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Garbage In, Garbage Out
We thought we'd solved the one-bag trash-pickup problem, but City Hall's too sneaky for us.
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By Joe Miller
Published on July 24, 2003
When Mayor Kay Barnes and Councilman Jim Rowland announced they wanted to ration our free trash pickup to two bags a week, we went looking for really big bags.
Our quest took us to Houston-based flexible-packaging-plastic-bags.com, where we hit the mother lode: giant poly bags. These suckers can be custom-made to any size, but the biggest off-the-rack model is 9 feet long with a 10-foot-wide opening. That's big enough to sack up a VW Beetle.
GPBs aren't cheap -- a roll of 25 runs $95. Still, each one can hold seventy Hefty bags stuffed with sopping paper towels and coffee grounds. So we were all set to order them when we realized that the folks at City Hall may have anticipated the big-bag end run.
Sure enough, the two-bag rule comes with a weight limit: 40 pounds a sack. Which means we're fine as long as we toss out nothing but cotton candy and pet fur.
But what about those of us with litter boxes? A typical bag of cat scratch tips the scales at 28 pounds; when you throw in the turds, you're pushing 40. That barely leaves room for beer bottles.
Fortunately, the mayor and Rowland say their plan comes with unlimited curbside recycling. So we were all set to abandon our GPBs, knowing we could separate our empty Bud longnecks for a healthier planet.
But glass isn't in the deal.
It would cost too much for the city to recycle glass, says John Stufflebean, director of environmental management.
Our only solace is in the city's trademark sluggishness. The new trash plan isn't likely to kick in by September, as originally promised.
That's no surprise, but it's plain weird how our leaders are suddenly uptight about the whole thing. Last week, the Star reported on a meeting among the mayor, Rowland, Stufflebean and City Manager Wayne Cauthen as though it were a covert summit to plan an invasion of Raytown.
Afterward, the mayor declined comment.
No comment?About something as basic as trash?
Why? Arrogance? Cowardice? Has she not found the right bag?
We called to ask, but her spokesperson told us she was on vacation.
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