Dear PoPville – Should the City Discount the Cost of a New Supercan if Yours Gets Stolen?

Dear PoPville,

I wanted to bring a certain situation to light involving the residential, city-issued green trash cans, or “Supercans.” It used to be that when one was stolen from you, you could file a police report and have another delivered for a discounted rate. Now, when one is stolen from you, it does not matter if you get a police report or not, the price to replace is $62.50. I neglected to get the exact policy date change, but was told that it changed over the last 2 years. (This, btw, I learned only after dutifully going to the police station and filing a report, being treated like an idiot throughout the process, only to learn that this action was completely ineffectual!)

But I started thinking, this is really messed up. I get stolen from. I have to spend $62.50. I can’t buy another, cheaper trash can. I have to use the city trash can. I can’t put my trash bags out without a trash can, I may get fined (nor would I prefer that, I mean who wants rats and the like). I can’t secure the can at all times to make sure it isn’t stolen again. I could get a new can, have it stolen tomorrow, and have to spend another $62.50.

I called the city trash office to voice my discontent with a supervisor there, whose name I unfortunately did not get, and he was, not to my surprise, thoroughly unhelpful and unsympathetic. After explaining the situation and how this might be an unfair burden on residents, he asked me what *I* would do to make it better. I first stated that although this sounded more like his job than mine, I did say that if they were going to charge so much for them and mandate that residents have & use them, perhaps they should use an RFID chip or other tracking device to recover them when they are stolen. Or at least, to not blame and penalize the citizen who has been stolen from. Repeatedly. Because this is the second time this has happened to me in the last few years (the first time the old policy was in place…though I didn’t know it…and paid the fee…perhaps why I’m so annoyed with having to do so again, so soon…).

I would love to hear thoughts on this! Nothin like bein robbed at xmas time…and then feeling double-robbed by our city.