Research. Again.

[estepheia]

California. Suburbs. Middle Class residential area. Trash cans. How many? What color? Recycling bins?
Here in Braunschweig it's like this: people have grey trash cans and green ones, the grey ones for ordinary trash, green ones for organic matter that's compostable. Some people have blue ones for paper. Glass, drinking cartons, plastic, Paper and tin cans have to be sorted into communal recycling containers. Now get this: some of the sorted trash then gets tossed together again and burnt - because the poplulation sorts more dilligently than our recycling industry can cope with. They have to add recyclable trash to the to-be-burnt trash because the latter is not flammable enough. Crazy.

Anyway, for the story I just need to paint a picture of great civic commitment. So the people in the house are pillars of the community. What would their trashcans look like? Xander uses them to take cover, but I'd also like them to make a statement about the house's owners, you know?
Thanks in advance. *beams*

PS: The last chapter of Four Fear is coming along nicely. Yay.

Comments

[spacedoutlooney.livejournal.com]

Trash cans tend to be any number of colors, black, gray, brown, tan, and dark green are common because people buy them from the store and such. From what I remember of living in CA, recycling bins, they are more squat crate-like, not like garbage cans, tend to be issued by the garbage people. Most of the time they are blue, but I think sometimes they can be color-coded, like blue for plastic, gray for glass, green for paper (maybe not exactly that, but you get the idea).

[estepheia.livejournal.com]

Thank you! Much obliged. :-)

[spikewriter]

For the Los Angeles area, the trash can colors are as follows:

Black for regular trash
Green for grass/leaves
Blue for recycables.

On trash day (which happens to be this morning for me), you'll see anywhere from one to four cans out in front. Some people have more than one type of can -- we have two black trash cans, some of our neighbors have two greens. You call the city if you need more than one and order it up.

trash can colors

[estepheia.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the info. :-)
Looks like California is very eco-conscious. Yay!

[willowgreen.livejournal.com]

In my Silicon Valley town, each house has 1 big black "Toter" (http://tinyurl.com/bgbb5
) for general trash; 1 big green toter for compostables; and 1 double-lidded toter that holds newspapers on one side and aluminum and plastic containers on the other. We used to use stackable plastic crates to sort the recycling; they switched us to the toters several years ago. Nobody has more than one toter of each type, and not everyone puts out every toter every week--we sometimes take a week or two to fill up the compostable and/or recyclable toter. In my town, we're allowed to put out extra cans of trash at no charge, but some nearby cities charge a lot extra if you need to do that.

Oh, we have another garbage-related custom that might be useful for you: We call it "Big Garbage Month." Twice a year, there's a month during which the garbage company will pick up old furniture, electronics, and other big things that don't fit in the toter. Of course, a lot of that stuff gets picked up off the street before the truck arrives. Other times of year, you have to take it to the SMART station (new, fancy dump) and pay a fee to get rid of it. Anyway, if it just happens to be "Big Garbage Month" when Xander is trying to hide, he'd have a lot more options.

[darkravine.livejournal.com]

Waste Management (one of the more popular garbage companies) use alot of different colored cans. Just know that they're rather large (bigger than the ones you would buy in the store, atleast). Some also have grooves on the bottom for easier pickup for the the truck.

Typically, though, you'd see blue, green, brown, and black. Looks like Monet threw up in my neighborhood.

Hope this helps. :)

Cheers.

[estepheia.livejournal.com]

Typically, though, you'd see blue, green, brown, and black. Looks like Monet threw up in my neighborhood.

Heee. :-)
Thanks.

I love your icon, btw.
Hah, I just watched the first season again with a friend. I got her thoroughly addicted - of course she's a Veronica/Logan shipper. Go me!

I suppose you wouldn't know a few good Weevil/Logan fics, huh? ;-)
Not that I have time to read fanfic for FUN - I have to concrit two stories and rewrite some of my own - but hey, inquiring minds would like to know.

Have a good Sunday!

Re: Cheers.

[darkravine.livejournal.com]

I love your icon, btw.

Thanks! I believe saava did that one.

Haven't seen any Weevil/Logan in awhile, although I must admit I haven't read fanfic in like 8 weeks. :( Bad me. Started school again, so time is no longer in existence.

Have now converted 11 people to Veronica Mars. Which is awesome, because it gives me an excuse to watch the first season over and over. :)

Have a good Sunday!

Thanks! You too. :)

[deevalish.livejournal.com]

In SF, the garbage bins are 2-wheeled containers about waist high. Green for kitchen and yard waste, blue for paper & plastic recyclables and black for all other types of garbage. They are all available in 2 sizes, the largest size can easily fit an average size adult. The small one not so much.

[estepheia.livejournal.com]

Yeah, we have two-wheeled containers too. I didn't think we'd have that many similarities.

Thanks for the info. :-)

We're supposed to have trash cans?

[ozma914.livejournal.com]

I just throw my trash bags down along the curb and hope the cats don't notice. My trash cans are full of aluminum awaiting a trip to the recycling center. (Ironically, I'm a pillar of the community.)
But this is Indiana, and we're not renown for embracing change. I suggest you consider having your trash/recycling cans be behind some kind of decorative privacy fence, maybe with a back to nature wood stain color. That seems to me to be the ultimate civic committment -- hiding your cans entirely. And it would give Xander more hiding room, because I know from experience that trash cans are lousy cover.