"You put your trash bags on the ground?!"

I still run my neighborhood's email list. I send out reminders about trash day being delayed, bulky item pickup and anything of importance to our area. As new residents move in from out of town they contact me to get on the list and they often take that chance to ask questions about city services, utilities, that type of thing. One question I get from newcomers to Kansas City is about our garbage collection system. They will ask about where to get a trash cart, or why the previous resident took theirs with them, or what kind of cans are acceptable for curbside placement on trash day. I've become a little sheepish when I tell them about our system. "You put the trash bags on the ground?" Uh, yeah we do. "Won't the animals get into them and scatter garbage all over the place?" Well, umm... Yeah that happens. "What if the bag breaks open before the sanitation worker gets it in the truck?" Uhhh, they pick it up as best they can but yes there does end up more trash blowing around. Yes I realize that's disgusting, and stupid, and wrong. Oh, by the way. Welcome to our beautiful city! I think the time for a better curbside garbage collection system has come. Granted, that time came about fifty years ago, but we're a little slow on the uptake sometimes. We're still dumping sewage into creeks for goodness sake. Sometimes it feels like we're waiting around to make sure this whole "take care of the environment" thing isn't just a fad. Nine Kansas City neighborhoods will be part of a pilot program that will use trash carts starting in March. Nine neighborhoods, 6000 homes. The feeling is the program will help improve sanitation, particularly in neighborhoods where litter from ripped plastic trash bags blows around in the streets. This topic has not been without its controversy. Change is difficult, and change with a big price tag is really difficult. People should be concerned about any program that may eventually cost $5 million to $6 million for city-wide implementation. I support the program. I've seen the system work in other cities. Yes I know it's expensive and yes I know even some of my supporters (at least until this post) oppose it. I think it's the right thing to do. Expensive? Yes. Don't we have more pressing things to spend our money on? Yes, but that's almost always the case. There's always a major problem looming on the horizon. That's just part of life. If we wait around forsaking all else in favor of concentrating on the cause du jour, nothing else will ever be accomplished. It's not solving our deferred infrastructure maintenance problems, or our sewer problems, or our dying street trees or even our lack of viable public transit. But it is solving a problem. And that's a start.