I have an apartment where the dumpster is a car's drive away, and taking trash down involves 4 staircases. What is the best way to ameliorate this situation?

_number8_@lemmy.world to No Stupid Questions@lemmy.world – 131 points –

i cannot possibly express how much of a gigantic pain in the ass this is; it's making more more slovenly than i want to be because it's such an inconvenience to throw stuff away.

like should i buy a hand truck? that wouldn't help for garbage bags

82

You are viewing a single comment

You don't. That's wholly at the discretion of whatever investment firm owns your apartment complex. I've never lived in an apartment that worked any other way.

Oh wow, that sucks. I'm pretty sure an apartment union is a requirement here and I have never had a different experience either. Like we have a general trash area in front of the apartment building, like 4 trashcans for different kind of trash with a tiny building around it that's maintained by the union and the trash there gets emptied once a week.

I guess it's good to say where you are if asking for advice.

They might be under the impression that people are buying these apartments instead of renting them, and then there’s some sort of HOA that covers those things.

It doesn't matter if you buy or rent. At least here you always have an apartment union that all residents are a part of, it's required. Like if you want a water filter installed to the general water intake or want a bike rack in front of the building you ask the union and they bring it up during a meeting so if the budget allows for it they'll put it on a vote. Like how else would you get like a bike rack or a garden for your building?

Like how else would you get like a bike rack or a garden for your building?

You ask the owner, and then accept it will never happen.

Wow, that's wild to me. Though why not just organize anyways? Like if everyone living in a building got together and for example collectively decided to set up a garbage collection area and everyone who lives there pays like a pittance to rent a punch of garbage cans. Having an organizational like that would be pretty useful even if it has no legal authority it can still do things.

Because then if the landlord/management company didn’t like it they would refuse to renew your lease and then you’re out of home. It’s rare for tenants to have much of any rights in the US.

If a whole building worth of people got organised there's not much the owner can do, even cops are gonna have trouble evicting a whole building worth of people and I doubt it would come to that over some trash pickup issues.

Sorry, but absolutely the owners and cops could do as they wish. Would it come to it about trash issues? Probably not, if it was being managed correctly. But say you have some random store bought trash cans closer to the buildings. Now who takes those full cans to the dumpsters? It’s not going to stay managed well. Landlords can evict people very easily for not abiding by terms, which can be pretty lengthy. And people aren’t going to risk their home just to stick it to a landlord. They’re just going to drag their trash out to the dumpster. I really envy you and your country which seems to have a much better way of handling things, but the entire rental industry of the US is built around getting the most money while providing the least necessary for the people.

Yea, but they way to fix your situation is to organize. Like start small with just your apartment building and work up from there, with enough people nothing is impossible. If you wait for someone else to fix it then nothing will change.

I think they are in the US. It operates without the sort of protections that most of the world has.

There is no such standard or organization in the US for people who rent. People are free to form their own groups, but they would hold no legal power.