Rats and Such - Our Can!

Everyone knows the most populous mammal species in my town are rats. They make quite a good living in our corner of town, with our plethora of waste from food establishments, bars, drunks, and visiting revelers.

So this summer, in an attempt to prevent the neighborhood rats from spreading our trash all over our neighborhood, Baltimore City threatened us residents with fines if we did not place our trash out in labeled trash cans with sealed lids. The catch is, we are not allowed to have them out except after 7pm the night before trash day: A bit cumbersome to store a garbage can in our space-challenged rowhomes.

But storage, aside, we were faced with another dilemma. Here is our landfill-bound trash generated by me and my two kids at home over 2 weeks :

Hard to justify storing a whole trash can for us to place this very clean (yes, I rinse my trash before I throw it away) food-free (organics are composted, of course!) trash composed exclusively of plastic wrap and multi-layer, coated papers - not the most appetizing food for rats, anyway.

I thought I could stash my bag in with my neighbors. Unfortunately, this is what their "compliance" with the new regulation looks like:


After two months of violation, I am sooo happy to have found our solution! Three weeks worth of our trash. Here!


Peace to the Earth!