And Then There’s This…
Been there awhile, too.
I try to enjoy what’s out here, because a positive outlook is, well, a positive in dealing with the day. Not every moment can be like that. At some dumpsters along the west end of the Tyson Wash LTVA, a fridge/freezer carcass from a motorhome or high-end fifth wheel has been on the ground for weeks. This is the second time I’ve seen discarded fridges in as many years, and it’s always a disappointment, as well as confusing to me. I mean, do these people assume that the BLM’s disposal contractor is under any obligation or is equipped to do anything more than lift bins and empty them? Maybe the driver will get out and heft the fridge inside a bin so that the two mechanized arms will be able to pick it up? Maybe the money-saving handyman who dropped it out of his RV wanted to think he was almost doing the proper thing, and that it would go away by itself because the BLM wouldn’t let it just sit there? Cheap ass.
These guys, and those who put motor oil, coolant, and brake fluid in the LTVA dumpsters force the BLM to get stuck with penalties. (One campground owner was sweating pickups every month because anything considered to be construction items – plywood, 2x4s, piping – found in her camp dumpsters meant a $300 penalty per dumpster, period.) That kind of thing directly affects LTVA permit fees because, aside from running a road grader up and down trails one or twice a year, garbage disposal the only annual local expense.
But saving a buck at others’ expense is not new or reserved for dumpsters. I was recently picking up a package at one of two shipping businesses in town. Quartzsite has no street mail delivery, so you either pick things up at the Post Office, or address shipments to a shipping center address. This one generally charged $1 per package, and the other charges a flat $5 per. I was making fun of her low fees as if they were outrageous, and she told me some guy driving a toad (car usually towed behind a motorhome) tried to intercept her UPS driver before he could get in the door, in order to avoid the $1 fee for his package. Naturally, the UPS driver refused. That RVer wins the award, as far as I’m concerned!
Strolling Amok 
People ‘see’ a dumpster and never give it a second thought, just dump it.
I think that’s just how our society is…
You’re probably right, Rob, though back in the land of sticks & bricks, I’d have to call for a $50 “special pickup” to get rid of stuff like that.
Oh yeah. That most certainly is behavior falling under my general ‘douchebaggery’ definition. To top it off, there are some folks who would be willing to pick it up and get some scratch for it at a scrap metal site in some areas of the country.
Speaking of recyclers, the BLM surprised me last year by prohibiting removing anything out of dumpsters. There were people who regularly removed aluminum, PET, etc, which is good considering there are few consumer recycling programs out west. Now they can’t. It’s not like they left a mess or anything, and I thought it was a good thing, to decrease volume and get enterprising individuals a few bucks. I suspect the disposal firm complained, if they were sorting and pocketing the cash themselves. And yeah, the steel value of that fridge would be something if it were in a place more likely to be seen and closer to a recycling place.
And sometimes it is sheer maliciousness: a former neighbor used to pour his kitty litter into our dumpster along with his numerous beer cans. He intended that people looking for returnable cans had to dig through cat poop. Sad, and how do you stop it? Certainly not through education or incentive.
Welcome, Helen! That neighbor was likely jealous of anyone more enterprising than himself, hating the thought of anyone profiting off his guzzling – as if the beer company already didn’t!
Where I live people toss fridges, construction waste, household garbage, dead animals, and whatever else on the side of the road. It happening less and less, but it’s ingrained in the culture. “Go dump it in the woods Bubba.”
That’s so 1950s!
We are a little behind in Alabama.
Oh, that’s okay. I’m finding dead Budweiser beer bottles beside trails wherever the locals go out West.
What a shame. They are lighter empty, you think they would carry them back out. lol
Yep, it’s that mindset you mentioned.
Although I am a human, I too, can’t figure out how some fellow humans think.
I was taking a mild hike in the front range of the Rockies. The trail was a rocky rough one, but the view and entire experience met all my expectations but one. It was clean and well kept – no candy wrappers or discarded drink bottles. But there were cigarette butts!!! I have to assume the smoker was packing out all litter but cigarette butts? Why would a person carefully carry out their disposable water bottle, but toss cigarette butts on the ground? I don’t have an answer. You probably don’t know either.
Pam, my guess is that most folks assume that the filters are biodegradable, which they are not.