Is it wrong to put trash in your neighbor's trash can?

[Pacolovestacos]

I've lived in several areas where the town or waste company actually owns hte bins. When you move in and set up service they bring the bins out for your use while you live there, when you move away the last pick up they take the bins themselvs as well as the trash.

That makes sense

 

[The Mystery Machine]

This was a one time thing, but the other night I put a small bag of trash in my neighbor's trash can. I admit it was out of laziness (her trash can was closer to me than my own), but I figured since it's just trash and it's all being picked up in the morning that it wouldn't be a big deal. She removed that bag and threw it on my driveway.

Isn't trash just trash? I can't imagine caring if someone put a small amount of trash in mine. It's weird how someone can get so possessive about.... trash.

Yes it is. I would gently ask you to keep your trash in your own can thank you.

AND NO, not all trash is equal.

People throw bags of dog crap, diapers, other gross stuff away.

Can I throw my bags of dog crap in your can so my can won't stink? Yea, didn't think so...

 

[Wishing on a star]

Yes, wrong....
Never okay to assume one can appropriate something of somebody else's.

Unless there is ongoing permission! Some neighbors are closer, and have the extra room, etc.

 

[mnrose]

It's ok if you ask. Not is you just "assume" you can do so. It's not YOUR trash can. It's ok to use any public trash can, but your neighbor's trashcan is not public. My neighbors uses mine sometimes, but we have that understanding based on a conversation.

Your neighbor's reaction wouldn't have been mine, but I would have been annoyed to find your trash in my can.

 

[MaryLovesPoohBear]

Heck, if you can find room in my bin, go for it.

I just really don't care.

Once it is off of my property, and on the street, I don't own it anyway.

 

[DopeyDame]

We actually recently had a 100+ thread post about this on my neighborhood forum.
It got pretty heated!
The consensus is, no, you can't put trash (most particularly not doggie poop bags) in someone else's trash can.

if I were your neighbor I probably wouldn't have noticed, and definitely wouldn't have cared if I did notice. But some people *really* care!

 

[GreatLakes]

I really don't see what the issue is. I can put out as many cans and bags as I want and they will get picked up. There isn't a limit and I don't get billed per ounce or container or anything. If someone's dog poops in my yard and they clean it up and put it in my garbage (which will have all of my dog's poop in it already anyway) I'm just glad they cleaned it up.

I'm not wound so tightly that this kind of thing would register on my radar.

 

[Wishing on a star]

Actually, your trash, from your home, IS your property.
And, here, you do not put trash on public or neighborhood roadways.
When services have the big bins that they pick up once or twice a week, they are placed in the edge of your property, driveway.

Unless we have a respectfiul agreement, you have no right to go thru my trash.
And, my property is not your trash dump.
Sorry!!!!

 

[Wishing on a star]

I really don't see what the issue is. I can put out as many cans and bags as I want and they will get picked up. There isn't a limit and I don't get billed per ounce or container or anything.

This is not the case in many areas. Not at all.

 

[Jennasis]

Yep, it's wrong.

 

[MaryLovesPoohBear]

Actually, your trash, from your home, IS your property.
And, here, you do not put trash on public or neighborhood roadways.
When services have the big bins that they pick up once or twice a week, they are placed in the edge of your property, driveway.

Unless we have a respectful agreement, you have no right to go thru my trash.
And, my property is not your trash dump.
Sorry!!!!

It actually depends on where you live.

I am sure there are some places that your trash, once at the curb is still your property. But many places it is not. In fact, in many places, the police do not need a search warrant to collect and go through your trash once it is at the curb for pick up.

 

[kdonnel]

Yes it is. I would gently ask you to keep your trash in your own can thank you.

AND NO, not all trash is equal.

People throw bags of dog crap, diapers, other gross stuff away.

Can I throw my bags of dog crap in your can so my can won't stink? Yea, didn't think so...

If you want to bring them over to my house, sure. I don't care. My trash stays outside on the side of the house. I never go out of my way to smell the contents.

 

[VandVsmama]

Throwing your trash in a neighbor's trash bin is, to some folks, the equivalent of a dog peeing on another dog's territory. Your neighbor probably saw you do it. It's not about what was in the small plastic grocery bag or how much trash you put in the neighbor's bin.

So just chock it up as a lesson learned and don't do it again.

If you want to remain on friendly neighborly terms with your neighbor, then you should consider going over to apologize. Even better, bring some sort of baked good to sweeten the "I'm sorry." Good neighbors are worth their weight in gold. They will keep an eye on your place when you're not home...call the police if something seems amiss...come and knock on your door to tell you that you left your garage door open late at night by mistake...come over to tell you that they saw your irrigation valve leaking a ton of water into the street (and you didn't realize this). Helpful stuff like that.

We had 1 neighbor once who would always have big family get togethers in their back yard. They were Korean and holy mother of God, the food they would cook was phenomenal. Every time they had a BBQ, they'd hand over to us over the top of the fence a few plates of food. They were the best neighbors ever.

But if your neighbor thinks that you are a butthole, then your neighbor won't be neighborly and do that stuff.

OR you could be like my sister's neighbors...
My sister owns a vacation home in the town where my family lives. I check on her place a couple of times a week and I make sure that the yard is tended to and stuff like that. Her next door neighbors on 1 side are renters. The front yard looks like doo doo all the time. Quite regularly, the renters will suddenly have a big open trailer parked on the street in front of the house or...better yet...they park it in front of my sister's house. This trailer is always full of junk. Mattresses, furniture, cardboard boxes. It usually stays there for a week or more. Gets rained on. The renters don't put a tarp on it or anything. There is an HOA and you're not allowed to park on the street at night, so I know that they've probably been fined for this.

After 1 of my sister's visits, I went to her house on Trash Night to put our her trash bin and recycling bin for Trash Day (which was the next day). This was at about 8:00 pm. Well, what do you know? There was already a trash bin and a recycling bin sitting ON my sister's property right at the curb. But they weren't HER trash bins (because hers were still in her garage waiting for me to drag them to the street).

They belonged to the renters next door. How come they didn't put their own trash bins in front of THEIR house? Because of the stupid trailer.

So I moved their trash bins to their driveway.

I then checked the following week and the idiot renters must have learned their lesson because they didn't do it again. My sister's next door neighbors are inconsiderate butt heads.

Don't be a butt head next time. Carry your CVS bag to your own trash bin and say sorry to your neighbor and don't do it again.

 

[North of Mouse]

This was a one time thing, but the other night I put a small bag of trash in my neighbor's trash can. I admit it was out of laziness (her trash can was closer to me than my own), but I figured since it's just trash and it's all being picked up in the morning that it wouldn't be a big deal. She removed that bag and threw it on my driveway.

Isn't trash just trash? I can't imagine caring if someone put a small amount of trash in mine. It's weird how someone can get so possessive about.... trash.

Doesn't sound like you have the kind of neighborly relationship to have done that!!
I could easily do that with my close neighbors and they to us - wouldn't be a biggie at all.

 

[Hikergirl]

I really don't see what the issue is. I can put out as many cans and bags as I want and they will get picked up. There isn't a limit and I don't get billed per ounce or container or anything. If someone's dog poops in my yard and they clean it up and put it in my garbage (which will have all of my dog's poop in it already anyway) I'm just glad they cleaned it up.

I'm not wound so tightly that this kind of thing would register on my radar.

I don't have that luxury, I pay for my can and my trash service. I can't put as many bags as I want, I can put what fits in the can. I also don't want people to throw their dog poop bags in my can, I have a dog and I have a separate little can for her poop bags, then that whole bag goes into the garbage can. You might feel differently if you've had a poop bag in your can that tore. That is when I started putting her poop in a separate can. And yes, cleaning **** out of my garbage can gets me pretty wound up, but hey if you aren't feel free to give me your number so I can give you a call if it happens again

 

[DisneyHardin]

This is the kind of thing that would not bother me at all, but would rub my DH the wrong way. Last summer, I went down to the end of the driveway to bring up the trash can and I saw some trash in the road by our driveway (I think it had spilled out of the garbage truck), so I picked it up and put it in our can and rolled it up the hill. When DH went to put out trash the next time and saw that garbage that he knew wasn't ours he started ranting and raving about it. I quickly shut him down by telling him what had happened, but had it not been me who put it there, he would have been on the warpath trying to figure out who had.

 

[nkereina]

We belong to an HOA and our garbage is paid for by our dues. The garbage company is super picky about what they pick up, and will even leave garbage behind if they feel its a restricted item or if there's too much of it. I know we walk the line of the garbage allowance each week so if a neighbor added a bag to our pile without permission, it's inclined to get left behind. Not to mention, the rules on restricted items. But in a "normal" neighborhood, if I knew my neighbors well enough, it wouldn't bother me if this happened. Chances are if my garbage was already out and I didn't add anything to it, I wouldn't even notice that my neighbor had done that!

 

[Mizzoufan]

In the end OP all that matters is your neighbor doesn't want you to dump trash in her container in the future.

 

[kimblebee]

So just curious about that, your township bought your trash bins for you then right?

Our city bought our bins for us. They are the huge bins, one for garbage and one for recycling. On special weeks they pick up yard waste too, as long as it’s in the correct bag.

 

[bcla]

So just curious about that, your township bought your trash bins for you then right?

What's so unusual about it? A lot of municipalities do this. In those cases it's not the resident's right to do anything with the container other than to use it at their address. If the container is damaged, it will be replaced by the municipality or the contractor. However, it wouldn't be OK to take one somewhere else to use, as it's provided only for that service. Here's an example. The city of San Diego seems to have a bar code on each one along with a clear message that it's city property and not to be removed from the service address.

I live in a place where we have to provide our own containers. If one is damaged (and that's happened to me) I have to replace it myself. Right now we're using a Rubbermaid Brute commercial can that looks like it's near impossible to break.