Garbage Disposal

Many years ago when the apartment building was new, the first tenants thought of having a nice trash bin outside the apartment gate. It was essentially a metal drum cut in half with some short iron legs welded at the bottom. It was fine except it didn't have a cover. Since it was a bit low, sometimes stray cats and dogs would climb on it and gnaw on the plastic bags thus spilling the contents. Yuck.

But that was rare and the infrequency made it a bit tolerable. What was surprising though was that a couple of years later, the trash bin just disappeared! I must admit it became rusty and a bit dilapidated that the garbage haulers must've just dumped it in their truck along with the contents.

I felt the need to replace it and bought a used metal drum. So as to ensure that nobody takes it, I painted the apartment's address on the side of the drum. Well, that was the idea except that a couple of years later, it too, disappeared. I was almost convinced that some thief took it to sell as scrap.

Again, I bought another drum and secure it to the gate by tying it with a metal wire after painting the address on the side. I also asked the tenants to be more vigilant by keeping an eye on the trash bin and for suspicious characters around it - and help secure it. But it too suffered the same fate 3 years later. Three metal drums disappear and nobody exactly knows how.

Of course the tenants by now were requesting for another one because it was just so convenient for them to simply toss out garbage bags anytime they wish. But I simply told them I couldn't be spending more on trash bins when somebody steals them. Heck, I don't even have a trash bin outside of MY house! Why? Yeah, somebody will eventually steal that as well. So I just told them to do what I do and that is to keep the trash in secured plastic trash bags in the unit and then take them out when the garbage haulers come along.

So far, they managed without a trash bin outside.