Walk around anywhere in the St. Cloud area and you are more than likely to find random trash everywhere.  It's worse right now because we just went through Winter, and when the snow melts there's all sorts of things around that were buried under heaps of snow. But, some of the ditches, ravines and stream areas seem to be worse than in other areas.

There is a ditch with a sort of murky, algae infested creek along Cooper Avenue that always seems to be a trash dumper all year long. First of all, it smells most of the time, and secondly, do people just drive by and figure "it's gross anyway, so let's just launch garbage down there"?

Laura Bradshaw
Laura Bradshaw
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I have also found dog poop...actually bagged up and then just left along the sidewalk.  (In my best Seinfeld voice) What's the deal with the dog poop bags left along the sidewalk?  Are they hoping someone else will pick it up?  Or, are they thinking it's no big deal because the bags are biodegradable?  Even if that is so, you still left it along the sidewalk, and that's gross.

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I will say, in my own experience that it has been super tempting when it's garbage day and everyone has their trash cans at the end of their driveways to throw the dog bag of poo into one of those garbage cans instead of hauling it with me for the entire length of my walk with the dog.  I have NEVER done this because I feel like it's an unwritten rule that you just don't do that.  But is it actually "unwritten" or is it something that really is against the law? I mean, their garbage can already has garbage in it, so there is no extra charge, so would it actually be a problem (other than to the people who live there)?

I had to check. So I looked up the City of St. Cloud refuse and recycling site.

The content weight of any cart shall not exceed 138 pounds and the content weight of any City refuse bag shall not exceed 25 pounds, the total volume of any cart shall not exceed 90 gallons. Refuse that has been compacted by a household compactor may be placed in a cart or City refuse bags. Only one bundle of compacted refuse not exceeding 25 pounds may be placed in each City refuse bag. A maximum of three bundles of compacted refuse not exceeding 138 pounds may be placed in the cart.

Ok, so the weight matters. So, if you put your garbage in someone else's garbage can and it weighed a lot, that could cause them to get an extra charge.  That's not cool.  But it didn't say anything specifically about putting garbage that you find along the roadside in the garbage can.  I think it's just frowned upon.  I will continue to carry the poop bags unless I find a garbage that is for the community.  And honestly, let's try and keep the garbage dumping (like from your car) to bins that are for this purpose, and not just dump it on the ground.

Side note: I have witnessed people dumping their car garbage on the ground at a stop light or just launching it out of their car windows before.  It's super rude, and illegal!

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