Trash Days
Frank just moved from an apartment into a small house with his family. When he lived in a six-story apartment building, dealing with the trash was easy. Frank usually just dropped a bag of garbage down a trash compactor chute. There was one trash compactor chute on every floor of the building. The chute was in a small room located next to the elevator. Frank had to take cans, bottles and other recyclables to the basement and put them in a special bin. He did not though have to worry about remembering what day was trash day. He did not have to worry about taking the trash out to be collected. That was the job of the building’s superintendent.
The two-bedroom house Frank moved into had no superintendent though. Frank was provided with three trashcans by the city. Each trashcan was a different color. The black one was for regular garbage. The blue one was for paper, plastic, and cans so that they could be recycled. The green bin was for leaves, cut grass, and tree trimmings. Each bin needed to be put out to the curb before the city sanitation trucks came around early Monday morning. Frank couldn’t put the cans out too early, either. If he put the cans on the curb before 6:00 p.m. on Sunday evenings, he could get a ticket and have to pay a fine.
Frank decided to set a reminder on his cell phone. Every Sunday night at 6:00 in the evening his phone would beep reminding him to take the trash bins to the curb. Frank also had to pay the city every three months for trash collection. That was something that he didn’t have to do when he rented an apartment. Living in a house sure involved a lot more responsibility than living in an apartment building.
