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Re:An ‘Uber for garbage’ picks up steam, and $11.7M in Serie... by degenerate on Thursday July 06, 2017 @05:13PM (#14714018)
You do, it's called throw it in the front yard. Anything metal will be picked up and melted down for $ by junk seekers.

Used motor oil, insulation, car batteries, and other toxic stuff, I could see a door service being useful.

Re:An ‘Uber for garbage’ picks up steam, and $11.7M in Serie... by phil21 on Thursday July 06, 2017 @05:37PM (#14714169)
This works in major cities with a self-sustaining population of scrappers.

Chicago trash service is utterly amazing. Literally anything that fits in your house you put in the alley and either the scrappers take it within hours, or the trash men haul it away without complaint.

Other cities I lived in were atrocious. You'd be looked at crazy if you had anything remotely considered an abnormal need. Such as traveling a lot and not being able to put your trash bin out every single week for pickup (as you'd be fined daily for leaving it on the street). Something stupidly that simple is exceedingly hard in most places in the US - and picking up large items is usually an even worse experience.

Re:An ‘Uber for garbage’ picks up steam, and $11.7M in Serie... by ronack on Thursday July 06, 2017 @09:43PM (#14715416)
Came here to say just that. I've seen entire living room sets put out in the alley and collected by Streets & Sanitation as if entirely routine. We did get a $10/month garbage fee added last year but it's still a bargain to have literally anything you put out back magically disappear.
Re:An ‘Uber for garbage’ picks up steam, and $11.7M in Serie... by brianwawok on Saturday July 08, 2017 @08:30PM (#14727823)
The chicago mexican junk trucks are amazing. Your old stove is gone in 30 minites flat for free.
Re:An ‘Uber for garbage’ picks up steam, and $11.7M in Serie... by warent on Thursday July 06, 2017 @05:25PM (#14714097)
There are plenty of neighborhoods where you'll be fined by the HOA for doing that. Just "tossing in the front yard" isn't a feasible sustainable solution. Anyway if he's paying 50% in income taxes then it's unlikely he even lives in a neighborhood where junk collectors drive around
Re:An ‘Uber for garbage’ picks up steam, and $11.7M in Serie... by jimmaswell on Thursday July 06, 2017 @08:33PM (#14715091)
I don't think I could live in an HOA even if I was paid to. Those things are atrocities. To anyone in the market for buying a home, watch out for those and never buy one if it's under an HOA. You can find lots of horror stories about them online with a quick search.

A good tip for anyone suffering through one: they can't legally interfere with amateur radio towers, so if you're dissatisfied with having to live with your HOA, you can put up as big of an amateur radio tower as you can afford and they can't do anything about it.

Re:An ‘Uber for garbage’ picks up steam, and $11.7M in Serie... by ryuker16 on Saturday July 08, 2017 @12:37PM (#14726012)
Usually they will ding you on every other HOA law to make up for it.
Re:An ‘Uber for garbage’ picks up steam, and $11.7M in Serie... by rubidium on Thursday July 06, 2017 @07:21PM (#14714772)
At 50% tax bracket that's exactly the neighborhood scrappers want to be in. Only problem is if it's a gated community. Then you have to pay for what the rest of us (who actually rub shoulders with the world) get for free :)
Re:An ‘Uber for garbage’ picks up steam, and $11.7M in Serie... by Tharkun on Friday July 07, 2017 @02:33AM (#14716527)
HOAs can issue fines? That's madness. I'll get fined for putting trash on my curb on the wrong day of the week, or the wrong kind of trash, but it'll be by my local government's very efficient income generators/police.
Re:An ‘Uber for garbage’ picks up steam, and $11.7M in Serie... by brianwawok on Saturday July 08, 2017 @08:31PM (#14727827)
People voluntarily agree to more strict rules to not have their home value lowered by a dirty house in their block.
Re:An ‘Uber for garbage’ picks up steam, and $11.7M in Serie... by hkmurakami on Thursday July 06, 2017 @05:29PM (#14714128)
typically you'll need to call a "junk collector service" which will charge you about $50/item to get rid of it for you.
Re:An ‘Uber for garbage’ picks up steam, and $11.7M in Serie... by Tharkun on Friday July 07, 2017 @02:31AM (#14716515)
Not likely in my area. I'll get a steep fine for illegal waste disposal before any scrapper notices it.
Re:An ‘Uber for garbage’ picks up steam, and $11.7M in Serie... by warent on Thursday July 06, 2017 @05:27PM (#14714108)
Although posting an ad on Craigslist under "free" could work