I hear you. In the way-back they would walk to your house/garage and carry whatever you had, wherever it was, to the truck in the street. Surely there were limits, but the occupant paying the bill was still the boss.

I remember a monstrous tub the guy carried, dumping everything into it and carrying the tub to the truck.

Today, I would just make sure of the 12 inches between the cans, assuming it's to keep costs lower. However, Waste Management is a subsidiary of McDermott. You are dealing with a massive corporation. Eff them as I am feeling the rage with Spectrum.

My guess is that they have a truck that has an arm that dumps the cans instead of having a couple of his doing the lifting. The arm probably needs space to grab the cans or it will knock a can over. I wouldn't be half surprised if that was part off paperwork that you received our were supposed to have read at some point.

I'd report him to the city.

Same here, I used to leave a gift card for coffee. Now it’s all mechanical, the driver never leaves the truck.

The whole QR code thing makes me uncomfortable and I think it opens a door to your phone data and bank account data. That's a hard no!
https://consumer.ftc.gov/consumer-alerts/2023/12/scammers-hide-harmful-links-qr-codes-steal-your-information

Unless you actually saw the garbageman attach the note there is no way to know if he gets the tip or if it is an enterprising felon out on parole and needing to fund his lifestyle on your dime. He walks affluent neighborhoods on the night garbage bins are out and attaches a note to each one. If he hits 1/10 he scores a nice vacation in Cancun.

Call me cynical.

I was attempting to be funny, but apparently I'm not ready for stand up. ;)

Why would you anonymously tip your garbage man through a QR code? Meet him out there at butt-crack AM on your garbage day and look him in the eye and give him the cookies or the pie or whatever, and tell him he's a hero. If you're lazy give him cash but do it in person. Give him a reason to treat you well. QR code keeps you relatively anonymous and ruins the connection and any chance of humanity-upside for you.

Butt crack of dawn? My garbage truck comes sometime between 8am and 3pm, and the recycling truck comes some time between today and 3 weeks from now.

Honestly.

PPOT .... perfect for amateur sit down stuff :)

I heard some bands were putting QR codes on the drum kit ... I don't buy 'em beers now ... all the suckers wif phones in the air trying to donate....

Pisses me off :D

I'd like to give my sanitation guys a tip. They actually go beyond believe it or not. I put the bins in the street at the driveway cut, neatly.
If I have heavy bags because I'm doing another project I place a note telling them that the bags are heavy or contain anything sharp. Plus they place my bins back into my driveway, they don't do that for others. They are forbidden to even accept a cup of coffee as a "gift".

We have two wheeled bins for trash, and one wheeled recycle bin. The only time we use both trash cans is when my wife is gardening, and has dead foliage to get rid of. We can put just about anything non toxic in our trash cans. The city runs a toxic waste disposal site that I can take my antifreeze, used oil, paint, florescent or mercury vapor bulbs to them for free, well no additional costs.

Once every other month they have "bulk disposal" pickup. So tree limbs, appliances, fence panels, furniture, dead water heaters, and anything to large for the trash can is picked up. The scavengers provide a free "service: of picking up any appliance and repairing and selling them, or stripping them and selling the metal scrap. Lawn mowers and lawn equipment are grabbed right away before the trash guys get there.

I used to work in a light industrial area. No residences at all. We could put out almost anything on the curb, and it was picked up by the scavengers in short order.

We likely have different man picking up the trash each week. We have a random postal worker deliver the mail. We never have any idea who it will be. Our mail box is a solid large brick pillar with a mail box in it next to the street.

I am a generous tipper, but I would never think to tip the trash man, or the mail delivery person, anymore than the UPS driver or the Amazon driver. They are just random employees paid to do a job.

When I was a little kid (early 70s) every year my folks would wrap up a half rack of beer in Christmas wrapping and I'd take it out and leave on top of the can on pick-up day for the garbageman. Never occurred to me - or them - that those beers probably got cracked on the job and there was a 25 ton truck rolling through the neighborhood driven by a tired guy that probably started drinking at 9:00am.

Things were a lot different then.

For holiday tips, my folks never gave cash, but always had a collection of wrapped things ready to go in the event they had forgotten someone and needed something in a pinch. In those days the neighborhood service providers (milkman, paperboy, garbageman, mailman) were all the same guys every day. You got to know them and a gift was appropriate. I don't quite feel the same way about the random anonymous letter carrier that is different every 10 days.

The security guard in my office building has been there for over 2 years. I see him every morning. He's invited to my office party.

I still give the sanitation crew a 30 pack every Christmas and 20 bucks each--never had an issue with recyclables, oversized items, organic materials on non-organic pick-up days, etc. Well worth the expense.

Back in late 60s when we lived in Hawaii, my dad learned to put all the empties from Primo beer on top of the trash cans back in the same case they came in. The trash guys could take them to the plant and get some minor amount of cash per case. A pickup load was worth the effort. If they saw Primo beer cans in the trash, your trash cans were be torn up and sometimes just vanish.

Dad learned from the neighbors, put the cans on top of the trash cans for the garbage pickup guys.

Yeah I realized after I posted that maybe not everyone's garbage guy comes at a reliable time haha.

My garbage needs to be out buy 7am on Wednesday and my guy either comes at 7:02 or a few weeks later.

Just tightened up my mail courier.

Will have to figure out something for the G-men. In most previous years it's been the same crew.

This past year there were some change ups so jury still out on who gets what.

All our stuff is by hand - no machinery involved except the big green truck with the noisy brakes! :D

They do and I'm sure it was in something I'll never read. The new company Meridian seems to be just fine with the can spacing and will also pick up one "bulk item" for less money.