a health issue not a money issue or on that should be on the agenda of polititians.

I went for a run late yesterday afternoon..on a relatively "cool" afternoon...with a nice breeze...really enjoyed myself. Except for one thing. Residents had put their trash out for pickup this morning. I almost lost it! The smell was everywhere and frankly disgusting. I recycle all the time...going down to once a week trash collection will not accelerate or spurn me to recycle more. It simply keeps the trash around longer.

I recycle because the county has made it too easy not to. I have 2 kitchen trash cans, both lined w a trash bag. One for recycle one for trash. Since u don't hv to separate or rinse, everything recyclable goes in the recycle can. Used paper towels, paper plates, ice cream & milk cartons. Everything. When its full I tie up the trash bag & throw the whole thing in recyle bin. I found I was only putting trash out once a week, if that. So I m all for the one day a week plan.

It's not about recycling and it's not about being good to the environment.

It is a way to hide a TAX increase. It works as follows:

1. Cut services nearly in half
2. Pay less to the service providers
3. Charge the same (or more) to the service recipients
4. Spend the extra money elsewhere, on pet projects with your cronies
5. Lap up all the air cover from the folks who are duped into thinking they're doing some good for the environment. They'll argue with their neighbors on your behalf while you take the money and run. How cool is THAT?

One other thing worth noting. Most of the people here who have complained about the stinking trash problem that comes with cutting the pickups in half would be less angry if they were actually going to REALIZE A SAVINGS of almost half of their trash removal costs. But they aren't, and most know it.

Further, they'd probably be happier, if service was being cut to at least once a week, to see it cut altogether, IF they got to keep ALL the money that would have been taken from them. Then they could buy their own trash removal.

Historically, trash removal has been considered a natural monopoly. But it certainly isn't today. Modern technology (GPS mapping, RFID microchips, etc) have made it possible for several providers to economically serve an area. Some folks could have trash pickup multiple times a week, others once a week, whatever. It could even be priced based on number of containers disposed of. Put it out if you have it, don't if you don't, get billed for what you actually USE.

Except of course, government would outlaw all that. Unless, like with schools, you had to pay for your own private service AND pay for the government service you don't use. They love that.

Spot on, Mike--in both cases. The most ironic response from the "green freaks" (and I don't mean that deprecatingly) is "go out and buy a really expensive trash can" to combat the problem--and thereby offset whatever miniscule "savings" you might realize. If the county wants to economize--it can start by not assigning police escorts to Leopold's assignations. They ought to change the name of the state to "Taxus," especially during the tenure of its current elite. The best way we can express our displeasure is to vote every last one of them out of office! (Maybe then they'll learn to *ask* us what we think, before they unilaterally stick their hands back in our pockets.) I understand we're going to be paying more for the water and sewer lines too now--I wonder where they think we're going to get the money????

This once a week schedule is not causing me to recycle more. We already recycle as much as we can. I think the whole mess in the power outage should have kicked AA County to institute another pick up at the very least during that week. I'm sure there were tons of trash cans with rotting meat from thawed freezers. I would imagine the workers would have a LOT to complain about with the additional load as well as the stench and disgusting nature of what they are collecting after sitting around all week! It is just not sanitary to let things sit around for a whole week. AA County has a wonderfully easy recycling process for it's residents, however, because things do not have to be emptied or washed out before they are recycled, the recycling attracts just as many ants and flies and smells somewhat similar to the garbage. It's just all plain nasty and I really just want the recycling and trash as far away from my house as possible so I am not inviting smells and insects. Animal waste is a whole other story...no place for that item in the "recycle more..." plan and it still has to be disposed of. Animals go just as much whether you pick it up once a week or twice a week! I totally disagree with going to once a week pick up. I think pick up for both recycling and garbage should be twice a week, Monday and Friday!