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this bothers me constantly
the *minimum price* of going to the "dump" is $30. that's what it costs to enter, no matter how little you're throwing out. seattle provides pitifully small trash cans, the smallest I've seen in my life - barely larger than a kitchen can, honestly
if you buy a desk and it comes packed in styrofoam, you're fucked. You get to choose between throwing away the styrofoam or throwing away *all of your kitchen trash for a two week period*. pick one, because they won't both fit.
Someone told me once that seattle's laughably small trash cans are a sin tax on having garbage - our recycle bins are much larger, they just make the trash ones smaller to uh. Um. Uhh. Uuuuuhmmm. Um. Uhhhhhh
If this *is* true, then it's just as fucking ridiculous and impractical as every other sin tax, e.g. people do not get to choose Simple, Clean Living, and even if they do, like, *sometimes you need to buy an office chair*.
but regardless of the reason, the fact of the matter is that you can't get rid of any single item that won't fit in your trash for less than $30. That is how much it costs to *enter the transfer station* even if your car has literally one single end table in it.
I've known people who worked at goodwill who complained about people dropping off obviously worthless garbage furniture. This is why, because $30 to get rid of your old office desk fucking sucks. But you just can't get rid of styrofoam at all. It's impossible.
There is no legal and reasonable way to get rid of styrofoam. I honestly don't know how people do it in this city. They must just let garbage pile up in their yard for two weeks while waiting for the city to come and take their can that contains two (2) pieces of styrofoam.
I have no choice in this matter. If I could compel manufacturers to use formed cardboard or whatever, I would. Maybe the government should fucking do that. What a great idea. But I have no power over it. I HATE opening shit up and finding styrofoam.
The transfer stations are also all out in places nobody ever goes, for *somewhat* understandable reasons - if you're getting rid of "garbage", as in black bags containing rotting food, sure! nobody wants that in their backyard. but there's lots of shit that doesn't stink.
So not only do you absolutely need a car, no matter what - literally nobody lives near the transfer station - you have to drive really far to get to the place. This is a recipe for garbage having to stack up in houses that are too small to contain it.
This is why I have a bunch of soaking wet garbage in my backyard, in a shitty un-roadworthy trailer I use for this purpose. I can't keep it inside, I *have* to put it outside, and then it gets soaked and I can't put it in the car. I'm just fucking stuck with it.
my take: if you put something on the curb the county should have to take it. figure it out. fucking find a solution, but don't put it on my back. i have money and an SUV and I STILL do not have a solution to this problem.
no, i'm not making a fucking 1.5hr round trip to federal way or some other BFE hellhole to throw away TWO PIECES OF STYROFOAM that i didn't know i was getting when i bought the thing because nobody fucking tells you this
a big fucking truck comes by and picks up my trash and recycling every other week. they have the capacity and the schedule to handle this, I don't. i have a job. i didn't fucking want thsi shit. outlaw it, don't punish me.
outlaw styrofoam! i'll vote for that! please, get the fuck rid of it! get rid of packing peanuts in particular! outlaw plastic packing material please fucking god just do it, stop making this my problem! christ!
but this just feels like one of those things where poor people get particularly fucked over because they have so little time and money, and so when they *do* try to buy something nice, they get saddled with this godforsaken toxic waste that they didn't ask for
oh you finally bought a new TV! congratulations now you have four pieces of styrofoam that don't fit in your extremely tiny trash can. those will be in your house for weeks now. you get to look at garbage for two weeks.
ok i just went to the seattle gov site and their options for getting rid of household furniture are all completely ridiculous and impractical 
$30 PER ITEM. PER ITEM!!!! your parents gave you two end tables that you didn't want but couldn't say no to? you just got saddled with SIXTY DOLLARS of fees. SIXTY FUCKING DOLLARS!!!!!
SIXTY DOLLARS! you can't tell me that's reasonable! fuck you! goodwill isn't paying $30 per item when they finally throw away unsellable end tables. this is a sin tax! fuck you!
you know what poor people are swimming in? furniture they got because someone else was throwing it out and they grabbed the opportunity. according to the city of seattle, they should be looking at every single chair, table and dresser as a $30 fee somewhere in their future
the page begins by telling you TO DUMP YOUR SHIT AT GOODWILL
that's a failed fucking municipality. "uhhhhhhhhh lol idk we didn't really plan for people to uhhhhhmmmmm own furniture and someday need to replace it. give it to Mother Corporation i guess? haha"
that's a failed fucking municipality. "uhhhhhhhhh lol idk we didn't really plan for people to uhhhhhmmmmm own furniture and someday need to replace it. give it to Mother Corporation i guess? haha"
everyone has attempted to give shit away on craigslist. we all tried it in like 2008, found out it wasn't fucking worth it, and now we stuff good furniture into dumpsters. we don't even try.
like, i focus on this shit because i've been there, i've been in situations that *sound* trivial but are actually fucking miserable from the inside
you're a working single mother of three children living in an apartment. how the fuck are you going to get rid of a bookshelf, *ever*?
the apartment provides no way to get rid of it. you get home from work at 7 and the city utilities call center closes at 5 so you literally can't call to schedule a pickup. you drive a Toyota sedan that it doesn't fit in. What options are left?
plus $30 is like two weeks of box dinners. you just have to have this bookshelf forever. You should have refused to take it, but a friend was moving and you were tired and you didn't think of getting rid of it at the time. Oops. enjoy your permanent bookshelf
You know what else you can do? Drag it to the street at 10PM and leave it. It'll go away. Someone with money will get angry at it and pay to make it go away.
The poor neighborhood has a symbiotry going on - every week a scavenger in a beat up pickup truck comes through and takes anything that's the least bit recyclable. I'm guessing the higher rent neighborhoods don't have that so much, so you're actually more fucked there.
