I am building a big commercial size shredder that I will install directly into my 4" feeder sewer line. I am going to shred all my yard debris, garbage and everything and send it down the sewer. Now I will get my money's worth and will cancel my garbage collection completely. My power bill may go up a little, but no more than my hot tub.

Bold prediction: As the program goes "live," Mayor McCreepy will institute a program to yank out garbage disposals. Here is how it will work:

1. All sewer rates will be increased by some large chunk. They will justify it as a "disposal fee."

2. Rate payers will get a "feebate" if they can prove that the do not have a garbage disposal.

3. Do-gooders will yank out their disposals. Cynics will collect the feebate, then use the savings to buy a new disposal.

Yes it is preposterous. That is exactly why, Sam has his latest Roland Chlapowski cranking out some PowerPoints.

After that, look for a fireplace fee to solve global warming, climate change, whatever ...

John Benton's idea reminds me of this:

http://ask.metafilter.com/7921/If-you-killed-somebody-how-would-you-dispose-of-the-body-without-getting-caught#155715

Garage Wine:
Didn't a version of that happen in the movie "Fargo"?
To heck with high powered garbage disposals...I foresee a run on small scale chippers?

I have my own private landfill. It's called my back yard.

http://www.ssiworld.com/watch/shred.htm

One of these might work!

The idea of every-other-week garbage pickup is going to be bad news for apartment complexes. Apartment dwellers will have to start carrying their garbage over to local parks or shopping centers and disposing of it in public bins. I'm not kidding.

Our apartment complex has two dumpster-busting problems:

1) When tenants move out, they often fill an entire dumpster by themselves, leaving little room for other tenant garbage.

2) When remodeling or cleaning is done on the premises, the contractors often throw debris into the dumpsters meant for tenants, leaving little room for tenant garbage.

3) When the owners rake or do any pruning not handled by the management company landscaping service, they don't treat the stuff as lawn debris but throw it into the dumpster and . . . you guessed it . . leaving little room for tenant garbage.

And this happens when our garbage is picked up WEEKLY.

This is a great deal for the garbage haulers and the City of Portland who must be in this sewage scenario together. My scenario goes likes this. Mayor McCreepy and his buddies at city hall issue an edict telling the garbage haulers they need to cut back on garbage pick
ups so the City of Portland can save $$ on costs involved in administering this program.
In turn the garbage haulers cut back their scheduled runs and people start using our sewage system more often for the disposal of wastes which were originally picked up by the garbage collectors. Subsequently, the citizens of our great city began to tax the sewage system too much and Mayor McCreepy tells everyone within the city confines time for a new sewage upgrade to handle the increased sewage. Our tax $$$ hard at work within our great metropolitan area.