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Post by busy on Nov 18, 2023 19:30:15 GMT
Our garage freezer died while we were out of town and a bunch of food went bad. Got home last night to discover this and holy crap, the garage smells AWFUL. We need to dispose of the food asap and I am at a loss where to take it. I called the transfer station/dump and they do not take food waste. They suggested we compost it or put it in our yard waste bin for industrial composting. Neither of those is an option. I called the industrial composting company and they don't take food waste directly from consumers, only via the yard waste bins. Our garbage pickup day is Friday - there's no way we can wait until then. I called our garbage provider to see if they had any suggestions but they aren't open on the weekend. I don't know what else to try. Any ideas?  I'm guessing it's somewhere in the 50-60 lbs range. |
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GiantsFan
Prolific Pea
Posts: 8,287
Site Supporter
Jun 27, 2014 14:44:56 GMT
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Post by GiantsFan on Nov 18, 2023 19:34:11 GMT
My only idea is buy a new freezer ASAP and re-freeze it until Thursday night/Friday morning.
I'm sorry this happened. I can only imagine the smell.
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Post by busy on Nov 18, 2023 19:35:17 GMT
My only idea is buy a new freezer ASAP and re-freeze it until Thursday night/Friday morning. I'm sorry this happened. I can only imagine the smell. We have a new freezer coming tomorrow but I don't want the odor permeating the new one KWIM? |
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Post by katlady on Nov 18, 2023 19:52:56 GMT
Bag it all up really good and put it outside for now? I don’t know though what your wild animal situation is like. And since your regular pickup is on Friday, you may not get service this week until Saturday because of Thanksgiving. I hope you find a solution before then!
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Post by busy on Nov 18, 2023 21:35:31 GMT
Bag it all up really good and put it outside for now? I don’t know though what your wild animal situation is like. And since your regular pickup is on Friday, you may not get service this week until Saturday because of Thanksgiving. I hope you find a solution before then! Can't risk that. We are very close to the urban growth boundary and there's forest and agricultural land within a couple blocks. We regularly see raccoons and coyotes, both of which could easily rip open the bags. We'll also be out of town Mon-Thurs evening, so if something happened, we wouldn't be here to clean up and I am *sure* we'd get reported to the HOA if rancid meat garbage got spread around by wild animals and was still there when people's guests arrived for Thanksgiving. UGH this is so annoying. We had this happen once, many years ago, living elsewhere and we were able to take it to the dump and just pay a different rate for food waste. |
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Post by compeateropeator on Nov 18, 2023 21:48:19 GMT
I am not sure I have viable options as our dumps/transfer centers have composting for individuals. Is there someone you know that lives somewhere that uses a dumpster for their trash. Maybe would let you you throw it in there. While not optimal and it would be better to compost it doesn’t look like you have many options for that. I would, also, not leave it outside as it will draw all kinds of animals. Sometimes you just do the best you can especially if the hoped for option is actually not an option. Good luck.
ETA - do you know someone who has a restaurant or works for one? Maybe you can pay them (the restaurant ) to get rid of it?
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Post by cecilia on Nov 18, 2023 21:59:38 GMT
We set it out to compost or for wildlife. But we have a few acres, in the "country", so we can get it a ways from the house.
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Post by seveerb on Nov 18, 2023 22:13:52 GMT
Can you pay a local restaurant to use their outdoor dumpster?
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Post by katlady on Nov 18, 2023 22:22:51 GMT
Oh, do you have anyone doing construction work in your area? Maybe you could pay them a little something to haul it away for you. Or even a landscaper/gardener? Our gardener once hauled away a bench for us and we gave him some money to do it. Also, if you are on Nextdoor, see if someone could haul it away for you.
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Post by Basket1lady on Nov 18, 2023 22:40:40 GMT
It won’t help you until Monday, but your trash service should be able to do an extra pick up for a fee. I like the idea of posting on Nextdoor—someone should be willing to take it away for a lot of cash.
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Post by katlady on Nov 18, 2023 22:48:28 GMT
your trash service should be able to do an extra pick up for a fee. Ours won't come out unless it is their scheduled day. We can do bulk pick-up, but they still come to your house only on your regular day. Too many homes to service to make special runs. |
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Post by littlemama on Nov 18, 2023 22:57:41 GMT
I'd find a place with a dumpster but no cameras, and go visit...
Honestly, there should be a way to make situations like these easier.
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Post by ScrapbookMyLife on Nov 18, 2023 23:27:30 GMT
Do you have a dumpster at work, that you can put it in?
We are allowed to put bigger things (from home) in our work dumpster, as long as it's once in awhile and not on a regular basis.
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pinklady
Drama Llama
Posts: 5,505 
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Post by pinklady on Nov 18, 2023 23:37:18 GMT
Check with a local restaurant and see if you can dump it in their trash.
Last resort, cover your license plates and dump it at the closest grocery dumpsters.
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dantemia
Full Member
Posts: 306
Jun 27, 2014 19:28:17 GMT
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Post by dantemia on Nov 19, 2023 0:24:54 GMT
Do you have a community garden close by, they have compost bins?
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Post by zztop11 on Nov 19, 2023 0:27:40 GMT
Do you have a food disposal? I'm guessing you don't but thought I'd ask.
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Post by librarylady on Nov 19, 2023 0:27:54 GMT
Since you are near a forest I would put it in the edge of the forest. The raccoons will eat it.
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Post by lisae on Nov 19, 2023 0:41:08 GMT
Does your county have a landfill? Ours is open every week day and they take almost anything.
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Post by Clair on Nov 19, 2023 0:49:57 GMT
A couple of ideas -
Do you have friends who live in an area of town with Monday trash day I'm sure they'd let you put it in their bin.
Ask on Nextdoor if someone with Monday pickup would take it
Rent the smallest green waste dumpster you can. When they come with the dumpster - fill it immediately and have them take the dumpster back. You'd want a one yard dumpster and I think it's about $100 here.
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Post by crazy4scraps on Nov 19, 2023 0:54:59 GMT
We had that happen only it was an entire upright freezer full of stuff that went bad.  We double bagged it and put it in the trash because we had no other option. The garbage can stunk but after the trash was picked up we sprayed the heck out of the inside with Atmosklear to get rid of the stink. ZorbX works well too. Do you know anyone in your area with trash pickup on a sooner day that you could beg/pay/bribe to put it in their can for pickup on Monday? Where we live, the different areas have pickups on various days of the week, and the different companies pick up on different days. |
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Post by busy on Nov 19, 2023 1:17:12 GMT
Do you have a food disposal? I'm guessing you don't but thought I'd ask. We do but I’m not taking 50+ pounds of rancid meat into the house and manually feeding it into the disposal 🤢 I’m waiting to hear back from a friend of a friend who owns a restaurant about using their dumpster 🤞 |
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Post by Lurkingpea on Nov 19, 2023 2:17:41 GMT
What an awful situation. How does the dump now what you are taking? Do you have junk you want to take anyway? Can you not bag and bag and bag it and bury it under other stuff and take to the dump?
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Post by busy on Nov 19, 2023 2:42:16 GMT
What an awful situation. How does the dump now what you are taking? Do you have junk you want to take anyway? Can you not bag and bag and bag it and bury it under other stuff and take to the dump? I mean, I *could* but their rules are no "putrescible waste" and there are reasons for that. If everyone just ignored the rules and added food and similar waste, it causes a lot of odor and vermin problems. The friend of a friend said I can bring it to their restaurant's dumpster tomorrow. Thanks for the idea, peas - I never would have thought of that. |
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Post by dockmaster on Nov 19, 2023 4:52:47 GMT
I would dig a hole and bury it. Kind of like composting.
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Post by Lurkingpea on Nov 19, 2023 6:21:15 GMT
What an awful situation. How does the dump now what you are taking? Do you have junk you want to take anyway? Can you not bag and bag and bag it and bury it under other stuff and take to the dump? I mean, I *could* but their rules are no "putrescible waste" and there are reasons for that. If everyone just ignored the rules and added food and similar waste, it causes a lot of odor and vermin problems. The friend of a friend said I can bring it to their restaurant's dumpster tomorrow. Thanks for the idea, peas - I never would have thought of that. There were other suggestions skirting the rules. You didn’t object to them, so I figured you weren’t opposed to that line of thinking. Glad you found a solution. |
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Rhondito
Pearl Clutcher
MississipPea
Posts: 4,660
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Post by Rhondito on Nov 19, 2023 14:32:34 GMT
I would dig a hole and bury it. Kind of like composting. This is what my parents did after Katrina. They lost an upright freezer FULL of meat. My dad dug a deep hole on the back of their property and buried it all. I know not everyone has that option; they live in the country on several acres, you couldn't do that in a neighborhood.
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pinklady
Drama Llama
Posts: 5,505
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Post by pinklady on Nov 19, 2023 15:05:03 GMT
Do you have a food disposal? I'm guessing you don't but thought I'd ask. 😱 You put that much food down your garbage disposal in your sink? I never put chunks of food in there. It all goes in the trash can. |
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Post by crazy4scraps on Nov 19, 2023 16:31:15 GMT
Do you have a food disposal? I'm guessing you don't but thought I'd ask. 😱 You put that much food down your garbage disposal in your sink? I never put chunks of food in there. It all goes in the trash can. So many people don’t know that what you do is what you’re supposed to do. Scrape the plates into the trash and only the smaller bits can go into the disposal. My DH installed a disposal for our neighbor at the lake cabin and she was so happy that she could now grind up *all the things* instead of putting them in the trash, and I was absolutely horrified when she said that. 😳 😱 I told her she was asking for trouble. I can’t even imagine how nasty it would be to have a drain full of ground up rotting meat clogging the sewer pipe. |
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I'm guessing it's somewhere in the 50-60 lbs range.
We double bagged it and put it in the trash because we had no other option. The garbage can stunk but after the trash was picked up we sprayed the heck out of the inside with Atmosklear to get rid of the stink. ZorbX works well too.