CHRISTMAS GARBAGE RIP-OFF

So for those of us who have garbage pick-up on Mondays and Thursdays, which are many in Maplewood, today is more than a holiday.

It is another chance for both Waste Management and Waste Industries to rip us off.

On a day to be cheerful, many of us are properly Scroogish because we get to have one less day of garbage removal at a time when many of us create more garbage.

And we get to pay the exact same amount.

As you know if you have this dilemma, today's garbage, piling up since Monday, will not be picked up until, well, next Monday.

The garbage companies and the Township that contracts with them, could offer holiday pickup, or could require that it be picked up on the next day.

But, instead, they let you put out twice as much garbage on Monday. How nice.

You get to keep a week's worth of garbage around for raccoons and other animals to break into, and to overload your cans on Monday.

And during a week when many of us likely have more garbage because of the holidays, guests and larger meals, the rip-off is twice as much.

Perhaps the Township could stipulate in its contract with these firms that when holidays fall on garbage pickups, the garbage collector must pick them up anyway.

If not, we should get another garbage contract. And if the Township Committee is not willing to do this, perhaps get another Township Committee.