D.C. 32 gal. cans

Recently we were visiting our son and his wife in Washington, DC. It was trash day and I looked out at the street lined with identical green garbage cans issued by the city. It was a strange sight to me. They all seemed so tiny by Midwest standards. I checked and each can was 32 gallons. What was even stranger was that the blue recycling cans were the exact same size. It said something to me about trying to reduce the amount of waste each household generates and also about valuing recycling.

Covington KY 95 gal. can

I then compared the garbage cans in my city, Covington, KY. The standard issue one is 95 gallons. (I had to call CSI a number of times and waited about six months before I could exchange my default 95 gallon can for a medium sized 65 gallon one. Everybody else on my street has the large size. I don’t know if people fill them but I can’t imagine that people in the Midwest really produce that much more waste than a family in DC. My son tells me that residents don’t have a choice. The 32 gal. can is all you get. It’s a motivator.