Well recycle correctly anyway. Instead of constantly reminding my special ladyfriend that only #2 plastics are now accepted by our town for recycling, I've taken to quietly just sorting it myself before drop.

If you want Biddo folks to recycle, then don't hide normal-sized trash bins behind a $122 fee, fuckwads.

Seriously. It's better than Portland which says "ewwww trash bins, what the fuck is that" and makes people leave them on the sidewalk where homeless people can mess with them, but we usually amass 2-3 bags of trash in a week. I have to use my "squish and pray" method. I don't want to use my "squish and pray" method. But those bins are the smallest bins I have ever seen in any Southern Maine city, which, granted, is not saying much, but still.

What a fucking joke.

How are they hidden? If you want a larger trash can pay the fee.

I’m one of the first houses on my street after a long empty rural stretch in Biddeford, and most folks just use my yard as a trash can. So if you’re out of space in your recycling bin, just fucking do that I suppose

All hail squish and pray!

Because they have all the power to just give us the bigger bins from the get-go vs. making us pay for it and giving us tinny lil' bins instead.

SoPo has them. Saco has them. A myriad of other Maine towns and cities have them.

I know why they make us pay for it, but it's just so stupid. $122 is not something I should have to pay just to throw out an extra bag of kitchen trash, or just throw pizza boxes straight in instead of having to try and break my arm folding them the way I do with some boxes so they fit in the thinner can because you can't recycle things that have food waste on them anymore.

Maybe work on reducing your trash so you're not filling up 2-3 bags every single week.

You have the bin you have based on what they’re charging for in the property taxes for trash removal. You have the option for a larger one at a cost… or they’re betting most people don’t mind recycling and saving a buck on trash. If they’re gonna give everyone the bigger containers then everyone’s property taxes need to go up.

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We're talking about the city that charges $75 for inspections that are now going to be every 5 years and done by smartphone because they can't get their asses out of the office.

They don't give a shit about raising property taxes. They can still do it.

Still, you're right on the money with the latter, as funny as it is.

We try, but between the puppy pads we use and the stray McDonald's bag when we happen to get it, I have to use my squish-and-pray method more often than not.

Definitely wasn't this bad in other cities I lived in. We could put up to four bags in one bin and not worry. Now I have to make sure maggots don't invade our bin again like they did the last time I put trash in and the lid poked upwards a little.

But...but... it's still leagues better than Portland and whatever shit they have going on to charge us $15 out the ass for purple trash bags that we then have to take out of the bins and put on the sidewalk as free food for the bugs and the animals. I couldn't care less about the financial, political or logistical aspects of it; that's just insane.

Got bad news for you: those #2 plastics that you're so carefully sorting are just ending up in a landfill in Asia, arguably costing more CO2 to bury them than just throwing them away with the rest of your trash.

Plastic recycling is a lie and a scam.

Maybe a trash compactor would help?

And electronics too in Africa. But as long as it's not here...

Ahem…you mean $17.50.

This. There are thousands of articles discussing how difficult it is to recycle plastic. I think the current rate is somewhere around 5%-8%, depending on the source.
Think of the amount of effort put into that...for 8%.

Why don't you just recycle? Is it that hard?

It went up?!

Actually I shouldn't be surprised, but still...they'll probably continue to go up with inflation and all.

Trying to find the numbers. Casella website does not have any real numbers... That I can find