Would you stop homeless people from going through your garbage/recycling?

[StephyMei1112]

The house is fenced and all but tomorrow is our garbage day and just because we're a bunch of lazy bums we like putting it out to curb the night before instead of the actual morning of collection.

More often than not homeless people cruise by and cherry pick through both our garbage and recycling bins for soda bottles, cans, etc - as our province has a refundable bottle deposit that can be claimed back upon return of them.

This drives my dad abit crazy and it really infuriates him - I'm indifferent to it as our house is secure anyway - they aren't coming onto our property for anything, and the bottles get recycled all the same with the homeless people getting abit of change for themselves out of it, I don't see who it hurts.

Anyways, was just wondering - would you personally mind or stop a homeless person going through your garbage or recycle bins if you saw them doing so?

 

[JessLough]

Once you put it out to the curb it's not your property, so there's not much you COULD do. But I really don't care if they do or not

 

[Xandra]

We've had them come onto our balcony and take empty bottles (involves going around back of the house, climbing the stairs, opening the gate, hauling the container w/bottles down the steps, emptying it and leaving it on the ground). That pissed my dad off and I can see why, first he was pretty severely trespassing, second he was taking $10 or more of stuff.

However, going through stuff at the curb? As long as they leave it neat and clean I can't see why that would be bothersome. Sometimes old guys (not homeless) on bicycles go through people's curb-side recycling, rock on as far as I'm concerned lol. I think I heard somewhere that it legally becomes public property when it's curbside actually.

 

[puppydog]

No. I don't stop them. I ask them nicely to put what they don't take back in the bin when they are done and they always comply.

 

[Hillside]

We constantly have people going through our dumpster in the back of our building. My neighbors have just started putting clothing items on the lid. I have started just putting my cans in a plastic bag next to the dumpster. I don't go through a lot of cans, but Iowa has a deposit and hey, if my trash can help someone, might as well.

 

[LindaJD]

As long as they didn't leave a mess, I don't think it would bother me.

 

[Fran101]

If they don't leave a mess, I don't care.
We shred all letters/bank documents/anything that would have any personal info anyway.

The guys that go through the buildings stuff often go through and even sort a bunch of stuff into recycling that was thrown away lol which is awesome.

 

[ACooper]

As others have said, if they don't leave a mess, it's fine with me. BUT....we shred our mail, and our bins are also out on the curb. If our bins are still up on our property? NO......I would be chasing people away!

Twice a year our town has 'trash days' which is pretty much spring and fall clean up. You can get rid of larger items.....sofas, old lawn mowers, grills,mattresses, etc at no extra charge. TONS of people are out cruising town going through everyone's trash during this time. Doesn't bother me except when they drag out a pile to get to something and leave a huge mess........then it bothers me! LOL

 

[sassafras]

People drive up and down the alleys around here scavenging, not necessarily homeless. Which means you can put stuff you don't want anymore but don't necessarily want to throw away out on the alley and someone will take it, it's sort of its own little ecosystem. Never had any problems with it as far as people coming in yards or nuisance crimes or whatever. It's pretty entrenched in the culture of the area around here, so I'm not sure you could really do much about it if it bothered you. Anything you put on the alley is considered fair game.

I see a woman with two little kids in a stroller walking down the alley collecting cans from people's recycling every once in a while. Why in the world would I stop her, at least she's doing something constructive to feed her kids or send them to summer camp or whatever she's using the money for.

 

[Dizzy]

Perhaps sort it before you bin it...?

 

[sparks19]

No I wouldn't care as long as they weren't leaving a trail of garbage that I would have to clean up. people drive around all the time looking for useful things in peoples trash. Sometimes I'll just take something I want to get rid of out to the curb and leave it for someone to grab if they want it... and someone always does.

IMO, if you can use it... take it off my hands.

Oh... and as long as it isn't getting the dogs all riled up lol

 

[Red.Apricot]

Honestly, I probably wouldn't even be aware, lol. I don't spend much time looking out front.

We don't have any bottles or cans in our garbage, though, so it'd be a fruitless mission.

If there was no mess, I probably wouldn't care much, assuming the cans were in the street.

 

[ACooper]

One thing I do wonder about now that you got me thinking on the subject, how does the town (or the recycling company your town uses) feel about taking "their" more profitable items?

Here, the town supplied us with a big, blue, rollered, recycling bin. It's numbered, and they own it, you don't take it with you if you move.....it stays with the address. I'm pretty sure this is common for other towns/states as well.

So it seems to me, once I place recycling goods into this bin, it then belongs to the town. I would assume they recycle certain things for $ to help pay for the recycling pick up program. Those drivers and trucks don't run on lolipops and sunshine, LOL

So ya, if they are picking from your trash cans that is a whole different thing from picking out of your recycling bins IMO.

 

[sassafras]

I've sometimes thought about that, but I suspect it doesn't happen to a large enough degree to make it cost effective enough for anyone to officially care.

 

[Miakoda]

Yes, it would, but mainly because I've seen people dig for personal documents that they could use for illegal purposes.

However, I would be more than happy to sort out the cans and bottles and leave themmin a separate bag placed to the side.

 

[Kaydee]

Maybe put the bottles or cans together right at the curb so they don't have to do so much picking. In this area people put out big boxes at the curb with signs like FREE. All your old knick knacks and junk disappears overnight...as long as they don't leave a mess it's win-win

 

[JessLough]

Haha yah, like Sparks mentioned, if I have something I don't want/need, but don't want to throw it out, I put it at the curb and somebody picks it up to use.

As far as taking the "profitable items" from the city, it's not like you're actually getting free garbage or recycling pick up, you pay for it with taxes, so I really wouldnt worry about it paying for free pick up

 

[release the hounds]

we used to separate the aluminum cans in a bag and set them next to the rest of the recyclables and save them the trouble.

But we never have cans here for anything anymore and our containers are bigger for recycling than our trash bins now. That and nobody seems to go around here digging for that stuff.

I love the curbside pick up you can get for things though. Rather than pay to get rid of it somewhere, someone would just drive by and pick it up for you for free. Around here though it seems you have to post it somewhere and they come by. Where we used to live it had a lot lower income level overall and stuff didn't last an hour on the curb. It was kind of nice.

 

[yoko]

I would but it would be because I was wondering what they wanted.
I live over an hour away from the nearest recycle center and so the 'homeless' guy would either have a car which in that case he wasted more gas getting to my house than he will off a couple cans or he has to convince me he is about to walk 60-70 miles yo cash in my maybe three cans.

Also as an experiment I put together my friends shredded bills to show them how easy it is. It took about an hour but it is possible and made even easier by huge letter heads. So shredding isn't always a lot if protection especially since most of the time you just need the front page of a bill for account info and that is the page with the letterhead usually.

 

[Lyzelle]

It's not allowed on base. Trash is trash, put out at 7am. (Although most people put it out the night before anyway). City comes in and picks it up. We also have recycle bins...but they only pick up 2 out of 4. Either paper and glass, or aluminum and paper...something like that.

Off base, I generally don't care if things are put out to the curb specifically for someone to drive by and pick it up. But I don't like it when people going through the trash itself. That requires ripping bags, making a mess, etc. And even if it's still all in the bin afterwards, I'm still going to get a complaint from the city for it being a nasty sloppy mess. Also, personal identification.

So, if it's on the curb, fine, but not the bins themselves.