I'm not sure about you guys, but I live on Stroud and we've had the 1 bag rule the whole year this year. House with 5 guys, we've even had weekend where the bag was barely half full.

if you don't have one bag, they leave a giant pink/orange sticker 1 BAG ONLY.

Originally Posted by adrian

So if you register as units, you can have up to 5 bags

We spend enough time fighting bureaucratic b/s at McMaster. We don't have time to fill out what I can only imagine is 40 forms in triplicate, just to get permission to have the appropriate forms mailed to us from the city.

Originally Posted by TTHX

I'm not sure about you guys, but I live on Stroud and we've had the 1 bag rule the whole year this year. House with 5 guys, we've even had weekend where the bag was barely half full.

if you don't have one bag, they leave a giant pink/orange sticker 1 BAG ONLY.

Yeah I think it works in a house of 6 people. That's the same case with me. We never have trouble keeping it to one bag, but we usually have it filled to its maximum =/...However, it must be tough for those living in larger numbers together!

Another tip: try to use reusable items and not disposables all the time??

Many municipalities have a system where you get 52 special tags each year, and every bag of garbage you put out must be tagged. This of course works out to one bag per week, except that in those systems you can usually buy additional tags for $1-$2 each. I much prefer this system, as it is a pay-per-use type of thing. Those people who do not want to buy extra tags can put the extra effort into recycling, and those who generate a lot of garbage (large families, student houses, etc.) can still dispose of it at relatively low cost.

Originally Posted by sniderj

We spend enough time fighting bureaucratic b/s at McMaster. We don't have time to fill out what I can only imagine is 40 forms in triplicate, just to get permission to have the appropriate forms mailed to us from the city.

made me think of vogons xD

Originally Posted by adrian

made me think of vogons xD

Excellent reference! That one didn't even occur to me.

I was thinking of the episode of Futurama where Hermes has to visit the central bureaucracy.

This is just one more reason to live in an apartment building.

The city has approached this in a very haphazard way, but there is a root message here...

Consume less.

Nearly all food products and a number of other household waste items will go in the green bin, much of your packaging will go in the recycle and backyard composters can work wonders on reducing a household's waste.

As university students, we should be capable of the forethought required before simply throwing something in the garbage.

Originally Posted by TTHX

I'm not sure about you guys, but I live on Stroud and we've had the 1 bag rule the whole year this year. House with 5 guys, we've even had weekend where the bag was barely half full.

if you don't have one bag, they leave a giant pink/orange sticker 1 BAG ONLY.

I live on Dellbrook, (its right at the end of Stroud), and that's what we've been doing all year as well. Did you actually try with a clear bag, or has it been a strict one bag thing since the beginning?

Was your house one of the ones with an epic snow fort this winter? :p

Are there any exceptions for people with animals? I have a lot of animals (small ones like rabbits, not big ones like dogs), and cleaning their cages every week takes up A LOT of garbage space.

We have been doing one bag for a while, but every now and then we do need to put out 2.

if your animals are small they shudnt take up too much space in the garbage, you can also compost them too

Q: What am I supposed to do with kitty litter and / or pet waste?
A: Kitty litter and / or pet waste should be double-bagged and placed in the garbage.

So that sucks.

Also, I called the city, and I have some more information:
- in order to declare several units, you may be able to declare your house as a 2-unit house. It seems close to McMaster, you have to have these two criteria to do this:
- you need at least a 270m lot for the house
- you need at least 65 m^2 for each unit.
The legislation is here:http://www.hamilton.ca/NR/rdonlyres/6598D009-709D-424F-B5AE-9E73A8800E3E/0/HAMSECTION19.pdf

So tell your landlord, you may be able to do this.

Another suggestion from them is to get your landlord to take care of your garbage since you pay the rent and there's more than the number of "predicted" people in the house.

Or, you could try to get a new special consideration for "university housing" by contacting some politicians.

Originally Posted by ReDorkulateD

if your animals are small they shudnt take up too much space in the garbage, you can also compost them too

We have quite a few small pets and their waste takes up a lot of garbage space. I thought it would be compostable too, but it's not.

Actually getting your landlord to deal with it is kind of a good idea. Might be hard if you have already signed a lease but they should help you find a solution since having 6/8/10 people with one bag of garbage really is not a solution. Just hope you don't have a sucky landlord.

damn this will be confusing for next year