GM has heard word that several weeks ago a DPW inspector was going through Georgetown and giving fines to residents for violating trash disposal rules. Specifically, in at least one instance the inspector gave a $75.00 ticket to a resident of Volta Place for placing trash on the sidewalk in a plastic bag, as opposed to in a plastic container like the one above. (Apparently, the inspector was also seen cutting into the trash and looking at the mail to determine the house to which the trash could be attributed, a perhaps necessary but kind of creepy means of identifying the violator).
Many Georgetown residents have an issue with using the plastic containers. Namely, if you don’t have a walkway from the front of your house to back, you either have to come all the way around the alleyway or, if you don’t have an alleyway at all, you have to roll the trash through your house. And that’s assuming you have a rolling container, which some don’t (if you don’t have them, call 311 and request them). For most this is just a hassle, but for others such as the elderly, this is a more serious challenge.
But GM hears that DPW is not being particularly sympathetic to these complaints, even from elderly residents. So if you want to avoid a $75 fine, make sure to use your container, even if you have to ask a neighbor for some help.
Photo by CarrieA.
The Georgetown Metropolitan 
GM,
With respect, this resembles an Examiner shock story of the city scandalously enforcing its own laws instead of the balanced reporting we are used to from your keyboard.
Since the main source of rats is trash bags that are not placed in cans, let’s thank DPW for addressing our rat infestation. Because if you can carry your trash bags to the front yard, you can carry an empty can from the back to the front as well and then place the bags in the can. There is no large city in the country where one can forsake the use of trash cans. And Georgetowners get the privilege of twice-per-week pickup (which simply encourages excess trash IMHO).
And if trash is too burdensome, you can always produce less trash by shopping at farmers markets to avoid useless packaging, cooking at home instead of ordering delivery, using cloth diapers, and all the other things our great-grandparents’ generation of Georgetowners did.
“(I)f you don’t have a walkway from the front of your house to back, you either have to come all the way around the alleyway or, if you don’t have an alleyway at all, you have to roll the trash through your house.” OMG – you mean they actually expect you to walk a couple of feet to dispose of your trash properly? How dare DPW expect residents to follow the rules!
Rats are a problem. Trashcans are an effective form of rat abatement. Use a trashcan like most of civilized society.
I am glad they are doing this — when my neighbors leave bags on the street, there is trash all over the sidewalk and in the flower boxes the next morning from the animals that get into them overnight.