“Dear PoPville,
Contrary to popular belief, the DC DPW does not do garbage pickup using some sort of big trash eating machine that lifts whole garbage bins up high in the air and then dumps all of the contents into its gaping maw.
Maybe that happens in some areas of the DMV but not where I live. Instead, a truck pulls up, a sanitation worker hops out, pulls bags out of each bin – individually – and then throws each bag of garbage into the truck. Small, loose items of trash don’t get picked up, they just fall down to the bottom of the bin. That means those items stay behind when the DPW truck drives off. So if you throw your Joe and the Juice smoothie and your banana peel into my trash bin while you’re walking past my house, the only person who will ever remove that trash is me. If you think something else is happening, you’re wrong. Use a public garbage bin or take your trash home with you like a civilized person.”