Kalundborg kommune's new trash system
Let me start out. About a month ago our kommune (city/county region) implemented a new trash system. Our old system was a trash can with a powerful paper bag to hold the trash. When they came to pick it up they took the entire paper bag out leaving nothing behind. It was nice, clean and it worked. The new system is a two compartment plastic container with 2 wheels and a lid. One compartment is for all the biodegradable stuff like food, the other compartment is for everything else. Inside we have two bins, a small bin for the bio stuff which we get some special biodegradable cornstarch bags and for the regular trash we just use regular plastic bags. Our trash is picked up every two weeks so we will end up with 2 week old rotting food at the bottom of our trash can. Within the first week my wife foresaw issues with the bio bags. When we would put them in the bio compartment they would have a tendency to get stuck. We both had a feeling this would lead to problems.
This morning I was helping my wife load up the car so she and a friend could go on a little trip. My wife who is not very squeamish went to put something in our trash can and I hear her yelling "eww eww eww". She comes back to me and tells me that our trash can is crawling with maggots. I know how she feels about maggots so I of course assume she is exaggerating. I go to investigate and I have to conclude she is right. Our trash can is literally crawling with maggots. The reason why? We had 4 bags stuck at the bottom of the biodegradable compartment in a soup of what I assume is rainwater, rotten food and maggots. The bags made from cornstarch looked like they had started decomposing already.
I then go inside to find a phone number to call about this. I find it, call and get to talk to a lady who's only responses are: "Yes, we know there is a problem.", "We are working on it.", "Can't you take out the bags put them in trash bag and dump them in the regular waste compartment?" and "You will have to clean out your trash can yourself."
I have now finished cleaning out our trash can gotten the bags into a new trash bag and done as instructed. I have never in my life been this close to throwing up though from sight and smell. I have cleaned up dog shit, dog puke, human shit and human puke but never before have I gagged like this thinking I was gonna throw up.
I spoke to one of my neighbors and he says that this problem has been the hot topic in the local news paper he subscribes to so we are obviously not the only ones who have had this problem. If I ever experience something this gross every again I will start bagging up the biodegradable stuff myself and take it to the dump where it will go into the container for stuff going to the incinerator. I certainly don't ever want to have to deal with maggots in my trash like that ever again. Another option is of course that I remove the compartment divider from the trash can and put it all in heavy sealed plastic bags.
My big questions are:
How on earth can you implement a system like this?
Why didn't you do a test group first to work out the kinks in a new system before implementing it?
Who on earth was the architect that designed the trash cans? Maybe he should have consulted an engineer?
Who thought that having 2 week old rotting food in bags that can rot themselves was a good idea? Maybe they should have tried to leave food remnants in a trash can like this in the summer heat for 2 weeks just to test the idea?
I have many more questions but right now I just wish for the old trash system to be used again. I can't see any good, bad or mediocre fixes that would real solve these problems. Thanks a lot Kalundborg kommune, what brilliant trash system you came up with!!!
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